Memory Clock Speed question

Okay, I have a bit of a problem here, and I can't seem to find a thorough answer. I don't know if anyone here knows, but it's worth a try.

I have the ASUS K8V SE Deluxe mobo (for a socket 754 system), which, if you fill all three DIMM slots with double sided RAM, clocks them all down to 200 MHz. However, if two are occupied, they will run at the normal clock speed. Or, if all three are filled with single sided RAM, then it will only clock them down to 333 MHz.

So, I have three 512 MB sticks of PC3200 RAM, which will run at 400 MHz normally, running at 200 MHz since all three DIMM slots are filled.

Will it be better to run two sticks (1024 MB) at 400 MHz, or three sticks (1536 MB) at 200 MHz in terms of performance?

My other system specs are:
AMD Athlon64 3000+
Maxtor 80 GB SATA HDD
Radeon 9600 XT

 

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1024 MB of ram is a lot, even for a gaming computer. Because you're running a newer processor, the front side bus is probably at 200mhz (400mhz) or more, and its prudent to match the fsb speed with your memory speed. In games, I think that having 100mhz ddr (200mhz) memory on a 200mhz or more (400+) fsb is silly and it will degrade the performance more than having 512 MB less of ram.

You would create a bottle neck with the slower speed ram.

Since you have all the hardware, you could try testing it out by running some benchmarks with the 3 sticks and then with the 2 sticks. I don't know if you're big on gaming or edit video\audio (requires a lot of ram, depending on how hardcore you are, you might need that extra 512 megs over the speed). So, if you're a gamer, run some 3Dmark tests and compare the results of the two configurations and you may decide yourself.

PCmark is a good benchmarking program that's not centered around 3D and graphics stuff. I'm pretty sure you can get free, limited functionality versions of both programs at www.futuremark.com

 

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I'd go with the faster 2 stick of RAM if I were you. It also depends on what you use your computer for. If you do more gaming then I would suggest the two sticks. If you did video editing, it may be wise to go with 3 sticks of RAM. Like Grazz said, test them out and see what works best for you.

Is your Mother supposed to slow down with three slots taken? If not, you could look into the cause of the problem and possibly get a return/exchange.

 

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wow. Sometimes more ram isn't better. I never realized that filling up ram slots slows down the memory speed. Is this true for all MBs? Wouldn't it make sense that RAM is accessed one stick at a time instead of r/w to all three in parallel (dividing up the speed). --- Sorry, I may not know what the hell I'm talking about.

 

Yeah,
Using all three slots deactivates dual channel or interleaving - which reduces overall bandwidth.

Hum,
have a look at this webpage , to see the choices i took when fitting up new mem...

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/blobrana/database/topic.html

It's probably worth reading, the rest as well `cos the mobo is basically the same as yours...