Athlon FX-53 memory issue

[arniec]

I am on the verge of ordering all the parts for my new system when I hit a major snag: when did memory become so COMPLICATED??? I built systems professionally for 4 years and never saw anything like what I’m seeing now (back then it was ECC or not, 70ns or 60ns, 30 pin or 72 pin).

Here are my system specs (feel free to comment if you see an area for improvement)

AMD Athlon FX-53
ASUS SK8-V Motherboard
ATI X800 Pro Video Card
SB Audigy ZS Pro Sound Card
Hauppage Win TV 350 Video Capture Card
2 Maxtor 250 Serial ATA hard drives in a RAID configuration (Striped for speed)
Enermax 500W power supply
Promise ATA/66 IDE controller (For my zip drive)

(plus floppy, zip, CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD+-RW)

Now here’s the rub…I want 4GB of RAM. But I am so confused…my motherboard specs say I can have up to 8, but the types change the maximum value. I want fast RAM, and as I understand that would be the 400MHz PC3200, right?

I don’t really care about generic vs. name brand so long as it works just as well and just as fast (I have no desire to burn money on a name) but I don’t even know where to start. To make matters worse, now I’m hearing that I need “registered” RAM vs. unregistered RAM.

Can someone please help and at least point me in a direction?

THANK YOU

 

[happydownloader]

On these sites you select your model of MB and it will show you what is recommended

http://www.crucial.com/index.asp

http://www.kingston.com/

Makes life a little easier

 

[Freestone]

Do yourself a favor and don't skimp when it comes to such a critical part of your system. Buy memory that's guaranteed to work with your motherboard. Crucial Technology and Kingston Technology both have online memory configuration programs that will recommend memory for a particular motherboard, in your case:

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...rboards&mfr=ASUS&cat=RAM&model=SK8V&submit=Go

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/con...sp?SysID=+16777+&distributor=0&submit1=Search

 

[Lemon13]

for your system i would defenetly use a well know brand, you pay a bit more for the name, the rest you pay for quality. and opt for registered ram, it´s much safer (extended errorchecking)