SK8N RAM Compatibility?
I am looking at the spec on newegg and it says it supports up to DDR333. On the ASUS site, it says that it supports up t DDR400 but only with Kingston or Samsung modules. This seems kinda odd to me. I am about to build an Athlon FX-51 system for this guy and I need to make sure I am ordering the right parts. I was going to go with the Corsair XMS Platinum PC3200.Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
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Check out this [link=http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2004q1/athlon64-3000/index.x?pg=1]Techreports article[/link] which pits the Athlon 64 3000+, 3200+ & 3400+ against the Opteron 146 & Athlon FX-51
the corsair in my sig works just fine.
ECC means it has an extra check bit per byte. If byte has an even value, the check bit is 1 binary, if the byte value is odd then the check bit value is zero. Boards made to use ECC only use the extra bit to compare the value of data with the check bit. This is more relioable, but for servers that feed lots of data and need to be hyper-reliable ECC plus registered RAM is preferred for best results.
Registered means it has been extensively tested to meet standards, JEDEC Quality Control standards usually (JEDEC is an organization that major mfrs in the far east have agreed to belong to if they want to be known for quality), and is stable over a longer test time than unregistered RAM. Registered RAM is more likely to be more heat stable than cheaper RAM, which is tested less per stick. Registered RAM also needs to be sticks built with matched speed and power draw in parts of watts modules with very close to zero differences in speed when tested over a longer time. Testing costs a lot, that is why registered is so expensive. Registered is commonly ECC also, but need not be per se. Most mfrs that do registered sticks also use ECC, and sticks that fail registration tests can be sold as ECC only.
Why test for a longer time??? Well, servers that are hyper-reliable need to be up 90-95% of the time on average, they do all sorts of admin stuff when the workstations are down, so they are busy most of the day and night. So, since heat can build up more over longer time than happens over a short time, the sticks of RAM used have to be more heat resistant.
But, to test costs money, the sticks have to be USE tested in something. GOOD dedicated RAM testers can be $1,500.00 dollars each at single pricing-- they are by nature dedicatd machines with CPUs and a BIOS that allows for LED or very limited graphics output usually, adn firmware that knows how to send test patterns of various kinds (like memtest86 on a CMOS chip or SRAM chip or EPROM chip). Then you have to power and cool them and the sticks that are being tested to what the sticks will encounter in real life as far as temp goes-- or you test for a shorter time under higher temps, but then you take the risk of damaging the RAM if you overheat it to accellerate how fast errors show up.
Why test??? Basicly, ciruits are laid down, with alloys of material in conductors, and tiny layers of resistance. At atomic and molecular level you ARE going to get some variance in the exact parts of each component of the alloy in any part of each conductive part used in DIMM modules (AKA IC blocks), adn you can get some variances in how well each tiny area of the insulation resists electrical flow. this happens with everything electrical, and as timings get FASTER in cycle, tiny variances can throw the timings off. Make a REAL good conductor one place and more resistant one in another, parts will work too well compared to other parts. Yuo will get some lemon modules and some fair modules and some real good modules and some that are unusually better than 80% of the rest of abtch of memory modules.
You can think of modules as the whole stick, but to a mfr each little blackish block on the stick is a complex IC module. Each will vary some from others made on same wafer of non-conductive base material.
Figured this might help explain pricing to some who just do not grok (understand at a deep level) why Registered is so dang expensive, adn why some baords are and why some boards need exactly precise RAM because of the way they are normally used and what the use requires as far as tight accuracy goes.
John D.