A7N8X with corsair memory?

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Hello all, I just have a quick compatability question for you... I THINK that I have my new linux box all planned out, but I wanted to check with you guys just to verify that my parts are compatible with each other; newegg's ratings looked pretty clean on the ratings for these parts, but I am always in favor of a second opinion.

Here it goes: is THIS Corsair RAM stick fully comatible with the Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard and the AMD Athlon 2500+ Barton 333fsb processor and THIS case? I have seen some nasty compatiblity issues with the Nvidia2 chipset and with many different types of RAM, so I just wanted to double-check with all of you guys; I would be EXTREMELY grateful for any input on this decision here! I just want to make sure that my 450 dollar computer doesnt turn into an oversized 450 dollar paperweight... Thanks again!

[Strawbs]

Welcome to TIMO!

There was an issue with Corsair XMS and the A7N8X board ...but I believe it was fixed with either a recent BIOS update or by Corsair, I don't remember which!

go to nForcersHQ.com and read down the FAQ for your answer!

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Hah, thanks for the welcome; I have lurked these forums for a while now, and I finally had a question too specific for me to search for, so I decided to finally take the plunge onto here!

Well, thanks for that link; it was pretty reassuring knowing that none of the compononents that I was going to piece this thing together with had massive compatibility issues; there was an issue with corsair ram but it was rated 3200, not the 2700 ram that I was planning on getting... I don't think that there should be any problems there.

But if anyone has any compatability/usability complaints about the peripherals that I am planning on piecing this thing together with, please, let me know! This is going to be my first build-it-yourself computer (I was a dell user up until now) and I just want to make sure that I do this right! (I am not a newbie to computing so the actually assembly shouldnt be too much of a hassle, I am just worried about all of the parts working ok together... if you have a working gentoo installation going, you are automatically not a full-fledged newbie, correct??) But please, keep those replies flying in!! Awesome so far!

[beppodmime]

The actual issues with the Corsair memory, from what I believe, has to do with the latency settings. I don't think that the speed of the RAM makes much difference. You should be good to go with the PC2700, as Asus were one of the first companies to issues a BIOS update with a work-around. Epox, the manufacturer of my motherboard, just recently issues their patch (well, two months ago) and this is an issue relating to the BIOS of all the nForce2 boards.

Regardless, you should be ok with that RAM. If, on initial boot, the board doesn't want to play nice, I'm sure we'll be able to walk you through any issues you may have. There's quite a few people on these boards who are using the Corsair memory and the A7N8X board, so growing pains should be able to be worked out.

Good thinking going from Dell to a build-it-yourself, especially if you have a decent amount of knowledge to begin with. Building your own from scratch is a bit more difficult than installing new drives or expansion cards, but not by much. If you want to make double sure the components will work together and play nice, you may want to post the entire list of components here, just for additional opinions or suggestions.

And Welcome to TechIMO!

[Strawbs]

I just noticed that the case you plan on getting reads P4 ready, but doesn't mention wether it is AMD compatible! you should check before you order it or you could find youself in need of a new Power Supply.

[Jeordiewhite]

My case is Pentium 4 certified, it means nothing really, just that it is suitable for pentium 4 motherboards.
Reminds me of dual channel certified ram, just ways to mark up price on products.
I haven't seen an amd certified one yet, doesn't mean there is a reason you can't use any of these cases.

The corsair should be fine, I have a buddy who uses it with his asus a7n8x deluxe mobo, except it's the pc3200.
I use the kingston pc3200 and have heard the pc2700 is incompatible for the hyper x kingstons. However the pc3200 works perfectly.

There have been a few bios updates reguarding memory incompatibilitys, I had some that was incompatible so had to go out and get new memory
Edit
Yes the power supply has connectors for pentium 4 mobo's, however amd ones do not need anything extra. So it should be just fine.

[TheSpeedoBeast]

Thanks for the replies everyone, they have been great! I think that I am going to go ahead and purchase this rig when I return home from school today; I was aware of the P4 ready case, and all it is just an extra connector for full P4 compatability; nothing to be worried about really.

Oh, and I am tearing my current dell computer apart and ravaging it for its parts for the time being; I may buy extra peripherals later, but I am just going to have one box set up for the time being, but I am not overly worried about any of those compatability issues as of right now... I am going to stay with all on-board features and just adding a cd and floppy drive to my box for the time being (save a bit of cash early on) so the 4 parts that I stated above were the only ones that I was really concerned about.

Hopefully this installation will go ok and you wont be hearing from me about this setup ever again, but dont count on it

These forums have been as helpful as my favorite linux forums at justlinux.com; hopefully I will become a more frequent poster here; wish me luck, and I will keep you posted on how all of this goes!