Hello everyone,
I'm about to build a dual opteron workstation, with 2x 275 Opterons, an Asus K8N-DL board and 2 Gb of registered DDR 400.

I need some clarification on ram confuguration:

I would buy 2x Kingston 1GB - SINGLE RANK x4 - modules.

With only this two modules, it is possible to provide EACH cpu the ram (in the right slot) required for optimal performances, since it's said i need to put it in pairs?

Would change something if I'd buy DOUBLE RANK 8x modules?

A DOUBLE RANK x8 memory module would act as a PAIR of single rank modules?

reading there didnt' helped me to clarify..
http://www.ec.kingston.com/eco...urat...&submit1=Search' ">http://www.ec.kingston.com/eco...butor=0&submit1=Search

Many thanks to everyone that would help me!!!! /biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

Diego

no it wouldn't you need pairs of dimms for each CPU to get the most out of it.

thank you very much for your answer.
sorry but: were you answering to the first, the second or the third question? (well, i know, I did too many questions again! 'cos since I cought the most, I didnt realized if a single Dual Rank could be used as a pair of Single Rank.

thnx again

to get the full memory performance you would need 4 dimms, 2 for each CPU

however if you only have 2 you could put them all on one CPU, or you could put one on each CPU to share the load a bit...but with only 2 you still only get half the memory bandwidth the board is capable of...but you would have a nice upgrade/boost in memory perfomance later on when you add some more ram.

dual rank is the way the chips are arranged on the dimm, instead of using a single rank of ram chips to get the capacity required, they use 2 banks of chips with half the capacity, this can be cheaper as they are using older smaller capacity cheaper chips instead of larger newer chips, the catch is the use extra memory controller lines to "select" the second rank. However this is not always a problem..but it can be when you have filled or your dimm slots (I think new opterons are a bit more imune to this problem with dual rank)

QUOTE(Bitey @ Sep 26 2005, 08:26 PM)(I think new opterons are a bit more imune to this problem with dual rank)
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thank you again for yor answer.

So I assume Dual Rank can't be used as a pair of single rankd module..

well. so I have to start finding those kingston x2 kits...well. pretty darn rare,according to my furnishers... but They say so for registered modules too... /blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' />