[Pc_Support] ECS K7S5A (SiS735 single-IC chipset) and DDR SDRAM -- WAS: WD2500JS et. al.

[Bryan J. Smith]

Da'BS wrote:
> Sound expensive if it's older PC100/133.  Might be a _lot_ cheaper to
> go with a new mainboard and more commodity DDR400 or DDR2-533.

Homer wrote:
> Yes it is an Asus K7S5A, 133Mh.

Er, is that not an ECS K7S5A?  (not Asus)?

If so, that's the SiS735 single-IC chipset.  Assuming it doesn't have
the bad resin (and you've had it long enough it shouldn't), it's fine.
 That's because it has _both_ 168-pin SDRAM _and_ 184-pin DDR SDRAM
support.  So you can buy newer, still commodity 512MiB DDR266/333
(PC2100/2700) or even DDR400 (PC3200) DIMM modules for $25/each and
use them in that mainboard.  So no need to upgrade the mainboard.

Now you have to be careful on number of DIMMs.  JEDEC specifications state ...
- DDR200 (PC1600):  3 DIMMs per unbuffered DDR channel
- DDR266/333 (PC2100/2700):  2 DIMMs per unbuffered DDR channel
- DDR400 (PC3200):  1 DIMM per unbuffered DDR channel

So if you want to go 1.5GiB of memory via 3 DIMMS, you'd have to use
DDR200 (PC1600).  So you're probably better off with just 1.0GiB of
DDR266/333 (PC2100/2700) memory via 2 DIMMs.