Help me understanding if ram fits my motherboard?

[yexusbeliever]

I am new here and new to pc building. My friends really help build much of my pc for me. Now I am on my own, I like to upgrade my pc.

So far, I got myself a Machspeed motherboard. ( Here is the link: http://machspeed.com/x_p4x400.htm ) Now that I have a PC2100 266mhz 512mb ram, I like to get a 1GB PC2100 266mhz ram added.

What troubles me is that whenever I go to a computer shop online, I am confused at the choice to buy.

For example, I go to this computer online website here: http://store.yahoo.com/digi4me/ddrsdramdimm.html

It is giving me a cheaper price to choose for a generic brand name which specifically states that "Does Not Support Intel/AMD Chipset, some SiS Chipset Only." Will the generic brand matter??? Then the brand name ones are a bit more pricey. Adding to that, there is the confusion of what is "ECC" and "not ECC"????

Help...I am lost on this...

[Nubius]

you want something like this:

http://store.yahoo.com/digi4me/kin5116ddr26.html


You don't want ECC which means Error Control and Correction or something to that effect I honestly can't remember the exact abbreviation, but if it says DOES NOT SUPPORT INTEL/AMD then definitely don't get it because it's made for an SiS motherboard more than likely. Stick to Kingston, Corsair, OCZ, or mushkin for the best quality RAM sticks.

There's varying prices because everyone has different timings. You might see something say CL2 that's more expensive than CL3 thats because it means 'Cas Latency' and smaller number = faster, that's why high performance RAM is way expensive because it has ultra low latencies.

[Leonidas]

you want 184 pin proly also, and if you arent so super-performance oriented then go for higher latency ram to save money