2100 - 3200 Memory upgrade advice

SwissArmyShoeSwissArmyShoe
edited July 2004 in Hardware
First off I would like to say hi all and welcome to my first post :celebrate



I am currently running a 2500 Barton with 512 meg of 2100 memory on an Abit NF7-S mother board (should of spent that extra £5) :rolleyes:

My FSB and memory are running at 266.

I am wanting to buy 1 Gig of 3200 mem but need to know if it will function at a stable rate if I ran it at 333 to mach my CPU.

It's probably been posted numerous times before but I read somewhere that if you run 3200 memory at 333 to mach a FSB of 333 it can slow the CPU down so it is better to get 2700 memory. I don't want to really buy 2700 memory because I will want some 3200 in the future for when I get a Barton 3200.

Hehe, hope this makes sense :rolleyes:

Can anyone clarify this for me please?

Thanks

Comments

  • SwissArmyShoeSwissArmyShoe
    edited July 2004
    Edit - Would this upgrade make a noticeable difference?

    Again, thanks for any feedback you guys could throw my way
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    What you don't want to do is run the memory and FSB at different speeds. You want them syncronous.
    You can always run memory slower that it is rated. Some memory will let you run faster timings if you slow it down and some won't.
    For ex. if you have some PC4000 (DDR500) that is rated 3-3-3, some brands will run at 2-2-2 at PC3200, other won't run at tighter setting at any speed.

    You should be looking at 3500 and 3700 memory options. Heck, you should be running 200FSB now. Check out anandtech. Some very good memory charts and comparisions. You should be able to select a few options and then see what you can find in your market.
    Buy the pair of 512's, you won't look back.
    http://www.anandtech.com/memory/
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Yes, as ed mentioned, with some good cooling, your Barton 2500+ should reach 3200+ speed without a problem.

    To answer your original question though, PC3200 DDR will run just fine and stable at PC2700 speed.
  • SwissArmyShoeSwissArmyShoe
    edited July 2004
    Wow :eek2:

    I didn't know you could overclock it that far!

    So what your saying is, once I get my 3200 ram I could up my FSB to 400 and increase the clock speed to mach a 3200?

    That would be good :cool:

    What kind of cooling are we talking here? I am currently using the AMD Retail heat sink/fan provided with the CPU. Am I going to need some kind of alien cooling solution? :buck:

    btw thanks for the info guys...

    Gonna be sending off for that ram.... W00t :Rocker:
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Nothing too major. I can usually achieve 2.2GHz operation out of a 2500+ Barton (11x200) using a Thermalright SLK-900A, and a decent fan. Most folks recommend the Thermaltake SmartFan 2.
  • SwissArmyShoeSwissArmyShoe
    edited July 2004
    Yeah, I have it slightly overclocked now.... 2007 Mhz I think. Not sure what that translates to in terms of 2500, 2700, 2900 ect....

    Hmm...
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    Even if you don't want to overclock you pick up some over all system speed running at 10x200 instead of 12x166. See, same CPU speed.
    If you don't change your FSB speed you don't change your memory speed.
    If you want to OC get a Thermalright SLK-900 and a variable speed fan.
    Memory speed desigantions suck.
    FSB memsped PC#
    133 266 2100
    150 300 2400
    166 333 2700
    200 400 3200
    220 440 3500
    230 460 3700
    250 500 4000
  • SwissArmyShoeSwissArmyShoe
    edited July 2004
    Ok....

    Now this isn't what I was expecting to hear....

    This is way better than I expected.

    So then, just to be on the safe side...let me get this straight...

    What you guys are saying is, as long as the clock speed output remains the same (2gig ish) that when I put my DDR400 in there I can quite easily up the FSB to 400mhz on my Barton 2500 with the current heat sink/fan, even though the 'official' 3200 is suppose to be the only CPU in the Barton range that supports 400mhz FSB?

    I know we have been over this.... I just wanna make sure before i start messing around )

    ps Does increasing the FSB increase the temp or is that only caused by the multiplier?

    Love this forum btw :)
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    I think that there is a 3000+ that also supports 400 FSB.

    Even so, you should be able to OC the FSB to 200(400 DDR) without a problem. It's definitely achievable with good cooling. As long as your NF7-S is a V2.0 board, that is.

    Raising the FSB will also increase temp, a little bit. The largest temp increases come from the VCore increases that are sometimes necessary when you're OC'ing. If the system is not stable at 200FSB, even with a 10 multi, you may need to up the VCore, and hence the temperature, a little bit. That requires more cooling, etc. It's a vicious cylcle. ;)
  • SwissArmyShoeSwissArmyShoe
    edited July 2004
    Ok thanks..

    I will try a few things out :)

    But for now, even if I was to run at 333 with 1gig of RAM it should be a nice upgrade from 266 and 512meg
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2004
    SwissArmyShoe wrote:
    Ok thanks..

    I will try a few things out :)

    But for now, even if I was to run at 333 with 1gig of RAM it should be a nice upgrade from 266 and 512meg

    Of a certainty!

    And thanks for joining our forum!
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