What memory?

[Jahya]

I ordered an EPoX 8RDA+ nForce2 AMD 333FSB DDR400 6PCI LAN 6CH Audio ATX mobo from accessmicro.com. According to them, the highest memory I can use is PC2700 but according to a friend of mine, this memory will slow everything down and I should get PC3200. Any thoughts?

 

[Eck]

What? The product says it supports DDR 400, which is the same as DDR3200 (different ways of naming). So yes, you should get DDR 3200, even though your FSB will only be 333. This will allow for some overclocking....

 

[jumpy]

As Eck said, you should get 3200. Yes, it allows for some overclocking, but more importantly if you're not overclocking, it will allow you to run it at 333mhz using a lot more agressive timings.

 

[Sazar]

with ddr and dual channel you are looknig for the best performance and trying to synch everything...

the recommendation makes sense if your fsb == 333 and your memory clock == 333 ddr.. ergo they are synched...

if the cpu's fsb == 333mhz and your memory operates @ 400 it is out of synch

on the other hand as the other posters point out about overclocking.. if you get 400mhz ddr memory and oc your cpu from 166 - 200 mhz... you are back in synch (so long as you lock your mulitpliers and don't oc your memory as well )

i.e. @ 400/400...

so your friend is perhaps right in suggesting better memory... but wrong in suggesting it will slow your machine down...

 

[Geffy]

so your friend is perhaps right in suggesting better memory... but wrong in suggesting it will slow your machine down...

Pretty much what I was gonna say

Synchronised will improve performance because there will be no waiting with either the CPU or the RAM.

 

[RogerPhillis]

Test reports have said that many mobos cannot stabilise memory performance @ 400 mhz.
So if you run the FSB @ 333 and drop the 4OO DDR memory clock also to 333 ddr, many systems will run faster than trying to overclock the FSB to run in sync with 400 DDR memory which does not perform to max potential on many boards, according to stats.

 

[gameboynws]

What about the intel side of the story, i just ordered a intel 875P mobo and 2.6C P4 @ 800mhz FSB? The mobo only accepts upto PC3200 (DDR400) RAM.

 

[jonifen]

OK... heres that "sync" word again...

I tried this for myself a while back... p4 2.4ghz 533fsb, pc2700ddr (333mhz). With the memory being at 333mhz and cpu at 533, it is not sync-ed? If I put the memory to 266, that would be half the 533 i.e. sync-ed? This seems to be a bit of a confusing situation for me lol.

I benchmarked the machine with ram set as 333mhz and also with memory at 266mhz (using sandra - memory benchmark). The 333mhz was a fair bit quicker, but could it be better to run at 266mhz or have I not got the whole "sync" thing right in my mind?