P4P800 with PC2100?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Max Attar Feingold
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M

Max Attar Feingold

I'm helping someone to upgrade their system to an 800MHz bus /
HT-enabled P4 system. The only caveat is that she doesn't want to spend
any more money on new PC3200 memory. She already has a 512MB stick of
PC2100 and doesn't really care about dual-channel or faster memory
speeds.

Yes, I know this will be a bottleneck for some applications. So does
she.

The question I have is whether this plan is even feasible. Will the
P4P800, or any Springdale/Canterwood board, for that matter, boot at
800MHz FSB with one stick of PC2100 memory? What would happen if more
sticks of PC2100 were added? Presumably dual-channel wouldn't be
enabled, but could one fill up three or four slots with memory and have
it all work in single-channel mode? Are there limitations with memory
bank counts, as with the 854PE chip set?

Thanks.

Max Attar Feingold
maf6 at cornell dot edu
http://almonaster.sourceforge.net/mfeingol/

Not speaking for my employer
 
Max Attar Feingold said:
I'm helping someone to upgrade their system to an 800MHz bus /
HT-enabled P4 system. The only caveat is that she doesn't want to spend
any more money on new PC3200 memory. She already has a 512MB stick of
PC2100 and doesn't really care about dual-channel or faster memory
speeds.

Yes, I know this will be a bottleneck for some applications. So does
she.

The question I have is whether this plan is even feasible. Will the
P4P800, or any Springdale/Canterwood board, for that matter, boot at
800MHz FSB with one stick of PC2100 memory? What would happen if more
sticks of PC2100 were added? Presumably dual-channel wouldn't be
enabled, but could one fill up three or four slots with memory and have
it all work in single-channel mode? Are there limitations with memory
bank counts, as with the 854PE chip set?
Click to expand...


Why not buy a 533MHz FSB CPU instead? Then run with 2 sticks of PC2100 in
dual channel.
 
Why not buy a 533MHz FSB CPU instead? Then run with 2 sticks of PC2100 in
dual channel.
Click to expand...

Hyperthreading is the key consideration here.

Do you know of limitations with 800MHz FSB CPUs and PC2100, then?
Because the only advantage I see to your suggestion is that the memory
bus and FSB would run synchronously. Which is nice, but not worth the
loss of HT.

Max Attar Feingold
maf6 at cornell dot edu
http://almonaster.sourceforge.net/mfeingol/

Not speaking for my employer
 
The question I have is whether this plan is even feasible. Will the
P4P800, or any Springdale/Canterwood board, for that matter, boot at
800MHz FSB with one stick of PC2100 memory?
Click to expand...

Yes, I have a P4C800DX-E and I booted with 1 128Meg stick of PC2100
memory to test some things out. It ran slow, but it ran

What would happen if more
sticks of PC2100 were added? Presumably dual-channel wouldn't be
enabled, but could one fill up three or four slots with memory and have
it all work in single-channel mode? Are there limitations with memory
bank counts, as with the 854PE chip set?
Click to expand...

I think more sticks should be fine, but I haven't tried it with more
then one.
 
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