PC 2100 vs: PC 3200

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Urban
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Richard Urban

Opinions and facts please!

When running virtual PC (I know this is off topic for the general news
group, but many excellent people hang out there), which of the following 2
configurations would perform better on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe ver 2.0
motherboard? This would be in conjunction with an Athlon XP 3200+ processor
(400 meg capable FSB speed)

Two 512 meg modules of PC 2100 DDR ram running at (of course) 266 meg FSB
speed

OR

Two 256 meg modules of PC 3200 DDR ram running at 400 meg FSB speed

The PC 2100 RAM would be set up to run "out of sync" with the front side
bus. The PC 3200 would run "in sync" with the front side bus!

Does anyone have empirical accumulated data? How about some gut feelings?

This is not for a gaming machine, but for a machine using Virtual PC 2400!

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Richard said:
Opinions and facts please!

When running virtual PC (I know this is off topic for the general news
group, but many excellent people hang out there), which of the
following 2 configurations would perform better on an Asus A7N8X
Deluxe ver 2.0 motherboard? This would be in conjunction with an
Athlon XP 3200+ processor (400 meg capable FSB speed)

Two 512 meg modules of PC 2100 DDR ram running at (of course) 266 meg
FSB speed

OR

Two 256 meg modules of PC 3200 DDR ram running at 400 meg FSB speed

The PC 2100 RAM would be set up to run "out of sync" with the front
side bus. The PC 3200 would run "in sync" with the front side bus!

Does anyone have empirical accumulated data? How about some gut
feelings?

This is not for a gaming machine, but for a machine using Virtual PC
2400!
Click to expand...

My gut feeling is that twice as much more memory would be more helpful than
a slightly faster bus speed, under the circumstances. When it comes to
memory requirements for virtual PC you need enough for the host machine to
run comfortably AND enough for the guest too.

--
--
Rob Moir, Microsoft MVP for servers & security
Website - http://www.robertmoir.co.uk
Virtual PC 2004 FAQ - http://www.robertmoir.co.uk/win/VirtualPC2004FAQ.html

Kazaa - Software update services for your Viruses and Spyware.
 
Thanks! I am thinking the same way.

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Richard Urban said:
Opinions and facts please!

When running virtual PC on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe ver 2.0
motherboard with an Athlon XP 3200+ processor
(400 meg capable FSB speed)

Two 512 meg modules of PC 2100 DDR ram running at (of course) 266 meg FSB
speed

OR

Two 256 meg modules of PC 3200 DDR ram running at 400 meg FSB speed

How about some gut feelings?
Click to expand...

My gut feeling is that when the difference in price between 1 GB of PC
2100 and 1 GB of PC 3200 is all of about $20.00, it is silly to spend
$200.00+ on a 3200+ and try to skimp on memory speed. If you don't have
the bucks, go for a cheaper processor. The difference in performance
between 2800+ 333 and 3200+ 400 is really not as great as the difference
in price; the difference between 333 and 400 on XP platforms is trivial
in practical terms.

1 GB of RAM is going to feel faster and smoother than 512 MB, regardless
of the front bus speed.

What are you going to run within Virtual PC? Creating a virtual PC on
a PC seems a little odd to me.
 
Richard said:
Two 512 meg modules of PC 2100 DDR ram running at (of course) 266 meg FSB
speed OR
Two 256 meg modules of PC 3200 DDR ram running at 400 meg FSB speed
Click to expand...

If your apps will use more than 512 of ram then go with the gig of ram.
 
Forgot to mention (oops) that I already have all of the aforementioned parts
in my possession. No additional cost is involved. Just looking for the best
performance with Virtual PC, before I begin swapping around parts and
changing the bios settings! I am currently using 512 meg of PC 3200 DDR ram.

At times, the pagefile is being used to the tune of 170 meg!


--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
Richard said:
Opinions and facts please!

When running virtual PC (I know this is off topic for the general news
group, but many excellent people hang out there), which of the
following 2 configurations would perform better on an Asus A7N8X
Deluxe ver 2.0 motherboard? This would be in conjunction with an
Athlon XP 3200+ processor (400 meg capable FSB speed)

Two 512 meg modules of PC 2100 DDR ram running at (of course) 266 meg
FSB speed

OR

Two 256 meg modules of PC 3200 DDR ram running at 400 meg FSB speed

The PC 2100 RAM would be set up to run "out of sync" with the front
side bus. The PC 3200 would run "in sync" with the front side bus!

Does anyone have empirical accumulated data? How about some gut
feelings?

This is not for a gaming machine, but for a machine using Virtual PC
2400!
Click to expand...

Don't waste your money on an XP3200+. Buy a Barton 2600+ and raise the FSB
to 200MHz. Stock Vcore will likely be fine.Run the RAM at 100% (in sync).
Set timings as 8-3-3-2.5 or 8-3-3-3.
 
Richard said:
Thanks! I am thinking the same way.
Click to expand...

Well I'm happy if i am/was of help. Bruce raises a good question that I
should have talked about, but I'm sure you've considered anyway - what use
do you anticipate putting the Virtual PC to? If you plan to put something on
the virtual machine that has large memory requirements of its own then that
also points towards "more, rather than faster". If you don't intend to
install much more than one OS plus some legacy program you need to run under
an old OS then the requirements may be more modest.

Rob
 
It is well known that nForce based motherboards, like the Asus A7N8X Deluxe
2.0, do not run well at all when the memory is out of sync with the FSB. My
strong advice would be to use the PC 3200 memory.
 
Mike said:
It is well known that nForce based motherboards, like the Asus A7N8X
Deluxe
2.0, do not run well at all when the memory is out of sync with the
FSB. My strong advice would be to use the PC 3200 memory.
Click to expand...

I'm interested - are you saying there is a fault or problem that appears if
you do this? If so, do you have sources for that claim?

Or do you simply mean that the boards are not running to their full
potential?

--
--
Rob Moir, Microsoft MVP for servers & security
Website - http://www.robertmoir.co.uk
Virtual PC 2004 FAQ - http://www.robertmoir.co.uk/win/VirtualPC2004FAQ.html

Kazaa - Software update services for your Viruses and Spyware.
 
I believe that Mike means that the board will not run to it's full
potential. This could be important for gamers, but for the average user
would not, I think, cause a noticeable difference!

Later on this afternoon I will find out (-:

--
Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard :-)
 
This is true, but it also caused stability problems for quite a number of
people on the Asus newsgroups. This may have improved with later BIOSs.
 
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