ram speed question

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Iain Robinson

I've decided to buy a 333MHz FSB Athlon (2500+ Barton) and I believe the FSB
&
RAM are better to be in synch? Some points I'm still not sure on;

-Is there any advantage in buying PC3200 RAM, to run at PC2700 speeds?
(would it overclock better?)
-If I ran it at 400MHz would it be beneficial, as it's out of synch with the
processor?
-If I ran it at 333MHz would it still be in synch with the processor, as
it's actually designed for 400MHz?

-If there's no real benefit for going for PC3200 based on the questions
above would the difference between the faster RAM being 5ns rather than 6ns
PC2700 be worth it?

My thanks to anyone who responds. Once I am clear on these points I'll be
leaving behind my old 100MHz FSB mobo and joining you all in the fast lane!

Iain
 
I've decided to buy a 333MHz FSB Athlon (2500+ Barton) and I believe the FSB
&
RAM are better to be in synch? Some points I'm still not sure on;

-Is there any advantage in buying PC3200 RAM, to run at PC2700 speeds?
(would it overclock better?)
Click to expand...

The 2700 is faster, so save your money as you won't need the 3200 ram.

-If I ran it at 400MHz would it be beneficial, as it's out of synch with the
processor?
-If I ran it at 333MHz would it still be in synch with the processor, as
it's actually designed for 400MHz?

-If there's no real benefit for going for PC3200 based on the questions
above would the difference between the faster RAM being 5ns rather than 6ns
PC2700 be worth it?
Click to expand...

Check out crucial.com lots of info there.
My thanks to anyone who responds. Once I am clear on these points I'll be
leaving behind my old 100MHz FSB mobo and joining you all in the fast lane!
Click to expand...


Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"There's a light at the end
of the tunnel" says the optimist.
"It's probably a train coming
stright at us" responds the pessimist.
 
Iain Robinson said:
I've decided to buy a 333MHz FSB Athlon (2500+ Barton) and I believe the FSB
&
RAM are better to be in synch? Some points I'm still not sure on;

-Is there any advantage in buying PC3200 RAM, to run at PC2700 speeds?
(would it overclock better?)
Click to expand...
If you are going to run at 2700 speeds then no (although you may be able to
run tighter timings depending on the RAM you get).
Depending on which mobo you have there is every chance that you will be able
to run your XP2500+ at 400 FSB or higher (effectively as an XP3200+) & that
is where the benefit will come in (FWIW my XP1700+266FSB CPU runs over
400FSB happily in my ABIT NF7-S with PC3200).
Plus the XP3200 & new 3000+ run 400FSB by default so for the possibilty of
a future upgrade without having to get new RAM if your XP2500+/mobo won't
let you overclock very far.
For the few extra £ I would get PC3200.
-If I ran it at 400MHz would it be beneficial, as it's out of synch with the
processor?
Click to expand...
You will probably suffer a slight performance hit rather than gain.
-If I ran it at 333MHz would it still be in synch with the processor, as
it's actually designed for 400MHz? Yes, it will be in sync.

-If there's no real benefit for going for PC3200 based on the questions
above would the difference between the faster RAM being 5ns rather than 6ns
PC2700 be worth it?
Click to expand...
As you can see from my earlier answer if you intend to overclock or upgrade
later IMHO it is worth the few extra £ now.
 
If you are going to run at 2700 speeds then no (although you may be able to
run tighter timings depending on the RAM you get).
Depending on which mobo you have there is every chance that you will be able
to run your XP2500+ at 400 FSB or higher (effectively as an XP3200+) & that
is where the benefit will come in (FWIW my XP1700+266FSB CPU runs over
400FSB happily in my ABIT NF7-S with PC3200).
Plus the XP3200 & new 3000+ run 400FSB by default so for the possibilty of
a future upgrade without having to get new RAM if your XP2500+/mobo won't
let you overclock very far.
For the few extra £ I would get PC3200.
Click to expand...

For 3200:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listmodule.asp?module=DDR+PC3200&Attrib=Package&cat=RAM

For 2700:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listModule.asp?module=DDR+PC2700&cat=RAM&package=allModules


You will probably suffer a slight performance hit rather than gain.

As you can see from my earlier answer if you intend to overclock or upgrade
later IMHO it is worth the few extra £ now.
Click to expand...

Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"There's a light at the end
of the tunnel" says the optimist.
"It's probably a train coming
stright at us" responds the pessimist.
 
It is more difficult to run RAM at 400 Mhz. The RAM is expensive and
difficult to get to run stable. I set up mine to run with XP2100 and it ran
just fine. I was using a XP2400. With an XP2500+ might have better luck
with PC2700 DDR333 RAM than PC3200 DDR400.
 
The 400Mhz RAM I'm looking at (Twinmos) doesn't seem that much more
expensive than the 333Mhz equilavent so I'm not too worried about the price
aspect. What if I bought 400 Mhz but ran it at 333Mhz if I couldn't get it
to run stable at the faster speed?
 
Iain Robinson said:
The 400Mhz RAM I'm looking at (Twinmos) doesn't seem that much more
expensive than the 333Mhz equilavent so I'm not too worried about the price
aspect. What if I bought 400 Mhz but ran it at 333Mhz if I couldn't get it
to run stable at the faster speed?
Click to expand...
It should be fine, you might even be able to run tighter timings.
 
I did exactly what your talking about. I bought PC3200 ram (CAS 2 !!) and
run it on my nForce2 board with an XP 2500. This allows me to run the ram at
cas2 2-2-5 timings SYNC'd in dual channel mode (2 - 256m sticks). It is very
very fast set up this way and the system is also very stable. In fact im
running those timings at the default 2.5v... no need to boost the ram
voltage at all. I would HIGHLY recommend you purchase CAS2 ram only because
when you decide to run at a 400Mhz FSB later (and you will ;) you wont loose
the fast timings just to get more speed.....


Christopher said:
For 3200:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listmodule.asp?module=DDR+PC3200&Attrib=Package&cat=RAM

For 2700:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listModule.asp?module=DDR+PC2700&cat=RAM&package=allModules

Christopher
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
"There's a light at the end
of the tunnel" says the optimist.
"It's probably a train coming
stright at us" responds the pessimist.
Click to expand...
 
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