FSB - Mem Sync

[Cobra_nVidia]

I plan on getting the following upgrades for my system after the A64 has been out for a month or so (Probably late October or early November)

Athlon XP 3000+ (333Mhz FSB)
512 MB PC3200
MSI KT6 Delta-LSR
Antec 430W

I will NOT be overclocking anything. I have seen benchmarks that actually show PC2700 (333Mhz DDR) memory performs better than PC3200 (400 Mhz DDR), and this is supposed to be because they are not synched.

My question is, would turning the speed down to 333 Mhz (I guess 166 Mhz real) give me the same speed as running PC2700 memory? And then when I get a faster FSB, I can clock my memory up

[Lord Vetinari]

Yes you can run PC3200 at PC2700 settings to keep the memory synced. You may be able to drop the memory timings at that speed to give you a little boost.

[Cobra_nVidia]

Will running it at PC2700 -syncing the memory and the FSB, improve the speed relative to running it at PC3200?

[Blakhart]

It should be more reliable and faster synch than asynch. Since you are running the mem slower than it was made for, you should find it easy to get 6/2/2/2 out of it, timing wise.

[Dillusion]

with an nforce 2 ultra board, having 333 cpu fsb and 400 memory speed is actually better, tests show, than having 333/333 cpu/mem

[Drisler]

If you're looking for features..then i suggest picking up a Gigabyte or DFI board nforce2 board, or something.

And buy PC3200 ram like the others suggested, You'll be able to do better timings, and will be future-proofed a little more as well.

[internetjunkie]

hmmm...i have pc3200 and a 2500 (which is only 333mhz fsb obviously)..damn i wish i had a 3200+...i can do some nice stuff with 400mhz fsb..

[Fareastgq]

Originally posted by internetjunkie
hmmm...i have pc3200 and a 2500 (which is only 333mhz fsb obviously)..damn i wish i had a 3200+...i can do some nice stuff with 400mhz fsb..

your sig is already running 400x11.5, your not running 333, heh. You already have better than a 3200. 11x200 = xp 3200, 11.5x200 = faster than a 3200.

[internetjunkie]

11.5x200 reads at 3200+ still...i can raise it to 203 or 204 and it's still 3200+ but after that it just says the clockspeed.

well having the cpu and memory synced would be nice.

[Fareastgq]

what it reads doesn't really matter, that's the bios not reading it correctly, download cpu-z and see what that says, or amd's real clock cpu info uility off the amd site. That'll tell you your real clock speed. You can also flash to the latest bios if you really care about it displaying correctly, this MAY help, may not.

[Cobra_nVidia]

What are these timings RAM people are always talking about? What's better -high numbers or low? Can I change them without overclocking, etc? Oh and what Memory does the Athlon 64 3200+ use?

[TLMiller]

Timings are just that. The different amount of times it takes for your ram to do things. The most common to here about is CAS Latency, rated at 3.0, 2.5, or 2.0. I'm not entirely sure what the others are off the top of my head, but the lower the numbers the "faster" the memory runs, since it doesn't wait as long between things. As to whether or not your overclocking, it depends on what your memory is rated for. Optimal timings are basically 2.0-2-2-5 1T.
Athlon 64 3200+ uses SINGLE CHANNEL PC3200.

[internetjunkie]

Originally posted by Fareastgq
what it reads doesn't really matter, that's the bios not reading it correctly, download cpu-z and see what that says, or amd's real clock cpu info uility off the amd site. That'll tell you your real clock speed. You can also flash to the latest bios if you really care about it displaying correctly, this MAY help, may not.

i download the utility. it says 3200+ and it says that in my system properties as well..i have the most up-to-date bios and it also says 3200+...so nothing is wrong with it.

[greenmachine]

sometimes the bios reads simply the clock speed and interprets it to the xp with a close clock speed. ive had this happen several times