Am i crippling my system?
 

OK, before i start, this is what i understand so...probably is wrong :)

Ive got two sticks of 256mb ram, one pc2100 and the other pc3200, one will be running at 133 and the other 166 respectively (my Athlon xp 2600 Thoroughbred B runs at 166x12.5).

Now as one of the sticks is running at less than the fsb, i'm losing out on a small bit of performance? If i was to oc, since i cut my mobo/cpu idle temps in half with the new case i got (yes, half :rolleyes:) would i still benefit in performance with the stick of ram that can support the increased fsb (i have got to (what would be) higher than a 2900+ without changing the vcore/temps good/a lockup).

One more question, are future amd pci-e boards going to have more than 2 slots for ram? Just had to spend 60 quid on customs charges so my ram money has dwindled :disturbd: (poor student ;) )

Thanks

Re: Am i crippling my system?
 

i thought RAM always ran at the lowest frequency if there were mismatches?

Re: Am i crippling my system?
 

yes, dave is right.. you cannot run two freqencies... it will always revert to the lower of the two if set to SPD settings.

it is possible that you've managed to overclock the 2100 to 166mhz (2700 speeds) .. I very much doubt that you'll be able to go much higher though.

you will get the best performance when matching memory and FSB speeds, although your bios may not give you the choice

as far as memory slots go.. you'll most likely see 4 slots on standard ATX.. but it differs from manufacturer to manufacturer.

Re: Am i crippling my system?
 

Well that clears things up :)

I've actually had it on 'aggressive' settings in the bios, thats at 166mhz, but manually can get it up to 183mhz before crashes and whatnot. I would keep it permanently oc'ed but i cannot play Half-Life 2 singleplayer without 'memory could not be read' errors every 10 minutes or so. Every other intensive test i've tried it worked fine...Thanks anyway :)