Athlon XP 3200+ / PC2700 Memory

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'm getting a 9800 Pro, but I'm also going to get an Athlon Xp 3200+ since my 2400+ won't be powerful enough for the graphics card, but I've got a question.

The memory in my system is PC2700 and I have 1.28GB of it, since that is 333MHZ DDR and the FSB of the 3200+ is 400MHZ, will there be any problems with the memory running at 333MHZ and the CPU's FSB running at 400MHZ or could this cause some problems?

Thanks!

[Richard M]

No, it'll run fine but you won't be getting the maximum memory bandwidth.

[Strzelecki]

I shouldn't think so. It's nice to have the memory running at 400 just to get rid of a possible bottleneck. Doesn't your board support dual channel though? I wonder if removing the 256 module would see any performance gain?

Originally Posted by Strzelecki

I shouldn't think so. It's nice to have the memory running at 400 just to get rid of a possible bottleneck. Doesn't your board support dual channel though? I wonder if removing the 256 module would see any performance gain?

My motherboard only has 3 slots, no dual channel.

[Gareth]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'm getting a 9800 Pro, but I'm also going to get an Athlon Xp 3200+ since my 2400+ won't be powerful enough for the graphics card, but I've got a question.

Maybe I'm being stupid (quite possible... it's been a long day and I've had a few ) but why do you think that your current CPU won't be up to that card? I've got a 9800 Pro and a 2600+ running in this box, and it's fine for me.

[jamesclarke555]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

My motherboard only has 3 slots, no dual channel.

Most nForce2 boards have only three DIMM slots, two of them are Dual Channel capable until all three slots are occupied.

Originally Posted by jamesclarke555

Most nForce2 boards have only three DIMM slots, two of them are Dual Channel capable until all three slots are occupied.

I'll also add on, this motherboard has a VIA chipset

I think this 2400+ is rather slow as the game I play the most, UT2004, depends mostly on the CPU. I'm not sure if I'll get decent frames (around the 100 mark @ 1024x768 with settings all at max, no AA or AS) with my 2400+

[jamesclarke555]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

I'll also add on, this motherboard has a VIA chipset

I think this 2400+ is rather slow as the game I play the most, UT2004, depends mostly on the CPU. I'm not sure if I'll get decent frames (around the 100 mark @ 1024x768 with settings all at max, no AA or AS) with my 2400+

That being said, I don't think you'll see a great difference in upgrading to another Athlon XP, even with the extra FSB frequency, 400MHz is still a bottleneck. I'd spend a little extra and go for a low end Athlon 64 (Venice core) and overclock it.

Will the board run the chip ok? will it need a bios update? this depends on the age of the board

Unless my memory fails me the early board capable of running 400mhz ram would only run a 333 cpu

It's an Asus A7V600-X motherboard, last BIOS update was to add support for the Sempron processors.

I may just save the money up to go towards my 64-bit system.

no problem with that then how much was the chip gonna cost?your looking at 200 for a chip and mobo 64 bit

Originally Posted by zinglebarb

no problem with that then how much was the chip gonna cost?your looking at 200 for a chip and mobo 64 bit

Altogether with graphics card, CPU and motherboard it was going to be around £550

[jamesclarke555]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

It's an Asus A7V600-X motherboard, last BIOS update was to add support for the Sempron processors.

I may just save the money up to go towards my 64-bit system.

Sempron's only use a 333MHz FSB but according to Asus, your board does support a 400MHz FSB for the XP 3200+ CPU, though you would have to run a memory divider with DDR333 RAM. The Athlon 64 doesn't use a traditional FSB and all AMD64 based systems use a memory divider so I would keep your memory and just upgrade your motherboard and get an Athlon 64 3000+ (Venice core). Another thing to remember is that AMD64 based systems love low latencies and tight RAM timings as opposed to P4 systems that prefer raw memory bandwidth.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._939_cpus.html

I was planning to go for the Venice core since it incorporated SSE3, which could really help in some of the things I do

Anyway, thanks all!

[budwieser]

Originally Posted by Electrolyte

My motherboard only has 3 slots, no dual channel.

Use memory slots 1 & 3 for your Ram to get Dual capability.