Fenton-J-Cool

I searched, oh I searched, and I couldn't find anything relating to this. If it's been posted, I'm sorry, please feel free to lock / delete. Plus a link to where I could find this info would be nice ^_^

I have a question that is burning within my loins. I am currently running a 2200+ @ 1913 mhz, 333 fsb. The thing is, my RAM is DDR333. Plus, my motherboard (Asus A7N8X) may or may not go up to 400 mhz. I've come across a small quantity of money, and I'm seeing me buying a 3000+ Barton within the near-ish future.

Any reason I shouldn't? The biggest reasons I ask are

a) The motherboard question. And plus, does a 3000+ Barton even use a 400 mhz fsb?
b) If so, I heard that running your FSB asynchronously from your RAM is a stupid, stupid idea.

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wra

tronims

the memory under most conditions would not be able to get to 400 FSB but I have a 2500+ Barton core that is not supported to run at 400 running at 400 with an A7N8X that is as well not supported to run at 400. The motherboard should be fine to run at 400 but it is not a definite.
As for the 3000+ i believe there are two different versions one is supported to run 400 the other is not, the one that is not should be able to run at 400 though.

Lasereth

If you're gonna get a Barton 3000+, then there's two versions available - the 333 MHz FSB and the 400 MHz FSB. The A7N8X should support either one, so your motherboard is fine for 400 MHz FSB.

The main issue here is your RAM. If you get a 400 MHz FSB processor, you'll really, really need to get PC3200 RAM with it. PC3200 goes at 400 MHz as well. Putting a 400 MHz processor in your motherboard with PC2700 333 MHz RAM will make your system worse off. I honestly believe a 333 MHz FSB 3000+ would work better than a 400 MHz 3000+ if you're gonna use PC2700.

If you buy PC3200 RAM with the 400 MHz FSB 3000+, then expect a huge increase in power.

Anytime you mix the FSB of the processor and the RAM speed, expect decreased performance. Making either one higher or lower than the other will simply bottleneck your computer.

-Lasereth

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Fenton-J-Cool

Well my final report is this: It turns out I can do 400 mhz FSB after a BIOS update.

So what I'm planning is to buy a 2500+ Barton, and clock it to a 400 mhz fsb at 3200+ speeds. Then I'm gonna buy some DDR400 and it will line up with the chip.

Anyway, now an even bigger issue... what the hell do I do with my old cpu and ram?

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wra