2 sticks of pc2700 or 1 stick of pc3200??

[one30eight]

I have an ABIT BH7 MB, 2.4c CPU. It will run 2 sticks of pc2700 or 1 stick of pc3200. I want to run it with a gig of memory. Should I go with the 2 sticks of 512 pc2700 or a 1 gig stick of pc3200? If I go with the 1 gig 3200 which of these do you think I should go with?

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-220-030&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-144-321&depa=1

If I go with the 2700 I am looking at this:

http://www.newegg.com/app/View...=20-220-005&depa=1

Any help appreciated..

 

[Bozo Galora]

Since the 845PE has (unofficial) support for the 200MHz CPU;s (I guess with the latest Bios), and you have bought a 2.4C, which is a 200 MHz PSB CPU, shouldnt you be going for PC 3200, which will run at PC2700 anyway? Or is that extra bit of mem bandwidth not important to you?

http://www.digital-daily.com/m...d/abit-bh7/index04.htm

 

[one30eight]

Most everything I see says it can only support 2 gigs of DDR333... but, I have seen some reviews list 1 DIMM DDR400 OC ... Does this mean I could have a 1 Gig stick of PC3200 if the processor is overclocked?

 

[Bozo Galora]

This gets kinda complicated with HW straps and mem ratios
Note in the following EARLY review they used PC3200 and PC3500 with 100/133bus CPU's

(Quote)
The next option is the so-called DRAM Ratio H/W strap which refers to a hard-locked specification of running the SDRAM in asynchronous mode. The options are high, low or by CPU meaning that either a 100/400 MHz FSB or a 133/533 MHz FSB CPU can be hard selected, which then sets the CPU : DRAM ratio to 3:4 or 4:5, respectively. The "By CPU option uses the CPUID of the processor to determine the appropriate ratio if the asynchronous mode is selected in the next entry.


Test System
ABit BH7
Intel Pentium4 2.8 GHz
Intel Pentium4 2.0 GHz
1 x 512 MB Mushkin PC3200 DDR (2:2:2 1T CMD Rate, 6T tRAS @ 166 MHz clock rate)
2 x 256 MB Mushkin PC3500 DDR
Seagate Barracuda ATA-V
Seagate Barracuda SATA-V
Shuttle 52x CDROM
http://www.lostcircuits.com/mo...board/abit_bh7/4.shtml
~~~~~~~~~~~~

You are not overclocking the CPU at 800 Mhz, you are sort of overclocking the chipset.. Thats what 2.4C Northwoods run at, 200 PSB X 12 multi.
You would be ratio underclocking the RAM to run PC2700
The cheapest PC3200 will prob run better than the best PC2700.
You could buy PC4400 and it wouldnt make any dif - because thats what it is RATED to run at, but it will run much slower FSB.
Why not spend your money on something that has more future to it.
Worst case scenario is running the 2.4C RAM PC3200 @ 667 (166.666 X 4)

Download the very latest bios avail, put in the CPU set HW strap to By CPU and try to run FSB at 1:1 (PC3200) 200MHz quad pumped to 800 if allowed in BIOS, or set to 200 FSB manually.

See here:

Cranking up the bus
Not satisfied with running the BH7 on merely a 533MHz front-side bus, we popped in Intel's latest Pentium 4 3.00GHz processor, which runs on an 800MHz front-side bus. The board was perfectly stable on the 800MHz bus with memory running at DDR400 speeds?a testament to the board's viability as an overclocking platform.

http://www.tech-report.com/rev.../abit-bh7/index.x?pg=8

Why lock yourself in to old HW?

 

[Bozo Galora]

looks like one stick only of PC 3200:

CPU
Supports Intel Pentium® 4 Socket 478 processors with 800 MHz FSB (OC)
Supports Intel Pentium® 4 Socket 478 processors with 533/400 MHz FSB
Supports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology

Chipset
Intel 845PE/ICH4 chipset
Supports Hi-Speed Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0)

Memory Three 184-pin DDR DIMM sockets (Un-buffered Non-ECC DIMM)
Supports 1 DIMM DDR 400 (OC)
Supports 2 DIMM DDR 333 (Max. 2GB)
Supports 3 DIMM DDR 266/200 (Max. 2GB)

http://www.pchardware.ro/Revie...iew.php?id=186&p=2

 

[one30eight]

Does it matter what size of stick since I can only use one DIMM? I want a gig of memory, so would I be able to put a 1 gig stick of 3200 in it? Or if I wanted that much would I have to stay with the 2700?? Thanks Bozo for your help...

 

[one30eight]

bump so I can buy the right ram...

 

[Bozo Galora]

my best guess is that since the max ram load limit (chipset) stays the same over dif bandwidths, and only the number of banks must decrease as bandwidth increases, that a single 2GB stick of PC3200 would run fine here in RAM slot 1, and that in any case, a single 1GB stick is a good bet. At that time I dont think they even had 1GB sticks of PC3200, so thats why they didn't mention a limit.

Of course you MUST get the latest bios revision loaded.

the question is, since a DFI lanparty NF3-250 @$100 and a $120 AMD 64 chip would run rings around the i845 system 2.4C which would be overclocking the MOBO at STOCK speed - you would have to get the parts you have for practically nothing to justify building a system around it.

 

[stevty2889]

You could always run 2 sticks of PC3200 at PC2700 speeds..also I would be very careful trying to run a 2.4c on that motherboard. Just because the motherboard can overclock to 200mhz FSB, does not mean it will work properly with a 2.4c, if at all. I tried running a 533mhz FSB P4 on a 400mhz FSB motherboard, because it could overclock to 133. It fried both the motherboard and the power supply.