266FSB memory question

[CMC79]

I don't have a lot of money to spend right now, but I currently have an Athlon 2100 T-Bred on a KT266A board (Epox 8KHA+). If I upgraded to an Nforce2 board, would it make much difference if I had PC2100 running dual channel versus PC2700 since I'd have more bandwidth than I needed even with the PC2100? I've seen some good deals on boards, but I don't have the money to buy a new board AND new memory.

 

[tallman45]

You may very well find that prices for PC2100 and PC2700 are the same. A great value deal had Bestbuy selling Kingston PC2700 512meg stick for $39 after rebate.

Here are the performance stats on single and dual chennel ram (mb/sec):

pc2100 2.1
pc2700 2.7
pc3200 3.2
dual ch pc2100 4.2
dual ch pc2700 5.4
dual ch pc3200 6.4

 

[BG4533]

Originally posted by: tallman45
You may very well find that prices for PC2100 and PC2700 are the same. A great value deal had Bestbuy selling Kingston PC2700 512meg stick for $39 after rebate.

Here are the performance stats on single and dual chennel ram (mb/sec):

pc2100 2.1
pc2700 2.7
pc3200 3.2
dual ch pc2100 4.2
dual ch pc2700 5.4
dual ch pc3200 6.4

It sounds like he already has the memory. Also, those memory stats are very theoretical and optimistic. I havent seen a nForce2 board that can pull that off or a benchmark that shows more than a couple percent gain from dual channel memory on the nForce2.

edit-I believe you also mean GB/ sec, not MB/sec.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: BG4533

Originally posted by: tallman45
You may very well find that prices for PC2100 and PC2700 are the same. A great value deal had Bestbuy selling Kingston PC2700 512meg stick for $39 after rebate.

Here are the performance stats on single and dual chennel ram (mb/sec):

pc2100 2.1
pc2700 2.7
pc3200 3.2
dual ch pc2100 4.2
dual ch pc2700 5.4
dual ch pc3200 6.4

It sounds like he already has the memory. Also, those memory stats are very theoretical and optimistic. I havent seen a nForce2 board that can pull that off or a benchmark that shows more than a couple percent gain from dual channel memory on the nForce2.

edit-I believe you also mean GB/ sec, not MB/sec.

Ofcourse those bandwidth numbers are theoretical but I don't believe the amd system of dual channel memory boards work like the P4's and the amd cpu often is bandwidth limited...therefore DCDDR mobos don't do as much as those numbers would suggest in performance.

 

[CMC79]

I do already have 2x256mb of PC2100 in my current KT266A system. I guess my question more simply put is this: since my Athlon is a 266FSB version, its bandwidth is 2.1GB/s. Would there really be that much difference between providing it with 4.2GB/s (dual channel PC2100) versus 5.4GB/s (PC2700 dual channel) memory bandwidth since either type provides more bandwidth than the CPU can use? Also, if I went to DC PC2700, wouldn't I have a performance hit due to latency from running asynchronous FSB and memory bus on a 266MHz FSB Athlon?

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: CMC79
I do already have 2x256mb of PC2100 in my current KT266A system. I guess my question more simply put is this: since my Athlon is a 266FSB version, its bandwidth is 2.1GB/s. Would there really be that much difference between providing it with 4.2GB/s (dual channel PC2100) versus 5.4GB/s (PC2700 dual channel) memory bandwidth since either type provides more bandwidth than the CPU can use? Also, if I went to DC PC2700, wouldn't I have a performance hit due to latency from running asynchronous FSB and memory bus on a 266MHz FSB Athlon?

In some many words yes...I would only think of pc2700 if you change the multiplier and jacked the fsb up to 166...Yes synch mode!!!

 

[onza]

i think it'll make a difference, but not by much..

you'll see a difference in application benchmarkings but not w/ the human eye

 

[CMC79]

I have Crucial PC2100. It's rated to be CAS 2.5, but I've been running it with very aggressive timings available in the BIOS with no problem at all. I've heard some people say that they could take this memory up to 166MHZ if they backed off on the settings. Any truth to that? I haven't taken it that high as I had some cards start to get flaky in 140's. It'd be great if I could push the FSB to 166Mhz, because I think this CPU can handle it.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: CMC79
I have Crucial PC2100. It's rated to be CAS 2.5, but I've been running it with very aggressive timings available in the BIOS with no problem at all. I've heard some people say that they could take this memory up to 166MHZ if they backed off on the settings. Any truth to that? I haven't taken it that high as I had some cards start to get flaky in 140's. It'd be great if I could push the FSB to 166Mhz, because I think this CPU can handle it.

Yes a lot of crucial pc2100 did pc2700 speed...Mine from nearly a year and a half did...

The flakiness was likely a cause of the agp/pci bus being out of spec and the Nforce boards will have locks to keep that from happening....

MIght as well try and then if it doesn't try to sell and upgrade up...

 

[abbas]

I'm building an M-ATX system and would like to o/c a Barton 2500+ to 400 mhz FSB (Aopen MK97G-N supports this). Can I do this with an Enlight 150w SFX power supply? I will be running a DVD, HD and a few fans & lights, plus occassionally a USB CDRW. If so, can I run DDR 400 with the onboard video (nforce 2)? If not, would I still be stable running an Athlon 2000+ at 333 FSB & DDR 333? I will be using high end RAM (probably Geil Golden Dragon).

as a note, I'm buying the Enlight because it's purple and my case is clear acrylic...it's mainly for my classroom (all colored components), but I may take it home to play games sometimes (obligatory o/c'ing). I may upgrade the video later on, which I'm sure will require more power, but the largest I can find for m-atx right now is 200w and it's just ordinary gray. 🙂