A stick of PC3500 RAM in a PC3200 slot?

[Kitrax]

So I heard that if you put a stick of DDR433 (PC3500) RAM in a slot meant for DDR400 (PC3200), it would overclock better, and be more stable than a stick of DDR400 RAM in a DDR400 slot.

Would a stick of DDR433 or a stick of DDR500 even work in a slot meant for DDR400?

 

[PurdueRy]

A slot meant for DDR400? Slots don't have absolute speeds.

I believe the maz recommeneded for Athlon 64 is DDR400 but you can use anything in it it just might not work

but yes what you said tends to be true

 

[Ike0069]

It means when you start to OC and raise the FSB above 200, usually the RAM is limiting factor. With faster RAM, this gives you a "headstart" on OC'ing.
Example:
You raise the FSB to 233. If you have PC 3200 (DDR 400) value RAM, you will have to run a divider since your RAM will not run at DDR 466. If you bought PC 3700 (DDR 466), then no divider is needed since your RAM is made to run at that speed.

 

[Kitrax]

When I said slot, I was referring to what the motherboard specs are.

My motherboard is an Abit IC7-G mobo that says it rated to use DDR400 RAM. But if what Ike0069 says is true, then I should be able to run DDR433 or DDR500 and have kind of a "headroom" to overclock the RAM and FSB.

Am I going in the right direction with this?

 

[SirBrass]

dunno. I asked a guy at bestbuy about that today and he said that mobo's can be real picky about those kinds of things.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Kitrax
When I said slot, I was referring to what the motherboard specs are.

My motherboard is an Abit IC7-G mobo that says it rated to use DDR400 RAM. But if what Ike0069 says is true, then I should be able to run DDR433 or DDR500 and have kind of a "headroom" to overclock the RAM and FSB.

Am I going in the right direction with this?

no mobo will ever say its rated for better than DDR400 because there is no specification for anything faster than DDR400 (in the normal DDR world, that is). everything else is just warranted to operate at a higher frequency. so, DDR500 ram is just regular DDR400 chips that are sorted and tested to work at the higher frequency.

 

[Kitrax]

Ok. So the new DDR 433 RAM my neighbor wants to sell me won't work in my mobo.

Now two more questions...and then I'll be done.

Sould I get Registered RAM or Unbuffered...and should it be ECC or non-ECC? What's the difference in performance between the choices of the 2?

 

[vrbaba]

Originally posted by: SirBrass
dunno. I asked a guy at bestbuy about that today and he said that mobo's can be real picky about those kinds of things.

i doubt more than 5% of those ppl working at best buy even know what they are talkin abt when it comes to that much technical detail. Every time i have asked them something, I feel like i just got dumber, and just say "ok" not to make them feel stupid or anything.


anyways... depending on your budget and needs, you have several options Kittrax. If you want to just overclock good and cheap. Corsair value select pc3200 would work for you. Its unbuffered andnon ECC. You go go as high up as the OCZ Gold vx series... been a while since I last checked wht the best one for pc3200 was.

Also, depends on how fast a cpu u are running. If its just 400 fsb, then pc3200 wont do you much good running at 1:1 vs pc2700 so to say.

 

[calaverasgrandes]

I am running Mushkin Pc3500 2-3-3 in my Gigabyte N400 pro. The board and the chip are meant to run as 200 front side buss. I spent the last week running some tests with memtest to see what speeds it will do. Basically 213-215 is as fast as I can get it, running 1:1. I would think it would hit 218 or 220. Running assymetricaly It can go to PC3700 or more. So I guess the CPU or more lilkely the northbridge is slowing things down here. Though to be fair, the CPU is a barton 2500 running at barton 3200 speed!

So yeah, that was the long answer. Short answer, any quality motherboard(ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte) can run quality ram (Corsair, Mushkin, Samsung) at a slower speed than it its rated for. To be extra safe you can run it at wider timings than its rated also. Meaing if its rated for 2,2,3,8 run it at 2.5,3,3,11. It will lower you transfer rate by 10 or 20% but you get less erroring.
p.s. get out of bestbuy! Those rebate deals are a scam!

 

[edmundoab]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: Kitrax
When I said slot, I was referring to what the motherboard specs are.

My motherboard is an Abit IC7-G mobo that says it rated to use DDR400 RAM. But if what Ike0069 says is true, then I should be able to run DDR433 or DDR500 and have kind of a "headroom" to overclock the RAM and FSB.

Am I going in the right direction with this?

no mobo will ever say its rated for better than DDR400 because there is no specification for anything faster than DDR400 (in the normal DDR world, that is). everything else is just warranted to operate at a higher frequency. so, DDR500 ram is just regular DDR400 chips that are sorted and tested to work at the higher frequency.

with higher voltages

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Kitrax
Ok. So the new DDR 433 RAM my neighbor wants to sell me won't work in my mobo.

Now two more questions...and then I'll be done.

Sould I get Registered RAM or Unbuffered...and should it be ECC or non-ECC? What's the difference in performance between the choices of the 2?

Yes, it will work in your motherboard. It will just run at DDR 400 unless you start overclocking it, which this memory is made for. It's like buying a car that can go above the speed limits, but it will run fine within the speed limits as well.

Unbuffered non-ECC for home use.

 

[MobiusPizza]

If you don't overclock might as well buy DDR 400 to save money
If you do, higher speed memory would give you more headroom

 

[Kitrax]

Originally posted by: biostud

Originally posted by: Kitrax
Ok. So the new DDR 433 RAM my neighbor wants to sell me won't work in my mobo.

Now two more questions...and then I'll be done.

Sould I get Registered RAM or Unbuffered...and should it be ECC or non-ECC? What's the difference in performance between the choices of the 2?

Yes, it will work in your motherboard. It will just run at DDR 400 unless you start overclocking it, which this memory is made for. It's like buying a car that can go above the speed limits, but it will run fine within the speed limits as well.

Unbuffered non-ECC for home use.

That's exactly, what I wanted to hear!

By the way, what exactly is the benifit of Registered RAM, and ECC?
ECC is kind of self explanitory, as it is an error correcting thingy...but what about Registered/Unbuffered?

Also, is OCZ a good choice in RAM? I was going to spend an arm and a leg on Corsiar XMS RAM with the fancy looking LED display.