DDR RAM Speed Question (266 vs 333MHz)

Cadaver

Senior member
Feb 19, 2002
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In our never-ending quest for speed, I've been doing some overclocking, and I've run in to some issues. Please forgive me if my technical jargon is too simplistic...

First- system: Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard, Athlon XP 2000+, Thermaltake Volcano 7 HSF, 512MB stick of generic PC2700 RAM, 128MB Radeon 8500.

Issue- I've got things running nice and stable at 144MHz FSB. CPU is still locked and running at 1.80GHz. I must run my RAM at 266MHz (2x DDR) mode w/ CL2 and at 2.7 volts to be stable at this bus speed. At this FSB, running the RAM in 333MHz (2.5x DDR) mode fails to boot or crashes soon after, even at CL2.5.

Question- which will give me better throughput and overall speed: 144MHz FSB plus RAM at 2x DDR (CL2), or a lower FSB so I can run the RAM at 2.5x DDR (333MHz mode) (CL2.5)? Or should I just cough up the $160 or whatever and buy 512MB of PC3000 RAM??

Troubleshooting, and seeking purchase advice are not Highly Techincal Topics. Please post your question in the General Hardware forum.

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