DDR SDRAM and FSB speeds on mother boards

[NOC9006]

I have been reading about the DDR SDRAM and mother boards that have the 266/200 FSB speeds (A7V133) My question is if you purchase one of these boards and use it with a T-bird CPU, what type of RAM should you use? The specs on the MB say that the RAM supported is PC 133/PC100/VCM133 SDRAM, so what advantage is the 266MHz FSB?

Help, I just dont understand the 266 FSB speed and the PC133 SDRAM.

Thank you.

 

[AndrewBrown]

DDR RAM is still coming to the market. MOBO manufactures are just begining to release these boards. The first one to production supports the Intel CPU's, since they still have more market share, like it or not.

The AMD760 chipset is ready for production, and VIA's chipset supporting DDR with AMD chips should follow very, very soon.

I believe Gigabyte has a press release regarding the first AMD DDR based MOBO, which should be available now, or very soon. I have not seen a price on this board yet, but I would imagine it will be around $175 on inital relase.

After reading some reviews I don't know if DDR is going to initally produce the specs it claims. Most people that have got there hands on these boards for tesing are showing a 5 to 10 % increase. Is it worth it ? I don't know. Will it be once the boards are mass produced and the MOBO manufactures have a chance to tweak there BIOS... Could be worth it then.

I try and stay away from the latest technology and go with something that is very stable, such as the VIA KT-133A chipset. Granted it will not support DDR, it's mature and the prices on these boards are begining to drop with the release of DDR MOBO's.

I am thinking about upgrading my Pentium 3 / 533 to an Athlon 1GHz. However, I think it's my best interest to wait a month and see what happens with DDR MOBO's. I was almost set on the Asus AV7133, ready to buy and everything, but the more I read the more signs point to a STOP sign telling me to ride it out, wait and see what happens, and then make a decission.

 

[NOC9006]

Andrew,
Thanks for the info that helps a great deal. I still dont understand why the ASUS A7V133 has the 266/200 MHz FSB if the RAM supported is only the PC133/100, is this for the video cards that support the DDR SDRAM?

 

[14k]

I didn't think the Asus A7V133 supported 266FSB? I thought DDR mobos had been out a fair while now aswell? excuse me if i'm wrong, i'm still learning I've been looking at the Asus A7M266 for a while now as it's 266FSB and supports DDR RAM. Does anyone think I should go for this board? I'm not really interested in overclocking yet.

NOC9006: I don't think the 200FSB has anything to do with the RAM supported (I could be wording this wrong) The A7V133 supports only SDRAM, and SDRAM comes in speeds of PC100 and PC133.? the motherboard HAS a 200mhz FSB (can it incorporate a 266FSB too) so that is like the speed of the motherboard. Because the motherboard speed is 200mhz doesn't mean the RAM it uses has to be 200mhz - since this does not exist anyway. there is only PC100 and PC200 SDRAM (DDR RAM comes in 1600 and 2100)..? As to why the board is called A7V133, I'm not sure. prop because it's based on the VIA KT133 chipset, which i have no clue about.

feel free to correct me.

 

[raaboso]

The A7V133 does support 200 and 266 FSBs. The thing you need to understand is that memory bus and front side bus speeds can be different. The front side bus is how the CPU communicates with the ENTIRE computer system. The memory is a different subsystem.

 

[Jiggz]

Let me throw in my two cents. The FSB being advertise is actually either 100 or 133 MHZ. But since AMD uses the EV bus which is double pump(meaning it gets data during the rising and falling of the "sine" wave) it's technically correct to call the FSb as 200 and 266 Mhz. You're right, the memory and the CPu are still running at 100 or 133 Mhz. That's why the mobo uses either PC-100 or PC-133.

The newest mobo called DDR mobo actually have both the Ram and FSB running "double pump" or DDR (Double Data Rate). Via has the Apollo Pro 266 for the Pentium III and AMD 760 for the T-birds (C-version).