DDR speed problem

[AmericanPsycho]

Hello... probly a simple question.. I just bought a new Athlon xp 2400/mobo combo, and the mobo says its supports up to DDR400. Well I bought DDR333 and it works fine, except when I start up my comp it says I have 512mb of DDR266. My mobo is a Albatron KX400-8x, the mem is Corsair DDR 2700, and the CPU again is the Athlon XP 2400+. As I understand it, its a 33% difference so I would like to get it figured out. Thx in advance!!!


-AmericanPsycho

-edit sp

 

[Amber]

Check in your BIOS @ your front side buss and the RAM settings
if the fsb is set low the RAM will be slow or the RAM timming is not set to 333MHZ

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Amber


Check in your BIOS @ your front side buss and the RAM settings
if the fsb is set low the RAM will be slow or the RAM timming is not set to 333MHZ

Or rather, 166MHz. 333 is the effective speed. You will need to lower the multiplier on the CPU a bit, or else the CPU might be overclocked beyond what it's capable of. Unless you want to overclock...

 

[AmericanPsycho]

for some reason im not seeing any place to change the FSB speed or my DDR speed in the BIOS. All i see is options for turbo, ultra or normal speed, which is pretty weird huh?

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: AmericanPsycho
for some reason im not seeing any place to change the FSB speed or my DDR speed in the BIOS. All i see is options for turbo, ultra or normal speed, which is pretty weird huh?

Look a bit harder, here are some key pictures I found to help guide the way. That is if I got the right motherboard....

Screen shot 1
Two
Three

What I'm trying to understand that the 2400+ is a 133 MHz FSB, right? So the memory will run at 133 MHz, not at 166 MHz or above. Now if you are trying to overclock the CPU, what the pictures above are showing you how, then nevermind

 

[AmericanPsycho]

ok if i try that will i run any danger of messing up my new CPU? If not, ill switch it to 166 right now. But I know nothing of overclocking. If i switch the FSB to 166 do I have to change anything else?

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: AmericanPsycho
ok if i try that will i run any danger of messing up my new CPU? If not, ill switch it to 166 right now. But I know nothing of overclocking. If i switch the FSB to 166 do I have to change anything else?

If you switch it to 166 MHz and don't change the multiplier, you'll overclock and might not even get it to post.

Since you don't know anything about overclocking you might want to hold back until you learn more about it. But I'll give you the idea of it.

FSB * Multiplier = Processer speed
133 MHz (FSB) * 15.0 (CPU mulitplier) = 2,000 MHz (2.0 GHz) Your CPU right now.

166 MHz * 15.0 = 2.490 GHz You wanting to flip it to 166 MHz FSB.

166 MHz * 12.0 = 1.992 GHz Not overclocking the CPU but it's FSB.

133 MHz * 12.0 = 1.596 GHz Explained below.

Your CPU might not be able to handle that FSB increase, it may or may not. Best thing to do is flip the Multiplier down to 12.0 with the FSB at 133 MHz, then slowly increase the FSB by 3 or 4 MHz at a time, rebooting all the way into your OS (Windows, Linux, etc. Rinse and repeat until it won't boot into your OS. Then go backwards a few FSB MHz until it works. Play a game or two for a while and see if you have problems.

As always there is a danger of messing up that good CPU, RAM, video card, sound card, NIC, etc.

 

[AmericanPsycho]

ack! forget it. Its not worth it to me. I do understand what you are saying though, and thanks for the help. The Athlon runs LIKE a 2400 but really is 2000, right? I guess for now Ill just keep the settings the way they are. All the games I play run well so why fix it if it aint broken, right? If I do decide to o/c the thing ill read up more on it first.

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: AmericanPsycho
ack! forget it. Its not worth it to me. I do understand what you are saying though, and thanks for the help. The Athlon runs LIKE a 2400 but really is 2000, right? I guess for now Ill just keep the settings the way they are. All the games I play run well so why fix it if it aint broken, right? If I do decide to o/c the thing ill read up more on it first.

Supposedly the Athlon 2400+ is supposed to be compareable to an Intel P4 2.4 GHz, while the Athlon is only doing 2.0 GHz. Different architechures is what makes it different. Though the Model Rating 2400+ isn't really holding up much of anything anymore as the 3000+ Athlon can barely beat the P4 3.0 GHz.....