~~Do I have to run 2 sticks of DDR to get P4 533bus CPU to work?~~

[EXman]

In class today the teacher said to get the 533mhz bus to work he thought that the DDR had to be in pairs for the Quad pumped 4x133 = 533mhz. I have one 512mb DDR stick do I need to install another to make the CPU run correctly? Stupid question I know but I decided to switch to the darkside and have no experience with Intel CPU's as I have always used AMD.

Help!

 

[Wolfsraider]

no you do not or else me and my 2.8 wouldn't be running 1 stick of ole corsair xms 3200 512 mb

 

[EXman]

My teacher is under the theory that 2x133 due to it being DDR and then 2x133 due to it being Quad pumped for a total of 533mhz. And that if 1 stick was used it would run but not at designed speeds.

 

[Wolfsraider]

hmmm i am running mine at 3150 np

really though if the fsb is running 133 and the processor multiplier is 21=2793 or 2.8 ghz

the fsb is 133, the 4 represents the times per clock cycle that it can do a calculation if memory serves me correctly
which is why its called quad pumped

mike

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Check out the 800 MHz preview article that Anand wrote. It should provide some answers to your questions. If you do not have a dual channel DDR chipset (SiS and Intel just came out with them recently), then you don't need two sticks of RAM to get full use out of your 533 MHz FSB processor. Your single channel DDR chipset might be holding you back in the future, but right now you should be good to go with what you got. By the way, it sounds like your teacher might have smoked too much pot back in the 60s. Some people are under the false impression that because the first P4 chipsets were dual channel RDRAM, all of the P4 chipsets are dual channel, and that is not the case right now. RDRAM was the only dual channel chipset available for P4 until recently when the dual DDR chipsets came out. So, unless you or he is running one of these new boards, there is no need to have two sticks of DDR RAM in your (or his) system.
Edit: updated with corrrect information. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused...