I have a question about memory

[sarcasticone]

Sorry if this is not the right place to post this but I was unsure where I should put this at.

ok, my question is this...

I built my computer and have it running for about a month or so now. The memory I installed was 2x Corsair DDR400 512MB chips. My one monitorring program shows I'm running at 266? I decided to double check that by going into the BIOS. The setting is set to Auto Detect and the speed shows 266. I know the memory was DDR400 because I checked the sticker before I installed it into the MB. I also installed heatspeaders on the memory when I installed them.

Now I can manually change the speed of the memory from 266 to 400 in the BIOS but I was wondering if this would be ok? I don't want to damage anything? Or should I just leave it where it's at?

I appreciate any help you may be able to provide?

Thanks

 

[orion23]

What motherboard are you using?

 

[sarcasticone]

I'm using an Intel D875PBZ

 

[2kfire]

The memory speed will 'auto' default to match your CPU's FSB. So if you have a 533FSB cpu, it will 'auto' default to 266. You can set it to 400 manually, but I've read that P4s prefer synchronous memory speed because there is lower latency than going with a higher asynchronous speed. Since I have never owned a P4, I might be wrong. It shouldn't be a problem changing the memory to 400, as long as you make sure the CPU FSB stays the same (some motherboards keep the two synchronous unless you change other settings).

 

[sarcasticone]

ok, I think I get what you mean. I'm new to this stuff.

I have a P4 3.0 with a FSB of 800Mhz.

So if I change the memory to 400 and the FSB stays at 800, then I should be fine? What if the FSB changes?

Is there any possible problems this could cause? Sorry, I just don't want to mess anything up.

Also, is switching the memory speed to 400 going to gain me anything? Will it make anything faster? Or is it not going to do anything for me and should I just leave it alone?

Thanks

 

[2kfire]

IF your CPU is 800FSB, then it SHOULD'VE automatically set it to 400... Maybe I was wrong, maybe the Intel boards go with the safest settings and thus the reason why they are ROCK STABLE! If you change your memory to 400MHz, it will make a big difference. Your CPU and memory will be synchronous, and the added bandwidth gained in going from 266 to 400 will make your P4 really happy It shouldn't mess anything up. If it does, you can just remove the battery on your motherboard and that will change all the settings back to default. Good luck!

 

[sarcasticone]

ok, great. Thanks for the reply. I'm at my moms dogsitting and will be going home later today. I will give it a shot and see what happens.

Also, this my be way out there but, will this cause my temperatures to go up or anything?

Thanks again.

 

[sarcasticone]

ok, got home and changed the setting. Rebooted the computer and everything is running fine. Temps are normal and has been running for about 30 min and nothing seems to be wrong.

Thanks for everyones replies.