I was browsing through a "HelpStation" on a website of a computer magazine called Australian PC User. Who is right on this topic?
Here is a portion from the request:
EXTRA: What is the correct bus speed for a Duron 800? 12/22/2000
"Allan can happily speed up his memory to 133 MHz. The option to do this is in the BIOS. Speeding up his memory will have no effect on the FSB speed, so he doesn't have to worry about overclocking his processor and voiding the warranty.
On a side issue, the Duron 800 is locked, so even if he did want to overclock he wouldn't be able to, unless he knew how to unlock the chip."
Response from Darren Yates
"Sorry but you're way wrong on this.
You can't change the speed of the memory other than to change the speed of the front-side bus (FSB).
Changing this to 133 MHz will most likely cause the chip to stop because the processor (which is on the other end of this bus) needs to run at 100 MHz, NOT 133 MHz.
Darren Yates"
Another responce contridicting Darrens statement.
"I believe Darren is wrong on this issue. On the VIA KT-133 chipset for the Socket A processor, you can run the memory at FULL 133 MHz and still run the FSB at 100 DDR. This is a special feature on the KT-133 chipset.
I should know, I have a MSI K7T Pro2-A motherboard and have 128 PC133 ram, which I have set to 133 MHz in the BIOS. And the FSB is still locked at 100 MHz DDR (not overclocked)."
Darrens response again...
"The KT133 chipset is made up of two main chips, known as the VT8363 "North Bridge" or system controller chip and the VT82C686A "South Bridge" or PCI/ISA controller chip.
The VT8363 is the one that handles the memory and while Via says the chip is capable of handing PC133 memory, I've read through the datasheet for this chip (which you can download for yourself at http://www.via.com.tw/pdf/productinfo/kt133.pdf) and it mentions little in the way of the nitty-gritty detail about this.
Looking at the brief information on http://www.via.com.tw/products/prodkt133.htm, Via suggests that PC133 memory option only works with Athlon processors - not Duron processors as was stated in the original question.
Yes, I'm sure the motherboard will allow you to clock the memory at 133MHz (at least that's what the BIOS says), but the basic fact is that the front-side bus is the data path from processor to main memory and for a Duron chip, it can only run at 100MHz.
Whether or not you can clock the memory at 133MHz I think is irrelavant because it's the front-side bus speed that determines the overall data transfer speed, and hence the overall performance speed.
The only real way to prove this conclusively is to set the memory clock speed to 100MHz, run some bench tests, then set it to 133MHz and run those same tests again.
If there is no difference in performance, then changing the memory clock speed is doing nothing at all.
Darren Yates"
Is any of this information correct??.... It is all a bit confusing!
Here is a portion from the request:
EXTRA: What is the correct bus speed for a Duron 800? 12/22/2000
"Allan can happily speed up his memory to 133 MHz. The option to do this is in the BIOS. Speeding up his memory will have no effect on the FSB speed, so he doesn't have to worry about overclocking his processor and voiding the warranty.
On a side issue, the Duron 800 is locked, so even if he did want to overclock he wouldn't be able to, unless he knew how to unlock the chip."
Response from Darren Yates
"Sorry but you're way wrong on this.
You can't change the speed of the memory other than to change the speed of the front-side bus (FSB).
Changing this to 133 MHz will most likely cause the chip to stop because the processor (which is on the other end of this bus) needs to run at 100 MHz, NOT 133 MHz.
Darren Yates"
Another responce contridicting Darrens statement.
"I believe Darren is wrong on this issue. On the VIA KT-133 chipset for the Socket A processor, you can run the memory at FULL 133 MHz and still run the FSB at 100 DDR. This is a special feature on the KT-133 chipset.
I should know, I have a MSI K7T Pro2-A motherboard and have 128 PC133 ram, which I have set to 133 MHz in the BIOS. And the FSB is still locked at 100 MHz DDR (not overclocked)."
Darrens response again...
"The KT133 chipset is made up of two main chips, known as the VT8363 "North Bridge" or system controller chip and the VT82C686A "South Bridge" or PCI/ISA controller chip.
The VT8363 is the one that handles the memory and while Via says the chip is capable of handing PC133 memory, I've read through the datasheet for this chip (which you can download for yourself at http://www.via.com.tw/pdf/productinfo/kt133.pdf) and it mentions little in the way of the nitty-gritty detail about this.
Looking at the brief information on http://www.via.com.tw/products/prodkt133.htm, Via suggests that PC133 memory option only works with Athlon processors - not Duron processors as was stated in the original question.
Yes, I'm sure the motherboard will allow you to clock the memory at 133MHz (at least that's what the BIOS says), but the basic fact is that the front-side bus is the data path from processor to main memory and for a Duron chip, it can only run at 100MHz.
Whether or not you can clock the memory at 133MHz I think is irrelavant because it's the front-side bus speed that determines the overall data transfer speed, and hence the overall performance speed.
The only real way to prove this conclusively is to set the memory clock speed to 100MHz, run some bench tests, then set it to 133MHz and run those same tests again.
If there is no difference in performance, then changing the memory clock speed is doing nothing at all.
Darren Yates"
Is any of this information correct??.... It is all a bit confusing!
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