New CPU

[MonkeyWrench4000]

Hey everyone.

My computer is quite dated.

I currently have a
MSI KT3 Ultra2 mainboard
Athlon XP 1800+
640mb DDR, (one 256mb 2100, one 256mb 2700, one 128mb 2700)
Two 40gig WD 7200rpm hard drives on IDE lines.

I am purchasing a Athlon XP 2700+, right now they are very cost effective in the market.

My question is: because my FSB will go from 266, to 333, due to the new processor (2700+) will my pc2100 memory module still work? Will the whole memory system stay down in the 266 speed? while the processor runs 333? I know many would think for me to just chuck my ddr2100 stick, but i really dont feel its necessarry, i dont do much gaming anymore, and wouldnt really care about running my memory in a 266fsb speed.

Can i do it?

 

[bluewall21]

Yeah, you can do that.

 

[Fern]

Yes, it will work. Although you will be running in asynch mode. Not the best for performance.

I have one of those mobo's and have been very happy with it.

I can't remember the BIOS setup (and sorry, am too lazy to look for the manual ATM), but just might wanna double check that ram is not setup to run on "Auto" or 1:1 with the cpu. I doubt the PC2100 can run 166mhz,

Fern

 

[LTC8K6]

You will probably need to run a cpu/memory ratio of 5:4 to keep your ram at 266 for that PC2100 stick. The PC2700 will run fine at 266. This will bother your performance though, as 1:1 is much better for AXP's.

This ratio setting may happen automatically, or you may have to set it manually in BIOS to get it to work.

The mobo may default to 333 for the ram, which might be too fast for the PC2100 stick.

 

[airfoil]

You'd probably have the bus speed stepped down to 266 Mhz if you used that 2100 stick, but it should work. You could experiment with taking that one stick out to see how that affects performance.

Overall, I don't believe upgrading from an 1800 to a 2700 is worth the effort though, but then thats my opinion.

 

[MonkeyWrench4000]

Thanks for the information.

 

[MonkeyWrench4000]

This brings up somthing else i was wondering. Can Memory speed exceed the speed of the CPU in terms of FSB? Isnt ddr2700 333fsb ram? In other words, if i didnt have the ddr2100 stick in my system, just the ddr2700, would my system performance increase? (this is with the athlon xp 1800+ present)

 

[PurdueRy]

maybe a bit...tough to know because its an XP. They usually work better 1:1

 

[psiu]

Well, my system right now has an Athlon XP 1800, running at 2600 speed (2.09Ghz).

I have the memory clocked at a FSB of 333. Both sticks are PC2100. One is a Micron(Crucial) 256 MB, one Samsung 128MB. They are running in semi dual channel mode (only 1st 128 of the 256 module is in dual channel with the other stick).

You could of course see what your xp1800 ramps up to with just the pc2700 ram in the computer.

Another option would be to consider getting a rather large dual channel kit of high speed RAM that you'll be able to happily migrate to a new motherboard. I don't think the step up from an 1800 to a 2700 is really gonna be that much for you. It IS noticeable, but for most things not, more just when encoding, heavy multitasking, etc. And you'll still have a processor on an aging platform.

So yeah and stuff

 

[MonkeyWrench4000]

I pulled the pc2100 stick, and set my ram to HCLCK+33, to run the ram out of sync, at 333FSB (with 1800+ at 266FSB) and my result was bad. It would not get past the windows xp loading screen.

If this cant be achieved, i doubt stability will be that great. Perhaps i will stick with my 1800+ and just add some more ram and leave it running at 266FSB.

Before Long i will probablly jump onto the 64bit bandwagon anyway.

 

[LTC8K6]

I am running a P4 2.8 with the memory faster than the CPU's FSB.

4:5 ratio, fsb at 133/533 & ram is at 166/667.

 

[psiu]

Originally posted by: MonkeyWrench4000
I pulled the pc2100 stick, and set my ram to HCLCK+33, to run the ram out of sync, at 333FSB (with 1800+ at 266FSB) and my result was bad. It would not get past the windows xp loading screen.

If this cant be achieved, i doubt stability will be that great. Perhaps i will stick with my 1800+ and just add some more ram and leave it running at 266FSB.

Before Long i will probablly jump onto the 64bit bandwagon anyway.

Yeah, the socket-A's are officially done now, (Link at Inquirer), so just getting some nice RAM that you will be able to put into a new build would be the best at this point probably. That way you'll already have some new fast stuff paid for already