New mobo and new ram. All compatible?

[William]

Can I buy mostly any new ram (I see a lot of PC2100 and up to PC3000something) and use it in a new XP2500 barton setup. Would an intel dell system (the newer ones with 2.4ghz and above) have ram compatible and I'm wondering if I can put its ram in this AMD motherboard. I haven't bought the motherboard yet, but it'll be a nice souped up deluxe ASUS model.

I'm clueless on all these newer/faster ram speeds/tech specs.

What I'm really asking is, is the ram used on Intel boards cross-compatible with newer (non-k7) AMD boards.

 

[ctk1981]

Should be able too. Faster ram (3200-4200) are all backwards compatible with slower speeds. With a barton 2500+ you'll want at least PC2700 (DDR33) if you use stock speeds, or if you plan on overclocking at least PC3200 (DDR400). And assuming you go with a nForce board, you will want a matching set of ram (two sticks the same size, brand, etc). Non K7 eh? Well technically the thunderbird, thoroughbred, palomino, and barton cores are all K7 designs. The opteron/athlon FX/64's are K8's.

 

[William]

I have an ECS AMD motherboard with a 1.33ghz (266mhz) AMD processor in it. If I buy a XP2500 (which is 333mhz) will it work in my motherboard until I buy a newer motherboard which supports the higher bus? I'm a poor college student, but I'm slowly upgrading this box.

 

[bootoo]

Which ecs motherboard? The k7s5a? I believe you'll need a bios flash to get it to run at 166/333 fsb; otherwise it will be underclocked but you'll still have the chip when you can upgrade your motherboard.

Check the expert opinions which I'm sure will come but that's my understanding on that common board.