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PCI Bus Limit Question

T

TalonFyre

Member
Hi I'm new! 😀

Anyways, I'm planning to build a new system with a P4S533 + 1.8a + Corsair XMS3200

I'm pretty confident about hitting 2.4 Ghz (133 FSB), provided I buy one of the newer 1.8a's. But in the long run, I plan on running it at 2.7 Ghz (150 FSB). Ok, assuming I get it that high (with the right cooling and whatnot), how dangerous is the 37.5 Mhz on my PCI bus going to be?

I'm not really worried about the AGP at 75 Mhz (I've been running my AGP at 88 Mhz for a year now) but from experience, I know some older parts running on the PCI bus may start to act strangely. One time, by accident, I had my PCI bus at 44 Mhz and all my MP3's on my old IBM 10 gig got concatenated to 8-letter filenames...that was a pain to undo.

So yea, how dangerous is it for my PCI parts? Which PCI components will tend to complain? Ethernet? Firewire? IDE controller? Hard drives? SB Live (Value)? 😕
 
I don't own that mobo, but I think I'm right in saying it offers a fix option on both the PCI and the AGP, thereby allowing you to run both in spec, no matter what the FSB.

 
Does it? I don't know about that...the Fixed AGP/PCI function is on the Asus P4B533 and Abit IT7 but I don't think it's on the Asus P4S533.

That's one of the features that make the P4B533 so attractive...something the P4S533 doesn't have. But I can run the FSB at 133/150 Mhz and Mem at DDR400. Something I don't think you can do on the P4B533. That's the main reason I want the P4S533...I like bandwidth 😉

But my question remains the same, 37.5 Mhz PCI bus = problem? Yes? No? Maybe?
 
No, 37.5Mhz PCI bus will not cause a problem for most cards. You start running into more problems somewhere above 150Mhz bus, at least in my experience. As you get close to 40Mhz PCI, a lot more cards will start to get flaky. I've usually had the worst luck with SBLive cards somewhere in the mid to high 150s.

Possibly some older PCI cards or professional sound cards or SCSI cards might cause problems but you won't know until you try.

For me, my SBLive could play mp3s and do standard Windows audio with no problems in the high 150s, but once I loaded up a game using 4 channel sound it'd crap out within a minute. The motherboard and/or OS can make a difference too. On my old KK266 I could easily get a few Mhz FSB more than on my current Epox 8kha+ XP system.

Good luck!

Gaidin
 
Thanks Gaidin! That's exactly what I needed to know. I don't plan on running it any higher than 150 anyway. 900 Mhz is a pretty good overclock for me 🙂
 
Why not get an i845 board with a PCI/AGP lock? This way, your PCI and AGP are @ 33/66 no matter what FSB speed you run.
 
Ehh...I would, but budget is tight and I like all those mem ratios the P4S has. Do the older i845 boards (non-i845E/G) have the AGP/PCI lock? What's the performance like on those compared to the P4S533 (SiS 645DX)?
 
Wow! Very informative oldfart. I will definitely check out that Epox board.

I kinda wanted the 4:6 just so I could run DDR400 @ 133 FSB (my "transitional" period to 150 FSB)...but eh...FSB is king, right? I realized after looking at Thug's benchmarks that I should just worry about getting the highest FSB possible and that the memory speed - while important - is less of a factor. Yea...my little revelation...woopee!
 
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