Probably a stupid question re: A7N8X-E

imported_thewiz

Junior Member
May 19, 2004
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Just got a A7N8X-E installed with an Athlon 3200 CPU (400 FSB) and (2) 512MB sticks of PC3200 memory (Corsair) in slots 2 & 3.

When the PC starts up, it says Memory frequency is at 200 MHz, Dual Channel Mode

My question is: Is that correct?

I was thinking it would say 400MHz, but it's probably another one of those multiplier things.

Oh, and I'm not trying to overclock it.

Thanks.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Welcome to the Forums thewiz :) The terminology can vary from motherboard to motherboard.

My mom's little nForce2 board, a Shuttle MN31N, says the memory is running at 200MHz and it means that it's at DDR200, or 100MHz base speed (the memory bus is double-pumped). This happens to jive with the old 1GHz Duron I threw in there. However, my A7N8X Deluxe says the memory is running at 200MHz but it means 200MHz base speed or DDR400.

So for your board, the "200MHz" is meaning DDR400, where for my mom's board it doesn't. Are you :confused: yet? ;)

Bigger picture: the nForce2 motherboards will generally perform at their best when the memory bus and the CPU bus are running at the same exact speed. So if your CPU has a 166MHz bus speed (such as the popular AthlonXP 2500+), then you may want to manually set your memory to run at the 166MHz/DDR333 setting as well, which is accomplished by changing the memory timings to User Define in the motherboard's BIOS, then setting the Memory Frequency to 166MHz.

Hope that helps :)
 

imported_thewiz

Junior Member
May 19, 2004
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Okay, I'm just trying to make sure everything is running as fast it as it is designed to.

Based on your answer, that seems to be the case.

Thanks.