Socket A ram question

[Spike]

I am looking at this board for a new HTPC I am building. I know it's a cheap board but I am not looking for a powerhouse HTPC, just good enough for some divx watching and the occasional game playing. I have a spare Barton 2500+ that I would put in it and change the FSB to 400 giving me a 3200+ (like my current main rig).

What I want to know is what ram can I use. According to the mobo discription it only takes 333 ram but the fsb goes up to 400. Maybe I am having a brain fart, but with a AXP I was not aware that you could have the ram run at a different speed than the fsb of the cpu. If thats the case then I will get a gig of DDR400 (as it's cheaper than 333) and just run it at 333 speeds but I would love to be able to run it at full DDR 400. Anyone have any idea? Thanks!

-spike

 

[Elcs]

Since everyone has went A64, Ive lost touch with my AXP knowledge even though Im still running one as my main rig

If I remember correctly, the penalty for running the AXP's asychronously (say ram 166, FSB 200) was too high and anything other than 1:1 crippled performance too much to outweigh the benefits of higher FSB. Im not sure how ddr400 + 333mhz fsb will work.

Its possible but Im not sure whether you'll get any tangible benefit out of it.

It'd be a bit of work but I guess I could run a test or 2 for you.

 

[ribbon13]

http://www.asrockamerica.com/Products/K7VM3.htm

Socket 462 AMD Sempron?, Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron
FSB 333/266/200MHz processors

well, since the FSB is limited to 333, according to the Asrock page, my guess you wont be able to put the Barton at 400. And if you can put the barton at 400, then you can do the same with the ram

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Okay, this is pretty strange....

The Newegg page claims the board supports FSB speeds of 400 & 333 MHz. The official ASRock page gives a different story, saying it supports 333, 266 & 200 MHz FSB CPUs. That means PC27000 makes perfect sense as the maximum.

On the other hand, if you read the Newegg reviews, some guy overclocked his Sempron 2400+ to 2GHz. This would involve raising the FSB from 333 to 400 MHz. So, apparently it can indeed reach 400 MHz FSB. I don't know if that means the memory can, too, or not.

 

[Spike]

Ok, now I am confused. I guess I would trust the asrock page over the newegg as they are actually the board makers but that review is a little out of wack. I would have no problem leaving the Barton at 2500+ and 333 speeds but if there is any possibility of running it up to 400 then I would go for it. I'm going to keep looking at a few other boards as well as read more on this one to find out if there is something I am missing.

If there is no way to run it at 400 then I will probably still get 400 ram as it's cheaper than 333 and I believe most ram has no problems underclocking...

Originally posted by: Elcs
Since everyone has went A64, Ive lost touch with my AXP knowledge even though Im still running one as my main rig

If I remember correctly, the penalty for running the AXP's asychronously (say ram 166, FSB 200) was too high and anything other than 1:1 crippled performance too much to outweigh the benefits of higher FSB. Im not sure how ddr400 + 333mhz fsb will work.

Its possible but Im not sure whether you'll get any tangible benefit out of it.

It'd be a bit of work but I guess I could run a test or 2 for you.

This is the same with me, my main rig has this exact setup (AXP 2500+ @ 3200+) but I don't remember anything about ram issues at slower speeds as it has been so long. Thanks for all the help!

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Given the availability of so many other mATX Socket A mb's, why choose a crippled one? Not only is the RAM potentially limited, it also has one less PCI slot than normal for mATX. Are you particularly enamored of S3's IGP?


:disgust:

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Kiwi
Given the availability of so many other mATX Socket A mb's, why choose a crippled one? Not only is the RAM potentially limited, it also has one less PCI slot than normal for mATX. Are you particularly enamored of S3's IGP?
:disgust:

I love the question about my choice of motherboard yet no links or reccomendations to other, better boards. I want to get one for around $50, this seems like one of the best deals. If you can show me better, great, I will go for that but if not don't speak out of your butt.

-spike

 

[Atheus]

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: Kiwi
Given the availability of so many other mATX Socket A mb's, why choose a crippled one? Not only is the RAM potentially limited, it also has one less PCI slot than normal for mATX. Are you particularly enamored of S3's IGP?
:disgust:

I love the question about my choice of motherboard yet no links or reccomendations to other, better boards. I want to get one for around $50, this seems like one of the best deals. If you can show me better, great, I will go for that but if not don't speak out of your butt.

-spike

At the risk of being accused of speaking out of my butt, I don't like ASrock either. I bought a few back in the day because someone told me they are built by ASUS. This may be true but it doesn't make them any good. The onboard sound is useless, i'm lucky to get 5Mb on the '100Mb' onboard LAN, they can't handle running so much as 1Mhz out of spec on any part and one of them refused to power on half the time and has to be left alone for a while before it will reconsider. As for other recommendations, there are none at this price, but once you buy 3rd party sound and LAN you might as well buy a nice board to start with.

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Atheus

Originally posted by: Spike

Originally posted by: Kiwi
Given the availability of so many other mATX Socket A mb's, why choose a crippled one? Not only is the RAM potentially limited, it also has one less PCI slot than normal for mATX. Are you particularly enamored of S3's IGP?
:disgust:

I love the question about my choice of motherboard yet no links or reccomendations to other, better boards. I want to get one for around $50, this seems like one of the best deals. If you can show me better, great, I will go for that but if not don't speak out of your butt.

-spike

At the risk of being accused of speaking out of my butt, I don't like ASrock either. I bought a few back in the day because someone told me they are built by ASUS. This may be true but it doesn't make them any good. The onboard sound is useless, i'm lucky to get 5Mb on the '100Mb' onboard LAN, they can't handle running so much as 1Mhz out of spec on any part and one of them refused to power on half the time and has to be left alone for a while before it will reconsider. As for other recommendations, there are none at this price, but once you buy 3rd party sound and LAN you might as well buy a nice board to start with.

Sorry but that just cracked me up. I don't have any problems with people telling me what I am looking to buy sucks, or listing reasons why. What I do dislike is when they do that without any other suggestions. You have given me some more reasons to avoid this board but do you have any suggestions?

The $50 price tag is what I am shooting for, if there is alot better of a board for a little more show me and I just might go for it. This machine does not need to be a powerhouse, it was always be a secondary system used just for movie watching and the occasional gaming, so uber-high quality is not needed. My current system is a AXP 3200+ w/ 1gb and 6800GT @ 420/1100. I am building a new machine that will probably be a X2 3800+ w/7800GTX and 2gb. That means this comp is third-tier status.

Thanks for any and all suggestions

-spike