Will DDR400 work in Asus P4PE?

[Skypix7]

I have a very stable, fast 533 FSB rig, P4 2.4, Asus P4PE, 1 g Samsung DDR 2700 memory (2-512 sticks), I use Photoshop CS a lot and need a faster system.

Dilemma: Don't know whether to add two sticks of 1g DDR 400 to my rig or go through the moboard upgrade hassle to a 3.0 Northwood and P4P800-E Deluxe with all four slots populated with 512 DDR 400. Any help much appreciated, thank you.

 

[globalcitizen]

There will be no point in getting DDR 400(PC3200) since it will be running at PC2700 anyway. If you want to get DDR 400 you will have to get a new motherboard. Sad but true.


I found this on the ASUS website. It is an i848 motherboard which will work with your processor except that it has DDR 400 support. Or you can go with the P4P800-E which afaik will still support your processor. However, I am not sure whether there will be a noticeable difference if you do upgrade just the motherboard.

 

[Skypix7]

Thanks for your thoughts, I forgot to add that i'd use the memory as a stop gap upgrade now, then in a couple months or so I'd upgrade when some of the newer mobos are our...was just wondering if it would be a significant improvement enough with another GB of RAM.

 

[globalcitizen]

I am not sure if getting an extra gig of RAM on top of your 1 gig will change anything, unless you use a large amount of textures and stuff. Get a memory monitor like FreemRAM to see how much memory you use. If there is still memory left after loading some of your graphics up, performance may not change that much. Also take a look at how much time it takes for photoshop to close, a long time (<30-40 seconds) means you need more memory

 

[Skypix7]

Well, Photoshop CS opens in about 8-10 seconds the first time, about 5 seconds every time thereafter. And closes in about 1 or 2 sec if that. It's mostly the time opening multiple files in RAW to work on them...when I get about ten 32mb files open, it's pretty slow. I know it's a fast system to do that well, but I want to take another step forward because it's slowing me down with my workload.

thanks for your input

 

[Skypix7]

for anyone else with this question, goku on this board gave me some great info: the latest BIOS flash from Asus (1007) will allow 800 FSB on this board! You have to use DDR400 memory and overclock the cpu (I have a 2.4 533 FSB) or get a new 800FSB cpu, but that's a great fix that should prevent having to reinstall the system etc. and still give me a good Photoshop boost. I'll post my results.

 

[Skypix7]

As promised, here's the final report on what I did:

Bought a P4 3.0C retail box (with Intel HSF), and two gigs Micron DDR 400 memory (2 sticks 1GB each). Then I updated the BIOS on the P4PE to 1007, which automatically jacks the FSB to 800. I wrestled the old cpu out of the motherboard, ditto with the memory, then popped in the new stuff, booted up and it ran like clockwork first time. Love Asus, what a great board they made with the P4PE.

It's significantly faster in Photoshop, to the point I can now do my work without feeling I'm waiting for the computer.

Entire upgrade cost: cpu 199 at Newegg, great company although they blew the priority shipping...but refunded me the cost so it was okay. memory 190 for each stick at http://www.ms4me.com/sa1gb61stpc1.html, great service and pretested memory for no extra charge.

I did try to overclock the cpu but the system wouldn't boot. I must be doing something wrong. the multiplier was grayed out, only the FSB was changeable. I tried 220, then 210, but no soap. I don't know the timing on my memory so don't know how to optimize. I have it on SPD right now.

Any suggestions anybody on how I can overclock on this board?