Will this work on my board?

[dr_roberts49]

Hey Everybody. I'm building my 1st AMD system for my 13 year-old daughter today. Got all my stuff from Newegg yesterday. I've been building Intel systems for years. Anyway, I have the ASUS A7V8X-MX SE mobo that I'm putting a Barton XP2500+ into. In the user guide, it only mentions DDR 2700 memory as the fastest ram you can use. I bought a 512mg stick of GEIL 3200 DDR. I assume it should work, even if the board will only support 2700. Am I correct in this assumption?

Robert

PS

I'm really impressed with the total cost on this system. $310, including shipping. Besides the components I just mentioned, I also got a nice pre-modded case (in the blue color she wanted) with a 420 watt power supply, and a heatsink/fan combo. I already have an 80GB 72000 rpm Maxtor, Sony CD burner and floppie. For video, I have a NVIDIA FX 5200, and I'll be using the mobo's onboard sound. She will use her old Sony 17 inch monitor, MS mouse and keyboard. Hope to have it up and running in a few hours.

[elroy]

Yes it will work fine. It was a smart purchase on your part, getting the PC3200 instead of PC2700. My board is supposed to use PC3200 and I bought PC3700. Just a little more room to work with.

[dr_roberts49]

Thanks, elroy. I was hoping that was the case. I got one other concern. The ASUS user guide makes reference to some switch settings that relate to the cpu. Simply put it says: The default cpu external frequency is 100mhz. If your cpu supports 133/166mhz external frequency, adjust the DSW settings before installing the mobo to the chassis.

So far, I've found nothing in the instructions that pertain to this. The AMD guide only refers to installing the cpu and heatsink/fan. Should I just leave it at default? I have the Athlon XP 2500+. Don't plan to oc this processor. It's locked anyway. It has a 333mhz FSB. Thanks again

Robert

[Peter M]

The front side bus on a Barton is 166 MHz, not 333. The marketing droids doubled the MHz number because they thought that's what DDR is about ... hence the confusion. Set the jumpers to 166.

And don't worry, RAM may be run at lower speeds than rated - the rating denotes the maximum frequency, but there's no relevant limit to how slow you may run the stuff.

[dr_roberts49]

Forgive this Intel Idiot I meant to say Athlon XP. Sorry.

Robert