XP2500 + 2700 ram or XP2600 + 2100 ram

[ada]

Hi Folks,
I've just found out that I've been sold an AMD2500 with ddr 2100 ram, so the processor is running as a 1900.

The question is, do I upgrade the memory to 2700 to match the processor OR change the processor to an amd 2600 which I believe has an fsb of 266.

Hmmmm.. faster processor, slower bus or slower processor, faster bus..

Any thoughts ?

Thanks Ada

[RamonGTP]

Neither... Upgrade to PC3200 and run that 2500+ as a 3200+ by raising the FSB to 200.

[Xtreeme]

I second that!

[ada]

I've got a jetway kt400 m/b. The manual says it supports
DDR266/DDR333
Does that mean the PC3200 memory wouldnt work ?

[beppodmime]

Most of the 2600+'s you'd be able to find now are going to be of the 333 MHz FSB variety anyways, so that really wouldn't make too much of a difference. Running a faster FSB would benefit you more in most situations, anyways, and more memory bandwidth isn't a bad thing.

I'd say stick with the 2500+ and run PC2700 memory. And your mobo more than likely won't handle an overclock to a 200 MHz FSB, and running a 166 MHz FSB and a 200 MHz memory clock in a KT400 mobo will yield less performance than running the CPU and memory clocks sync'd (166/166). Stick with the plan of getting the PC2700 RAM for your system, and leave that CPU in there.

[Xtreeme]

Originally posted by ada
I've got a jetway kt400 m/b. The manual says it supports
DDR266/DDR333
Does that mean the PC3200 memory wouldnt work ?

Ahh didnt know which mobo you had. Yes as he said. Keep the 2500+ on list. But go with pc2700 mem as your fsb wont go that high since it doesnt list ddr400. That means 200fsb. Anyhow just get good pc2700 and it will let you up the fsb some anyhow. Plus 2500+ can multi up to 12.5x (stock is 11) for a nice boost with no fsb oclocking anyhow.

[ada]

Hmmm. Ok, before getting the last 2 replies, I went back to the shop.
They didnt have any pc2700's in so I took a pc3200 instead.

Did I do wrong ?

Its working fine, showing the processor as a 2500+ correctly.

I'm now a bit concerned that the pc3200 will actually slow my system down.

Should I wait till they've got more pc2700's then go back again and swap the pc3200, or just leave it as is ??

Thanks for your help guys.

Ada

[Telexen]

Just because you have PC3200 RAM doesn't mean you can run it at 200mhz

Some people just understand overclocking.

[ada]

Didnt for one minute think it did !.

My question was "will having pc3200 memory installed instead of pc2700 degrade my system"

?

Thanks
Ada

[Telexen]

No...

PC2700 is 333mhz...that's the FSB of your CPU. That's fine, it just means you may not be able to overclock as well.

PC3200 is 400mhz, but since the CPU FSB by default is only 333mhz, running 400mhz RAM offers no advantage except overclocking. And so you know, PC3200 is automatically run at 333mhz unless you change it.