DDR RAM

[bhath19]

I have a question about DDR RAM memory. If my computer has 266FSB how far can I go up in memory (i.e. PC2100, PC2700)

[Dax_Brandy]

for memory, it's twice the FSB of the mobo/processor

pc2100 - ddr266; mobo fsb pc133
pc2700 - ddr333; mobo fsb pc166

i would like to know first your specs.

[bhath19]

I have a Gigabyte 7DXE w/ Athlon XP 1700
512 MB DDR PC 2100
GeForce 4 MX 440 64MB Video Card

My FSB is 266Mhz

So does this mean I could go up to PC4200?

[HeadBand]

ok an intel has a 4x bus and amd has a 2x bus ddr also has a 2x bus and old sdram has 1x bus so if you have an amd cpu get the same speed as your cpu atleast with intel get half the speed atleast i would recomend getting higher though for overclocking or future upgrades as for as high as it will go the mobo will run them at the speed of the slower ram or slower cpu if that is the case (which it shouldnt be) unless you are overclocking the ram which is pretty pointless so just get the faster stuff

as for the speeds
pc2100 133 bus x2 = ddr266
pc 2700 166 bus x2 = ddr 333
pc3200 200 bus x2 = ddr 400
those are the main ones but there are more if you look at the specs of them memory you will see

[Dax_Brandy]

ahh ok. your memory bus speed is already at 266Mhz. you cant go any higher. i have misunderstood your first question.

therefore your mobo fsb is at 133Mhz.

[bhath19]

Originally posted by Dax_Brandy
ahh ok. your memory bus speed is already at 266Mhz. you cant go any higher. i have misunderstood your first question.

therefore your mobo fsb is at 133Mhz.

I think you misunderstood, my mobo FSB is actually 266Mhz, NOT 133Mhz. Sorry for the misunderstanding. So was I correct about using the PC4200 Memory?

Here's a link to my motherboard: GA-7DXE

[Dax_Brandy]

your mobo specs

visit your motherboard specs. it says all.

the cpu/clock speed set by the mobo is at 133MHz. therefore your memory can run at max DDR266 or 266mhz. you cant go any further than that. but if you want to overclock, get a higher rated memory, say pc3200..

[tgxiii]

No... I'm pretty sure Dax was correct. Your FSB is 133, but double-pumped it shows it to be 266.

[bhath19]

I guess I don't understand it, so when it says on the mobo specs 266Mhz FSB that is the highest for the memory that you can go? Like on my mobo's specs?

[Jeordiewhite]

It is at 133mhz doubled to 266mhz, so saying it's 266mhz is correct. The memory/fsb is in sync with how much data can be pushed through, as ddr is doubled what pc133memory is,
266Mhz*8bits wide(the sdram. ddr-sdram memory is)=2166mb
That's the total of what can be pushed through and the naming scheme of pc2100.
As for ddr, you can use only up to pc2100. No higher for that motherboard, PC4200 memory will be backwards compatible with that motherboard as any other one. However you will not be using the memory at pc4200.
Not all motherboards will boot up if say you had a pc4200 memory and which your motherboard can't even utilize pc2700.
Even then Athlon processors won't be able to utilize the faster FSB as the FSB is locked at a much lower speed. With an athlon xp 3200+ and a better motherboard you wouldn't be able to expect much out of your processor even with pc4200 memory as for the most part no athlon motherboard even supports the memory and would be very lucky to even get it to boot at the speed of that memory.

If you had a pentium 4 and a great motherboard you could theoretically bennefit from that memory a good deal.
However unless you go do that, you will have to use pc2100 unless you want to purchase pc3200 and maybe upgrade your motherboard/cpu to something that could utilize the memory, otherwise it would be overkill and you couldn't even use the faster memory.

I think that motherboard only goes up to 2400+ processors, which have a 266mhz fsb, and that means your motherboard was not even made to use pc2700 memory.