DRAM frequency?

[gurunaif]

I'm new to this so apologies if i've picked things up wrong. I have a Gigabyte GA7VA motherboard, AMD xp 2400 and 1GB DDR 2700 ram.
When setting up the machine I set the CPU bus at 133mhz but was wondering if I have to set the DRAM frequency to match i.e 266. My 2700 ram will run at 333mhz so I was wondering if I can set the DRAM clock to this rate? In short is it possible to seperate the DRAM clock from the CPU clock? I tried it and the machine resets after a short while. The machine is fine when everything is rigged to 133/266.

any help or an explanation of how things work is appreciated.

 

[jlanka]

It should be theoretically possible to run your RAM at 333 (2x166) but of course, if you've got flaky RAM that might be the cause of your resets. What brand is it? If it's Corsair or something similar maybe you should think about RMA'ing it?

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Smokey]

Look in your BIOS where your CPU speed is listed. Underneath you should see some sort of ratio ( either 1:1 or 4:5 ).

If it's set to 1:1, your RAM synch speeds with your FSB (so 266 for you at your 133 BUS)

If you set it at 4:5, your telling your RAM to clock at 166 (333mhz, what your PC2700 is listed at) while your FSB is 133. Now, these are ratios, so as you increment your FSB everything will increase accordingly by their ratio.

To be honest, the gains from running Asynchronous (4:5 instead of 1:1) aren't significant. I usually prefer running synch and just upping the FSB (which gives a better overall boost). It sucks that your RAM won't boot at the 333mhz level but my if you're stuck with it, you're not missing out on much.

<font color=purple><i>Smokey McPot - Your Baby's Daddy</i></font color=purple>

 

[gurunaif]

thanks guys, the problem was a duff second ram chip. I can run@333 without issue when only one chip is used.