Motherboard with 1600/1333MHz fsb and processor with fsb of 1066MHz?

[spiderdan]

Does the motherboard have to be the same fsb as the processor, or will it just underclock the motherboards fsb? I was told that motherboards will run at the processors fsb. Is this true? Since the processor has 2 cores, the the actual fsb is slower, right? So 800mhz ram will be sufficient? And what exactly is the formula for calculating ram speed?
Here's what I'm looking at

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300
Would I benefit much from stepping this up to a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600? Its a bit more.

ASUS P5Q-VM LGA 775

 

[jitpublisher]

Yes, the board will support lower FSB speeds.
The number of cores has nothing to do with the FSB speed.
The buss speed advertised these CPU's run at is actually a quad pumped number. (Bigger numbers look a lot better for marketing)
In other words, a processor with an advertised FSB speed of 1066 is actually running on a 266mhz FSB bus, quad pumped to the processor for a total of 1066 effectively being used, and it is only being used at this quad pumped speed by the processor.
Your memory also runs on the actual FSB, not the quad pumped speed of the processor. So, 266mhz FSB (x2 for DDR, or double data rate memory, in other words your memory is "double pumped") means you only need 533 mhz memory for this configuration.
Same scenerio, the 1600 mhz processor uses a 400mhz FSB quad pumped to 1600. So, the memory would be running at 400, X2 for DDR, or 800 mhz.
So in this case you would want 800mhz memory. You only really need faster than 800mhz memory if you are overclocking the FSB past 400mhz.
To make a long story short, buy the best 800mhz memory with the tightest timings you can find.
That way, if you ever decide to upgrade the processor, you will be assured the memory will work at the buss speed of the new processor without having to relax timings, or underclock it.

 

[GhislainG]

To add to jitpublisher's excellent reply, you need to let us know what you'll be doing with that system before we can tell if you'll benefit from a Q6600 over an E7300. Since you chose a motherboard with an integrated video controller, I can only assume that you're not a gamer.

 

[spiderdan]

jitpublisher, it seems your just filled with knowledge. Thank you for that excellent reply. Is the cpu "quad pumped" because of the clock speed? Just trying to better understand. Dont pland on doing any overclocking anytime soon (may when I've had this pc a while. Not sure yet.). As far as what I'm going to be doing with this pc, I don't plan on gaming much if at all. May do some video conversions, but speed is not critical here. I like to be able to multitask and have many windows open at the same time. Simple video editing would be nice. Mostly I need this to do school stuff. Microsoft office, visual studio, some eclipse in the near future, autocad now but will be getting into more complicated cad later in my highschool career. Decent load speeds. Most importantly I want something that is going to be able to keep up with modern programs and operating systems for years to come, but not at the expense of value. I can't see a whole lot of reason to go with the quad core with todays programs, but I would like to keep this computer for some time. Perhaps future programs will be more geared to quad cores? Still, either of these processors may be outdated by then.

 

[GhislainG]

Then the E7300 more than meets your requirements. If you need a Q6600 in a few years, you'll probably be able to get one for not much.

Quad pumped info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_Data_Rate

 

[spiderdan]

So would my motherboard's fsb speed need to match the actual or quad pumped rate of my process? I will proboly go with this board one way or another since it meets with my needs so well, but I am still curious.

EDIT: how does this ram seem?

 

[GhislainG]

The memory looks good, but it's optimized for NVidia chipsets. If you can afford it, go with this memory kit instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209. It has better specs and it runs at 4-4-4-12 at 1.9V on a P5Q series motherboard.

Don't worry about the FSB. It meets the requirements of all Intel CPUs that can be installed on the ASUS P5Q-VM.

 

[spiderdan]

ghislaing, thank you for your reply but it appears you've posted the wrong link. Those are search results. Is the ram you are suuggesting dual channel? Or does that give much advantage? I have heard dual channel gives a pretty decent advantage over single but don't know from experience.

 

[GhislainG]

The correct link is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209

All memory kits are dual channel; that's why they come in pairs. Dual channel provides better performance.