MSI K7N2-L DDR/400mhz FSB mobo

[Vin]

Hi

Today bought this board, well ordered it, with Athlon XP 3200 + 400 FSB, as a quick cheap upgrade to replace my Asus A7V333 and Athlon XP 2100+

Question I have is, I have 1gb of PC2700/DDR333 in 2x 512mb modules.

I dont want, at all, to fork out for new memory, will the PC2700 run at 333 speeds, with the CPU running at 400mhz FSB?

Im literally pulling out the existing mobo and cpu, and replacing with the new gear.

I have a Radeon 9700 Pro and SB Audigy that will be going staying in. Thats it.

Thanks

Vin

NVidia "The way it is meant to be played"

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[Crashman]

I'm fairly certain it will.

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[Nights_L]

It will, but i guarantee you that will be slower than running ur cpu with 166fsb

 

[Vin]

Night L, what do you mean please?

I thought on some of the newer 400mhz FSB boards, you could run the memory speed at a different setting to the CPU. This was helpful for overclocking.

So the CPU will be at 400 mhz FSB, the memory running at DDR333 speeds?




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[Mr5oh]

Yes you can run them at different speeds, it will be a bottleneck in your system though. I ran PC2100 with a 400 FSB briefly without any problems. Of course all my benchmark scores obvisuly jumped a fair amount after switching to PC3200.

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Vin]

ok, thanks. I'll prob order some 3200 and ebay they 2700.



NVidia "The way it is meant to be played"

ATI "The way it is actually played"

 

[Mr5oh]

If you plan on overclocking you may want to go faster than the PC3200.


My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Vin]

Not planning on overclocking, just dont want a bottleneck.

I thought I read, around the time DDR400 came out, that still the PC2700 performed better in PC3200 slots? Could be wrong. Thought there was some issue. Anyway, the technology has been around a while now, so prob ironed out.

Also, how big an impact is the 2700 going to cause bottleneck wise? as a %? I've found some reasonabley priced pc3200 sticks, so shouldnt cost the earth to uprade as I will ebay the old sticks.



NVidia "The way it is meant to be played"

ATI "The way it is actually played"

 

[Mr5oh]

I thought I read, around the time DDR400 came out, that still the PC2700 performed better

Just a guess, but this may have been back before 400 FSB CPUs became more common, and if using a 333 FSB CPU, the 2700 would be just as good, maybe would old drivers/hardware, possibly better.

As for a %, not sure been quite a while since I was running something similar. It wasn't horrible, the machine ran fine. It just ran better with the PC3200, my benchmark scores went up, and during games my FPS increased (generally they weren't low enough using the 2700 to notice a difference, unless I was measureing it).

You may be able to overclock your current RAM to PC3200 fairly easy. You could always try that first, but in the end, I think the best thing to do is buy new RAM, whenever you find a good price (sounds like you already have).

Just make sure you stick to a brand name on RAM. (Mushkin, Cosair, Kingston, Micron, something reputiable, nothing generic)

My Desktop: <A HREF="http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html" target="_new">http://Mr5oh.tripod.com/pc.html</A>

 

[Vin]

I got to admit, I usually by the generic stuff, in fact always, and have never had any probs.

My machine at present is 100% stable and has been for 2 years. So im actually concerned about instabilities with the new hardware......

The kingston and corsair doesnt cost alot more, but why do you think the generic is so bad?

I've read good reviews on the ebuyer stuff in this board.



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[fishmahn]

Generally Generic stuff works, barely. But it may be unstable because to get cheap they don't always test the chip's reliability fully, and maybe 1 chip on the dimm is only 99% instead of 100%.

Most of the people here push their systems as fast as possible, so that 99%, while it may be fine for el-cheapo board because the board doesn't stress the ram past, say 97%, it isn't good enough for a high performance mobo that pushes the ram to 100% or more. That's why we stress quality ram with the quality mobos.

Think about it this way: Some people like Chevys, Fords, Hondas, etc. That's buying a quality brand (OCZ, Kinston, etc.). But the guy that buys generic is like the guy that bought a Yugo. It may work fine, but lots of people had problems with Yugos.

Me? I'm a generic guy too and it works fine. But I'd never suggest that someone else buy generic - hate to get a bad name for a recommendation that didn't work out. Let the purchaser make that decision him/herself.

Mike.

PS: I'd never buy a Yugo.

 

[Vin]

Any1 know anything about Twinmos PC3700 CL2.5 sticks?
Pricey, but is it worth the extra? £192 for 2 x 512mb sticks, delivered.

Im going to take the advice and go for PC3700 as its a little more future proofed and will o/c if neeed be.

Will it be stable in PC3200 slots tho in dual mode on the MSI K7N2-L?

Is it worth the extra money? I could by Kingston/Corsair CL3 for £127 delivered.


UPDATE - (edit) Im actually going for PC3200 as the 3700 wont work with AMD64 it seems.

So found GeIL dual mem package with CL2.5 8-4-4 for £123 delivered. Any1 know about GeIL?
Also Corsair for £162 but not dual package, will it run dual? how does 8-4-4 compare to other timings?



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<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by vin on 10/04/04 06:42 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[ChipDeath]

UPDATE - (edit) Im actually going for PC3200 as the 3700 wont work with AMD64 it seems.

ummm... Where did you read that? PC 3700 will run happily as 3200. DDR ram is ALWAYS compatible with lower speed grades. In fact it will usually run with tighter timings if you run it at less that stock speeds.

Also Corsair for £162 but not dual package, will it run dual? how does 8-4-4 compare to other timings?

Corsair tends to be high performance stuff, so it probably will. It is expensive though. Crucial Ballistix comes highly recommended by a lot of people, and is a little cheaper (Corsair always used to use hand-picked crucial RAM, but I don't know if that's still the case). I had some cheap Crucial PC2100 (133Mhz/DDR266) that would happily do 175Mhz, so their stuff is pretty decent in my experience.

As far as I'm aware, Geil is a respected RAM manufacturer, and 1Gb for that money isn't bad at all, especially in a Dual Channel package. You may as well save the cash and get that stuff. If it doesn't run in Dual Channel at the advertised timings, then it's false advertising 😱 .

Remember though - Dual Channel really doesn't make much difference to AMD platforms. a few % at best.

---
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XP1700+ @200x10 (~2Ghz), 1.4 Vcore
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