Socket 939 amd nforce4 board... can I use pc2700?

[BigL]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813135003

spec'd at 400 (pc3200)

I have 2x 512mb of pc2700... can I use this with this board? will i be hindering performance if i can? thanks in advance.

 

[BigL]

by how much?

here's my scenario... have an nforce2 with 1gig pc2700ram (2x512)... agp radeon 9800pro just died... also have an xp2700

I think that I've found the cheapest upgrade path for the performance increase I'm looking for is...

7600gt pci-e for $80 (good deal found)
xp 3800+ athlon 64 venice - $80
nforce4 motherboard with pci-e and dual channel ddr ram - $50

I can keep my ram hopefully (the 1gig of pc2700), sell the xp2700 athlon for at least $30 and the motherboard for at least $20, and get the upgrade I was looking for for cheap.

However, my plan doesn't work if I can't use my pc2700ram and get somewhere close to the performance I'd get with pc3200ram... please tell me if this isn't an option and I'll be very sad : (.

 

[BigL]

So you say that the performance drop from 3200 to 2700 isn't that large? How much % performance decrease am I looking at here?

 

[elbert]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813135003

spec'd at 400 (pc3200)

I have 2x 512mb of pc2700... can I use this with this board? will i be hindering performance if i can? thanks in advance.

It does work as ECS states Support DDR400/333/266 DDR SDRAM.
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?MenuID=90&LanID=9&DetailID=564&DetailName=Specification
That said I wouldnt suggest this with a high end processor due to cost of the proccess and the performance hit the 2700 memory. I currently have a 939 with just this setup but on my mobo it does require 3200 for dual channel support. The site didnt state this for your mobo but you should drop the 2700 memory any way when you do an upgrade to 2GB's.

 

[purdueguy]

I had an ECS board 5 years ago. It only had 2 USB ports and one crapped out on me. I wasn't very impressed with the board.

Btw, are you trying to build a system around this PC2700 memory? If so, I don't think it's worth it. Do you have other components that you are trying to reuse?

Supposedly on January 7th, Intel is going to cut the cost of some of the Core 2 Duo chips by over 40%. If this is the case, better to take this savings and apply it to some new memory.

What's your budget?

 

[BigL]

Thanks for the help so far. I have an athlon xp2700+ and 1gig ddr 2700. My agp 9800pro just crapped out on me and I'm just trying to get research going over my options, which I've figured out from numerous posts/thread on these forums. What I need my system to do come Jan. 16th is play WoW, that's pretty much what I need power for. I'm happy with my WoW framerates solo'ing, but when raiding it lacks getting 12-20fps. I feel like I'm more cpu bound that gpu bound. My budget is anywhere from $500-$1000 but I don't really want to spend over $600 total. My 2-3 options are:

a) buy a $100 ebay special agp card to tie me over until there's an actual killer app that I need the performance on. I'll get increased video performance in WoW but may not be happy limited by cpu and only 1gig ram. - $100-$150

b) this option doesn't seem valid anymore, which was to buy an athlon 64 x3800, a 7600gt for $80, and a $50 motherboard to use my current ram on, and maybe buy an extra 512 so I'm not limited by memory at some points. - $280 or less after I sell my current parts.

c) get an e6400, 2gigs 800 ddr2, 7600gt for $80, gigabyte motherboard. - $620 or less total.

Maybe I should wait until the price drops and then splurge, are you sure the price cuts are around Jan 16th?

 

[BigL]

Looking at the cpu charts and game performance, the athlon 64 3800+ doesn't really do too bad vs. the e6400 either.

Call of Duty 2 - 105 vs 166 (well that's a bit of an improvement)
Unreal Tournament 2004 - 83 vs 99
Serious Sam 2 - 79 vs 102
FEAR - 46 vs 58, 106 vs 121
Quake IV - 91 vs 159

So, for the price it'll cost to do the amd route vs the core2duo, the bang for the buck seems better with the 3800+. I also feel like I'll be wasting power WoW'ing away with the e6400 upgrade and might rather save my money for a better upgrade in the future. If you were me, and only had $1000 to spend to upgrade for a year or two, what path would you take? And those benchmarks above, how much lower would those frames per second be with the athlon 3800+ using a 333fsb over the 400 listed on the benchies, or is a 333 fsb even possible? (someone mentioned you NEED pc3200 to run dual channel with the socket 939 nforce4 mobos).

 

[elbert]

Thanks for the help so far. I have an athlon xp2700+ and 1gig ddr 2700. My agp 9800pro just crapped out on me and I'm just trying to get research going over my options, which I've figured out from numerous posts/thread on these forums. What I need my system to do come Jan. 16th is play WoW, that's pretty much what I need power for. I'm happy with my WoW framerates solo'ing, but when raiding it lacks getting 12-20fps. I feel like I'm more cpu bound that gpu bound. My budget is anywhere from $500-$1000 but I don't really want to spend over $600 total. My 2-3 options are:

a) buy a $100 ebay special agp card to tie me over until there's an actual killer app that I need the performance on. I'll get increased video performance in WoW but may not be happy limited by cpu and only 1gig ram. - $100-$150

b) this option doesn't seem valid anymore, which was to buy an athlon 64 x3800, a 7600gt for $80, and a $50 motherboard to use my current ram on, and maybe buy an extra 512 so I'm not limited by memory at some points. - $280 or less after I sell my current parts.

c) get an e6400, 2gigs 800 ddr2, 7600gt for $80, gigabyte motherboard. - $620 or less total.

Maybe I should wait until the price drops and then splurge, are you sure the price cuts are around Jan 16th?

I can tell you right now WOW on a XP2700 isnt CPU bound. I can play it on my athlon 500 all but in the big citys where its really my 384MB's comming up short. Now if your wanting to run 2 instances youll want a dual core else its a waste of money. The GPU and amount of memory is the most important as thats where WOW lives providing your not wanting to play 2 chars at the same time. For running 2 instance the cheapest dual core is your best bet go for a better GPU or larger amount of memory.

2Gb's of RAM is good but you may want to go for the E6300 and upgrade your GPU to a 7800~7900.

My son plays WOW alot and his system has a 3500+, 1GB, and onboard video. The only time i see lag on his system is when he has to many addons enabled.

 

[BigL]

Great info, thanks. Do you mean by running 2 instances... running 2 copies of the game at once with 2 characters? I only play one character lol : ).

 

[sailer]

b) this option doesn't seem valid anymore, which was to buy an athlon 64 x3800, a 7600gt for $80, and a $50 motherboard to use my current ram on, and maybe buy an extra 512 so I'm not limited by memory at some points. - $280 or less after I sell my current parts.

Maybe I should wait until the price drops and then splurge, are you sure the price cuts are around Jan 16th?

By the looks of it, plan B is your best option if you're determined to use the PC2700 memory. You would still be better off to get some PC3200 ram. Othewise, I think you'd be better off going wiht option C, and like you mention, if the cpu prices do drop, spend a little more money on a better video card and or motherboard. Of course, that depends on what games you intend to play, other than WoW.