motherboards and ram

[Mstenger404]

Now that I got an actual job, building my own pc is an inevitable reality.

Right now im looking through some motherboards, this Intel P45 mobo looks nice,

its FSB is 1600/1333

its memory standard is DDR2 1200

now im just giving that information out since this is what im concerned about. I got a hint that if the ram speed matched either FSB, the data can be transfered through the ram more seemlessly.

Heres what I want to find out.
1. Does the speed of the ram conflict with the FSB in any way?

2. Just because the motherboard's standard is 1200, can I still get ram with a different speed without any hitches in performance?

[Scott]

If your rams FSB is slower then the motherboards fsb then the motherboards fsb will slow down to the rams speed. It goes the same both ways. It's best to match your ram's fsb with the fsb of the motherboard. Faster ram is ok but it's just throwing away money unless you plan to overclock..

I'm pretty sure that's right, but you may want to wait for steve to confirm.. he does alot of overclocking and stuff.

[atholon]

True, I put PC3200 in this computer and it only runs 333 max FSB. What a waste.

[Mstenger404]

alright, thanks for the info

[Steve]

na things are different now, at least since all the core2 stuff came out.

it's true that if you let the mobo auto setup the speeds your ram will be at 1200mhz for example, however the system will still run at the correct speed for the cpu.

the ram will run on a ratio, and it's difficult to explain without showing someone face to face.

i'll try anyway

if the system ram at default is supposed to run at 1200 MHz, then the mobo can hande that speed then them ram will run at a ratio of 1:1

if the ram speed is rated higher or lower than the mobo then it will run on a higher or lower ratio.

afaik 1:1 is more efficient / most stable.

but with the ratios, the system will always run fast as hell anyway

one u start playing in the BIOS and switching everything off manual it's easy to see what is happening and realise that you can really get some extra performance out of your intel system.




i'll try to show u a bit more here:

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=184077

bottom left side - ram stats.

RAM Speed : 449.3 MHz (4:5) @ 5-5-5-15
PC2-5300

the ram is rated at 333MHz, and certainly not ~450MHz
and is running on a ratio of 4:5 because it's capable of running a lot faster than my mother board can. i could easily have ran at 1:1 but it would have been a lot lower FSB speed overall, so why not ramp it up??

so to sum it up, the ram i had was underrated, but for 10 mins work i got it to go way over the mobo rated speeds.

sry to go on about free performance a bit but for those still not convinced about Intel maybe it will help turn 'em

look at the Rated FSB on the right, it's 1438MHz (approx) http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=184077
my mobo is rated @ 1066/800MHz
and says ram should be DDR2 800/667/ 533

but it's running ok at 1438MHz and ram at almost 900Mhz, so there is plenty of give and dont worry about some things not matching exaclty, you can tweak it for free with no risk of damage (well 99% of time unless u start volt modding).

[Hellfighter]

my sucks a bet
link: http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=376493

Ps:
RAM : 2048 MB DDR2 Dual Channel
RAM Speed : 266.7 MHz (1:2) @ 4-4-4-12
Slot 1 : 1024MB (PC2-4300)
Slot 1 Manufacturer : Noname (Ultra MFG)
Slot 2 : 1024MB (PC2-4300)
Slot 2 Manufacturer : AENEON

Slot 3 Empty
Slot 4 Empty

can max to 4gb ram

i have a total of four slots for Ram cards and only using two

[Steve]

it's just older stuff that's all chief, not a lot u can do without upgrading the whole lot :/

[Hellfighter]

steve my Ram cards are they lower then the MOB FBS? 533?

[atholon]

I can do 4 gigs of ram but won`t matter very much as far as performance.

[Mstenger404]

so steve if I read your stuff correctly im assuming this.

just because nothing matches up precisely right out of the box, I can go into the BIOS and change it to anything there.
so its FSB is 1600/1333

and its memory standard is DDR2 1200

then i go into the BIOS and change it, all that information becomes irrelevant

Is that how it works?

[Steve]

yeah in theory

the quality of components ultimately decides what you can do, the manufacturers say the components have a limit for a reason. the system will run as fast as hell regardless, it just depends on how fast you want it to go

[Mstenger404]

kool, thanks for the info

[Mstenger404]

one more quick question, the P45 supports crossfire, but I want to SLi. If its crossfire supported will nvidia SLi work fine?

[Steve]

nope, it must support SLI.

crossfire can usually be added to a board with a BIOS update, SLI must be built into the board from production, so if it doesnt say it supports SLI, it never will do.

[Mstenger404]

aww, now i gotta go look through newegg again. thanks for the info, steve, saved me some money

I dont know how to tell whether its SLi compatible or not, heres my search so far.

how do I tell what board is SLi capable since I havent seen any motherboard just tell me straight off in the description.

If not, can you tell me some really good mobos that are?

[Steve]

any of the nForce (nvidia) boards

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...id=5&subid=174

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...d=5&subid=1057

[Mstenger404]

alright I got all my stuff picked out, I counted $2007 dollers, I'll have the money around late october or november.

Case $75.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811166004

Power Supply $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151028

Hard Drive $299.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136260

CD Drive $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151171

Vista $179.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116490

Video Card $654.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127360

Processor $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037

Motherboard $249.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131294

RAM $193.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820313007

tell me if I forgot a part or theres something incompatible.

[Steve]

tbh there will be a whole load of new stuff out by then and all your pricing will be irrelevant. :/

couple of things if can mention them...

The new ATi cards will blow the nvidia 280's out of the water

if you really want to go SLi, then you might need a slightly beefier PSU, i'm not 100% sure what the new NV cards power consumption is tho.

I was gonna tell u not to get the velociraptor but it's the fastest drive around so it's difficult to flame it hehehe. however you could save $120 and get a 1TB SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 which 2/3 of the price and 3x in size and has a performance difference that you will not be able to see (IMHO).

Blu-ray drive instead of DVD

i'm trying to figure out why that ram is horrendously overpriced, guess cause it's 1200, you can get 4GB top branded 1150 for 1/2 that price. your price will be a lot different in 5 months i expect however.

definitely want to go 32-bit??

[Mstenger404]

I didn't see any benchmarks comparing the new atis to the GeF 280s so I might look up on that.

I picked that hard drive for that reason, because it's fast. Ill go look that one up on newegg in a bit.

but yea i guess when the prices of all the parts go down, there'll be plenty of money left for a blu-ray.

I wanted to go 32-bit since some software isn't compatible with 64 yet, thats all my reasoning for that.