Importance of RAM speed?

vbimport
#1

This is the reason for getting a new mobo.

The one that I’m on ATM only handles DDR266. Worth spending £22 for a mobo that takes DDR400 when the 266 works fine? Is there any way to ‘overclock’ RAM?

Cheers guys.

#2

No its not worth it if you still are planning on using your “slow” P4 CPU.
//Danne

#3

IMO, memory performance is one of the most overlooked components for increasing system speed. The faster your memory performs the better your overall system performance will be for most situations. Over clocking memory is very tricky and not for the novice over clocker. If you have DDR266 memory don’t expect it to run anywhere near DDR400 speeds just because you have a new motherboard. However, the performance increase going from DDR266 to DDR400 will be very noticeable if your CPU can take advantage of the increased memory bandwidth.

Also, buying a new motherboard and not getting one that can utilize DDR2 memory is a waste of money, IMO. DDR memory is being phased out and is currently way more expensive than DDR2 memory. If your current memory is rated at DDR266 then I wouldn’t buy another motherboard that supports DDR memory as this is technology that is fading quickly. It is unlikely that your DDR266 memory will over clock much higher than its rated speed.

#4

Thanks.

Well, the way I see it, the mobo that is hobbling along ATM and is getting worse on an hourly basis really does need to be retired, and if the jump from 266 to 400 is significant then I’ll do it (my RAM is actually 400 speed in a 266 board recently acquired since my better one fried). I only use my PC for multimedia and burning, not gaming so a gig of DDR400 and the 3GHz P4 will keep me happy for a few years.

£22 for a new mobo well spent IMO. Cheers again.

#5

In addition, during the DDR heyday, Intel’s Pentium 4 DDR chipsets didn’t officially support asynchronous memory operation greater than PCICLK (33.3MHz) faster than the processor’s clock speed (note that I mean actual clock speeds, not effective bandwidth, in this comparison). This means that if your Pentium 4 runs on a “400MHz” front-side bus (which is an actual 100MHz quad-pumped), Intel did not officially support running the actual memory clock faster than 133MHz (this corresponds to PC2100, or DDR266). Some motherboards with Intel chipsets allowed you to overclock your memory above the officially supported speed differential (this means DDR333/PC2700 memory on an FSB400 CPU, or DDR400/PC3200 memory on an FSB533 CPU) – but then, once you exceeded the 33.3MHz differential (after all, DDR400 memory runs at an actual clock speed that’s 66.7MHz higher than the FSB533 processor’s actual FSB clock speed), the system would become increasingly unstable.

On the other hand, Intel’s modern DDR2 and DDR3 chipsets allow asynchronous memory operation (in terms of the memory’s effective speed rating) up to the effective speed rating of the processor’s FSB (this means that an FSB533 CPU can run DDR2 memory up to DDR2-533 speed, or an FSB800 CPU can run DDR2 memory up to DDR2-800, or an FSB1066 CPU can run DDR2 or DDR3 memory up to DDR2-1066 or DDR3-1066).

#6

[QUOTE=groovemeister;2004287]Thanks.

Well, the way I see it, the mobo that is hobbling along ATM and is getting worse on an hourly basis really does need to be retired, and if the jump from 266 to 400 is significant then I’ll do it (my RAM is actually 400 speed in a 266 board recently acquired since my better one fried). I only use my PC for multimedia and burning, not gaming so a gig of DDR400 and the 3GHz P4 will keep me happy for a few years.

£22 for a new mobo well spent IMO. Cheers again.[/QUOTE]

If your current memory is DDR400 then I say get the motherboard. The increase in performance will be noticeable and it is a rather cheap performance upgrade.