Motherboard & Memory

[JerrLazo]

When a motherboard manufacturer, like Shuttle, and the board AN51R, lists that the max speed memory for the board is PC3200 (DDR400), does that mean that the board will not support using the faster ram, like some PC4000, just for example? I can't seem to find anywhere where someone talks about this. I am just looking to put in the best ram for future overclocking potential.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Jerry

 

[Crashman]

Imagine the speed limit in your state is 70MPH. Now imgagine you went to a dealership and tried out several of the same model of economy car. The first went 80MPH, the second 85MPH, and the third 90MPH. The difference might be one had tighter bearings (more heat), one may have had more miles (broke in better), and another might have had a better finish on the cylinder walls. It wouldn't be that uncommon to find such variance on cheap cars. But all will do 70MPH at a certain RPM level.

Now, say a tuner custom built a special version of the car where everything was nearly perfect, and it went 100MPH. But still using the same transaxle, it went 70MPH at the same RPM as all the other cars.

This is the situation with RAM as well. All the super-fast DDR RAM you find is PC3200. Some of it just tested better so they rated it higher. Some of it was specially prepared to run even faster. But it still runs PC3200 speed when the bus is set at DDR400.

Just like all those cars run properly on the same highway, all that RAM runs properly on the same boards. It's all recognised as PC3200 by the system.

Faster RAM generally requires additional voltage to reach it's highest rated speed. It should still run PC3200 speed at stock voltage.

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[Cybercraig]

The board will run it at DDR-400 speeds but if you cannot run at DDR-500 speeds you will be wasting it. Check the motherboard BIOS thoroughly for the options to increase the buss speed. Don't have any? Don't buy PC4000.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

 

[JerrLazo]

Ok, so in you two's opinion, it would be better for me just to try to get some low latency ddr-400, then to try to exceed the boards specifications, for overclocking.

I appreciate the advice.

Thanks; Jerry Lazo

"Be excellent to each other" Rufus
- Bill & Ted's -