DDR333 or DDR400?

[scxxx]

I am puting toghether a new system using my old and buying some new pieces, the new ones are:

A7N8X Deluxe ATX
Athlon XP 2500 Thoroughbred
GeForce FX5200 128MB
Barracuda SATA V 80GB

I have read some website reviews showing benchmarks with better performance when using DDR333 over the DDR400. Furthermore, any recomendations on the amount of RAM and the brand of the sticks?

 

[jlanka]

can you post a link to the website you're talking about?

Anyway, I'd go with DDR400. Not sure what they mean by "performs better" but the 400 can be underclocked to 333 and is also available for default or overclocking if desired.

As always, the majority opinion is Crucial XMS for best performer.

For Windows XP, 512 (2x256) is pretty much required.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[pIII_Man]

crucial xms? prolly just a typo but i'd love to see that
about that reveiw they may have been running the memory asynchronosly (diffrent speed than Fsb) and this can result in worse performance with some chipsets i would get 2x256 or 2x512 depending on your budget although currently very few applications require 1gb of mem, but there is always future proofing...

 

[Balderdash]

If you're going to overclock the CPU (I think the thouroughbred is 266? and the barton is 333?) then go with the DDR that runs the speed you plan on overclocking to so that you don't need to overclock your RAM and CPU to get synchronized FSB's.

 

[scxxx]

Since T-Bred runs at 266 and Barton runs at 333, that means that DDR400 is out of the question? For mortals like me?

And, then today there is not such gain in having DDR400? And in my case, with a T-Bred 2.5Gb that runs at 266, I should buy PC2100 that runs at 266, right? Perhaps is useful let you know that I am not into overclocking.

 

[Balderdash]

If you are not overclocking - nor upgrading real soon to a new cpu in this mainboard any time soon...

The tech spec sheet about duelDDR configuration (.pdf file) at nvidia.com says you 'should' run 2 DDR chips (one in slot 3 andthe other wherever you want) and both (or 3 if you want) should be set at the same fsb speed as your CPU's fsb. Doing what they called synchronized.

They said it would be faster if both RAMfsb and CPUfsb's run at the same speed than if you tried to overclocked one or the other then tried to run your system in a asynchrinized form. So, make sure you know the fsb speed of your CPU (I think it's 266, if it is, then buy pc2100 RAM) so that they both match by default in your system.

 

[jlanka]

oh yeah, duh. I meant Corsair. I always confuse the 2, I guess because they both start with C.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[jlanka]

all RAM can be underclocked without a problem.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[pIII_Man]

exactly, it is a good idea in my opinion to get a faster ram, just to support upgrades and overclocks in the future...in the mean time you can underclock it and run very hot timmings...