Is purchasing a CPU with an 800MHz FSB pointless to run on a board that is limited to DDR333. I am looking at getting the latest 3.2GHz CPU with an 800MHz FSB instead of a 3.06GHz CPU with a 533MHz FSB. Am I really gaining much of anything since theoretically the FSB is bottlenecking at the DDR333 SDRAM?
At an fsb of 133, your "3.2" gig cpu would become a 2.1 gig unit. You might be able to overclock the chipset, if it isn't an intel board. To get close to the normal speed of the processor would take a 50% overclock of the fsb. You could not do that with ddr333 unless you set the divider. DDR400 would be better, as then the fsb and ram would be syncronous. Some of the 7205 boards have had good success running at 200mhz fsb. Tom's has a good article in the cpu section. If you want to try, I would suggest you start with that article. In other words though, while it is doable for someone with experience, it would be a real chalenge to anyone who has never overclocked before.
On the other hand the IS7-E by Abit, is a good quality 200fsb mobo at a very resonable price. ($99. at newegg)
The board is limited to DDR333.
Are you sure it supports the 800MHz FSB processors?
Memory can be clocked higher than the FSB, but not the other way around. Otherwise your memory wouldn't be able to sync with the rest of your system. I haven't looked at the new boards in the market lately, but a board that supports a higher FSB (200MHz) than memory clock speed (166MHz) doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe you should look that over, first.
In case that wasn't clear:
Intel's 800MHz FSB is quad pumped, so you get an actual 200MHz FSB x 4.
DDR333 transmits twice a clock cycle, so you actually get 166MHz x 2.
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I am actually considering HP's ZD7000 laptop and I am pretty sure that it is only capable of handling DDR333, yet they offer the 3.2GHz CPU w/ FSB800 like they're doing the consumer some kind of favor. I think I will just stay with the 3.06GHz CPU w/ FSB533 and get some extra DDR333 RAM with the extra money.
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