Help about a new system needed

[C0rn_Flex]

I'm not sure I'm right, but if I get:
AMD Athlon
KT400 Board
and PC3200 400mhz DDR

It's a waste of the memory? please tell me if it's right or wrong and explain why.

Thanks!

 

[slvr_phoenix]

The following is to my knowledge, which admittedly is limited by the fact that I don't actually own a KT400 chipset mobo or DDR400 RAM.

<b>IF</b> you can get CAS2 DDR400 <b>and</b> you can convince your motherboard to actually run it at CAS2, then you're halfway there.

Even then though, you also have to up the FSB to 200MHz. (Or 400MHz for those who like to believe marketting.) You'll also probably have to unlock your Athlon to lower the multiplier to keep the clock from going insanely high.

And, of course, if you're going that far, you might as well water cool the bloody thing and overclock it to squeeze as much performance out of it as you can.

<b>Then</b> it'll all be worth the extra money.

For the less extreme, using CAS2 DDR333 and a FSB of 166/333 is easier. You might not even have to unlock the CPU to achive that if you can pick out just the right CPU to use.

Otherwise, it pretty much is a waste of money. There might be a minor performance gain noticed because:
1) The KT400 chipset might be tweaked a tiny bit bitter than the KT333 chipset.
2) The decreased latency and increased bandwidth without the FSB raising will still probably make a tiny difference to an Athlon.

Even then though, the performance gains will more than likely only be noticable by benchmarking and you would be completely oblivious to them during normal usage.

So is getting DDR400 a complete waste of money? It all depends on how you use it and how much you really expected to get from it.

<pre><A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/186.htm" target="_new"><font color=red>It's all relative...</font color=red></A></pre><p>

 

[C0rn_Flex]

Thanks for the answer, I finally understood!
How high do u think I could OC the FSB?

 

[slvr_phoenix]

That, unfortunately, I don't really know. I'd suggest looking to some overclocking sites to get an idea. That, or ask around here.

Theoretically, so long as you drop the multiplier to lower the the overall clock speed down to the same as what it was sold to you as when you increase the FSB, then the AXP is <i>supposed</i> to be able to run at a 200/400MHz FSB without flaw.

Realisticly (especially with the first Thoroughbred core) this <i>might</i> not be true of all AXPs. I haven't OCed AXPs enough to really know what you can expect it to do. Others around here probably have though. Hopefully one of them will be able to speak up and confirm or deny the working theory that I've portrayed.

<pre><A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/186.htm" target="_new"><font color=red>It's all relative...</font color=red></A></pre><p>

 

[markgun]

I can clock a 172MHz FSB w/ old CrucialPC2100 (at more lax timings), KT333 chipset(MSIKT3 Ultra with a 1/5PCI bus divider) and an AXP1600+(AGOIA-Y). If you drop the multiplier on your chip, have good ram, and a mobo w/ a 1/6PCI bus divider, I don't see why you couldn't hit a 200MHz FSB. Also, I haven't seen a AGOIA-Y or AROIA-Y AXP1600+ that couldn't hit at least 1.75GHz(~2100+). It may not be a northwood overclock, it surely isn't bad for a $60 proc.

 

[markgun]

Make sure you get damn good ram too. My proc clocked at 1.53GHz (10.5 x 146MHz FSB) with the RAM at the fastest timings performs on par with my system at 1.8GHz (10.5 x 172MHz FSB) with the RAM at more lax timings. I want to upgrade my RAM, but I'm tired of dishing out money and only noticing a difference in benchmarks scores. The Samsung PC2700 is supposed to overclock extremely well if you get the CTL version, the DTL supposedly can't even run 166MHz at the max timings.

 

[C0rn_Flex]

Right, so I guess I'm going fot the PC2700 C2 memory, because I want to leave me some space for overclocking if I might use it.
Now...
1. I'm thinking of going for the Corsair XMS, do u have any other suggestions?
2. What's better, getting 2 * 256MB OR 1 * 512MB?

Thanks!

 

[Crashman]

172MHz FSB, that's LIGHTENING SPEED! You must have the LATEST hardware to get that! LoL, check the background screenshot at <A HREF="http://www.crashman.dns2go.com" target="_new">http://www.crashman.dns2go.com</A>

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[markgun]

whoa whoa, enough facetiousness. I never said it was <b> LIGHTENING SPEED! </b>

 

[Kzzrn]

If I were you, DON'T OVERCLOCK. It voids the warrenty on every part in your system.

Knowledge is the key to understanding

 

[Crashman]

Just making a point for the original poster to see that you don't need the latest chipset to get to 166MHz FSB.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[markgun]

Sorry, I didn't check your link before I posted. My bad.

 

[Crashman]

Nah, you just got caught off guard, I have a habbit of doing that to people.

<font color=blue>You're posting in a forum with class. It may be third class, but it's still class!</font color=blue>

 

[MeldarthX]

I would be look at something like this

AMD Athlon
Nforce2
PC3200 400 DDR from corsair.....*G*

Via chipsets have generally have had lower performance when they wer first released.

I have seen both KT400 and Nforce 2 in action and the Nforce 2 is impressive. KT400 has a lot of good features also, but it couldn't quite keep up with the Nforce 2.

I also like the unified drivers for the Nforce boards. One set of drivers it doesn't matter who you buy your board from. The set of drivers from nvidia will run all of them.


MeldarthX

 

[C0rn_Flex]

excuse me but everyone else insists that PC3200 gives you nothing if you don't overclock... *blush*

 

[C0rn_Flex]

I'm lost...
I was thinking about AMD Processor, Gigabyte Mother Board and DDR Memory.

But what's the best thing a gamer can have? (P4? AMD? RDRAM? DDR?)
what's the best combination?

 

[MeTaLrOcKeR]

RIGHT NOW.....

P4 2.53GHz Processor
ABIT IT7
512MB of PC-1066 RDRAM
ATI Radeon 9700pro

thats ur absolute best combination........

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=13597" target="_new">-MeTaL RoCkEr</A>