Athalon 2000 to 2600 upgrade worthwhile?

OK Ladies and gentlemen, now we seem to all be on the same page.

But the question remains, is the PC2700 memory not the optimal memory for the Athalon 2800 CPU and the VIA KT400 chipset? This is what I was reading on the Crucial site:

"DDR266 refers to the effective front-side bus speed of your system. (my insert, they are talking generalities not "my system ") While your DDR system or motherboard may operate a 133MHz front-side bus, its effective front-side bus speed is 266MHz because DDR effectively doubles the amount of data transferred per cycle that a non-DDR system would.

The same holds true for PC2700 (DDR333) which has a bandwidth of 2.7GB/sec and is designed for use in systems and motherboards which require a 166MHz front-side bus, with an effective front-side bus speed of 333MHz.

PC3200 DDR (DDR400) has a bandwidth of 3.2GB/sec and is designed for use in systems and motherboards which require a 200MHz front-side bus with an effective front-side bus speed of 400MHz. "

In Crucial's memory recomendations they recomend PC3200.

When I was running the Athalon 2000, I was able to select 400MHz in BIOS, and my POST reported:

Memory clock is: 200MHz (DDR400MHz)

Now I am getting 166 & 333 respectively, and the selection for 400 is gone from BIOS. Maybe because of BIOS flash which set the correct BIOS? The Probable cause of all of those BSODs???

Here is one more question: I have BIOS set to use 4 Bank interleave. Aida says: "Interleave supported 1" Do I need to reset to 0 interleave?

When I run Aida's memory benchmarks, this machine scores very low in comparison to other similar machines/boards/chipsets. Which is why I'm curious and confused.

Martin

 

Hi Martinr121,

"It is always a battle between budget and desire. That's why I'm not driving a Mercedes. The budget overcomes desire. "

I say, "buy the Mercedes ".

That's what you're doing anyway, upgrading your computers when they don't need it, and having had a mercedes myself, I know what i'd choose.

Mike

 

Yeah Mike, but spending $500. on a computer upgrade and buying an $80,000. Mercedes, I dunno. Maybe a slight difference?

Martin

 

Rehi, martinr121,
You're correct up to a point - a new mercedes would last longer!
Mike

 

Martin - not to be deceived, your Soyo MoBo won't run PC3200 at 400 MHZ. Read a couple of the Soyo forums or check out Soyo's own website. I was very disappointed when I learned this a while back. Best you're going to get is PC2700 performance. Bummer, because the chipset should handle it -

 

Here's specifications from Soyo:

http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=128

http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=16

http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=176

Looks to me like it will happily run DDR400 RAM, but only at 333mHz FSB. Therefore nothing to be gained by changing to PC3200 (Hope this is right. I'm trying to get my head around FSB speeds myself....and please anyone, feel free to fill in the blank parts of my head ).

Matt

 

Mattman, Rockster: Sure looks like no gain from 3200, what a shame. Bright side: Just saved some $.

But you got to watch out, Crucial recommends 3200 for this board. which is where I got the idea of upgrade in the first place after poor benchmarks for Aida32.

If I can scrap together some $ in the future, I'll just add more 2700. That's got to help the video processing times.

I think for now, I've gone about as far as I can go with this board speed wise, so next build I'll be looking for a faster board, probably with a Nvidia chip set.

Martin

 

Now you're talking - thats just the path that I have taken. In fact, I'm about to rework the particular machine I have setup with the same Soyo MB - its getting a DFI Lan Party II with the NVidia chipset. Now that puppy (DFI) will run a 2500+ at 400mhz with no mods - effective performance of 3200+. (Been very happy with the machine I've already got set up that way, and have an extra DFI board sitting around.)

I too followed your same thinking and put 1024MB of Corsair XMS in my Soyo 400 before learning that it would only run at 333mhz bus - very disappointed just because I was expecting more. Have also heard that it won't take three sticks of memory (not that I was going to use all 3, but ...)

Will recycle and use the Soyo for my wife, who is over-due for something a bit faster.

 

Hey Rockster, way to go. My son and daughter get the handmedowns from the upgrades to this machine. Makes me feel less guilty about the $.

Wife computes at work, doesn't want to look at a machine at home. Has refused my offers to build her one of her own.

Got a question on the Soyo Dragon board. When I ran Aida 32 last time, I saw this: "Bank interleave supported 1" What's up with that?

Of course I have mine set to 4, which we had discussed months ago and I don't see any reason to change it.

Martin

P.S. Have not seen a BSOD since reflashing the BIOS All that aggrevation for such a stupid mistake. Makes me feel like an idiot.

 

I'll have to look at Aida32 and find out what (1) means but I'd concur with your thinking on leaving the interleave setting the way you have it. best info on memory and BIOS is the second link that mattman gave you in that other thread - best single source I've seen anywhere and I find myself going there any time I am looking for an answer.

Regards,


oh yeah, back in Georgia again ........

 

Hey Rockster: Welcome to the Peach state. Here to check out the Georgia Peaches? I saw a few 10+s last week.

Thanks for the update on Mattman's links. Let me know what you find out about the 1 thing in Aida.

Martin