[avalix]

Hi all. I just got a DFI UT lan party NF4 SLi expert board and i was hoping you could help me with a few things about putting ram in it.

FIrstly in the manual it says the board can only support DDR400 ram maximum. now i was hoping to try and overclock it later on when i got all the bits so i was woundering does buying a higher speed ram that could overclock better be useless as it only supports 200MHz. What about if the memory is overclocked over 200MHz, does this mean this cant be done :S

Also can someone clarify this phrase about dual channel memory. it says:

"when using 4 identical double side DIMMs or using 2 DIMMs in non-dual channels, the memory speed will reduce to DDR 333"

does this mean that if i intend to but DDR400 ram it will be wasted?

Thanks for any help you can offer

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You might read this on ovefclocking some Crucial DDR400 ram.

http://www.extremeov...l_PC3200_1.html

The reason that the bios sets the memory to ddr333 in certain conditions is simply because the chipset instructions that controls memory were designed like that. The design is that in dual channel mode it can run in the 5/6 to the processors 333 bus speed. So that the memory does not get too hot and start causing errors the MB maker sets the ratio to change to "BY SPD". By spd just means the memory runs at the processors bus speed. The MB makers have tested this and they don't want people sending the mb's back to them just because the memory overheats.

SRX660

[SRX660]

You might read this on ovefclocking some Crucial DDR400 ram.

http://www.extremeov...l_PC3200_1.html

The reason that the bios sets the memory to ddr333 in certain conditions is simply because the chipset instructions that controls memory were designed like that. The design is that in dual channel mode it can run in the 5/6 to the processors 333 bus speed. So that the memory does not get too hot and start causing errors the MB maker sets the ratio to change to "BY SPD". By spd just means the memory runs at the processors bus speed. The MB makers have tested this and they don't want people sending the mb's back to them just because the memory overheats.

SRX660

[avalix]

Thanks for that, but i still need a bit of clarification about my first point. lol ill try and explain it a bit better, i wrote my first post in a bit of a rush =P

ok well my new mother board says that it can run a maximum Pc3200 DDR400 RAM. now if i understand right this measn that the maxium bus speed is 400mhz without overclocking ram or changing ratio etc.

Ok i was woundering what happenes when you use faster ram, like PC 4000 DDR500. if i overclock the processor to a speed that requires the ram speed higher then 400Mhz, will the motherboard be able to use it? or will it only be able to work at 400Mhz even though the ram can go higher?

Also if i was to overclock the ram, say from 400mhz to 410 (or something that 400+) is it the same as before. Will the motherboard ignore the extra speed/not work and only use it at 400 or will it be able to use the extra speed.

I hope i explained that ok. This is my first major system build an i want it to be perfect =)

[SRX660]

Thsi webpage shows what you can do with a athlon and a intel system by running PC4000 ram and overclocking . Both these systems are supposed to run PC3200 ram.

http://www.pcstats.c...eid=1700&page=2

Notice that the athlon did not increase the processor speed but the bus speed increased to 251, increasing the total bus to over 500 MHZ, which is where the PC4000 runs at. This resulted in a faster computer. The intel did even better with a faster processor speed of 30% higher and a bus speed of 262.

SRX660

[avalix]

Ok. thanks for that site. from looking at this, i gather that my board can indeed run higher speed ram then it says. heh that ballistix mermory look quite nice as well, might have to get some. Blinking lights are always good =)

Thanks SRX660 for clearing things up for me =)

Edited by avalix, 07 April 2006 - 08:31 PM.