memory confusion

[noremacyug]

i have a nf-7 mobo and am wondering what memory will give me the best performance. i currently have two sticks of 256k kingston pc2700. i had originally planned on purchasing pc3200 but was told that 3200 would do no better on my systerm. i have a barton 2500+xp. the way it was explained to me was that since my processor only supports a 333fsb then my mobo and ram would give me no greater performance if they had a fsb of 400 because of the processor. they said that if my processor ran at 400 as well then ok, but since it only runs at 333 it would give me no advantage to use the faster memory. is this true? i hope im making this understandable. what im getting at is if i got some new ram that supported a 400fsb will that benefit me?


thanks for your time and help

[Violator]

You will only benefit from having faster memory if your FSB can match it. Say for example you are running a 166(333)FSB as standard for your Barton, you would match that with PC2700 memory.

If however, you had a CPU with a default FSB of 200(400), or you were planning on overclocking your Barton, you would benefit from PC3200 memory.

Anything above 200FSB and you would want either some good PC3200 or PC3500.

Since AMD systems run best with the FSB and memory running synchronously, you will see absolutely no benefit in getting faster memory unless you plan on raising your FSB higher than 166.

I hope that clarifies it a little.

[noremacyug]

yeah.... that helps quite a bit.

thanks

[dragon69]

Also watch what make of memory you get for this board. As it depends witch version of the memmory controller IC you have on the board, depends what makes you can get pc3200 to run at ddr400 mode. I have twinmos dual channel kit running happly yet a mate piked up one of these boards with a different version mem controller on it that refused to run my twinmos sticks at ddr400, only a decent make like crucial would run at ddr 400.