Mobo, CPU, RAM compatibility question

gallois wrote on 10/5/2003, 3:36 PM

I'm trying to find out what the most efficient combination of motherboard, CPU, and RAM is. So far my choice is:

Asus A7N8X
AMD XP2700+
1024Mb. (2x512) ddr400 PC3200 RAM (probably Corsair)

I've seen several conflicting accounts of whether or not you can mix a 333fsb cpu with 400fsb RAM without incurring one or all of the following:

a.) creating a bottleneck and degrading performance
b.) causing the RAM to run at the CPU speed, or
c.) causing databus errors

Can anybody shed any light on this? I like the speed to price ratio of the XP2700 and would like to know if there's any benefit of running it with PC3200 RAM.

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 10/5/2003, 10:10 PM

here's something that i've learned: DO NOT mix bus speeds. only creats problems. If you want to get the fast RAM because maybe someday you'll get a 400mhz buss AMD, go ahead. But keep it at 333.

i haven't had any good luck mixing bus speeds (except when I had a cyrix 486dx2-80mhz(40mhz bus) and 8mb 33mhz ram. That ran good.).