motherboard memory speed limit?

[DC9884]

I currently have a ASUS A7N266-E nForce 420-D motherboard with some flawed ram in it. PC133mhz. I looked in the manual and it does not list any ram speed limitations. If i bought PC3200 400mhz ram or similar, would it funciton at 400mhz (or max speed), function at the motherboards maximum, or just not work at all? (Buying because the comp crashes randomly and each time its a RAM error and i ran the windows memory diagnostic and it reported 16 errors.)
Thanks in advance.

Windows XP SP2
AMD Athalon XP 1800+ ~1532Mhz

 

[Reaktor4]

It should automatically run at 133mhz in sync with your processor.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

with that proc and mobo, ddr400 could run at 266 or 200 b/c your fsb is 266/200. you could probably OC it though, but i'm not sure how much you'd get. ddr400 would be ok to get though, b/c if you upgrade soon, it'll still be good memory.

 

[Reaktor4]

with that proc and mobo, ddr400 could run at 266 or 200 b/c your fsb is 266/200. you could probably OC it though, but i'm not sure how much you'd get. ddr400 would be ok to get though, b/c if you upgrade soon, it'll still be good memory.

his fsb is 133/266.. and if the memory is not in sync you will most likely have performance problems

 

[Lil' Timmy]

his fsb is 133/266.. and if the memory is not in sync you will most likely have performance problems

technically, the fsb is 100/200-133/266. but yeah, since it's an nforce board, it would incur some penalties from async clocks. but he could clock the mem down, right? it'd still be a better invesment for the future.

 

[Reaktor4]

technically, the fsb is 100/200-133/266.

ahh ok i get what you meant now (you meant the supported speeds by the mobo right?)

but yeah, since it's an nforce board, it would incur some penalties from async clocks. but he could clock the mem down, right?

id imagine it would happen automatically

it'd still be a better invesment for the future.

yep

 

[Lil' Timmy]

ahh ok i get what you meant now (you meant the supported speeds by the mobo right?)

yup.

id imagine it would happen automatically

not sure. i've seen default bios settings that have mem running at the rated max speed.. but maybe. i'd definitely check in the bios regardless.

 

[DC9884]

thanks....
so assuming the BIOS (AWARD 6.0 v1.004) downclocks it 200 or 266, will it run fine? Or will i incur performance problems like reaktor said? Right now the CPU/Mem frequency ratio is 1:1. The only other selctable option is 4:3. The basic question is, if i buy the 400mhz (i know it will be downclocked) will i have problems? or should i hunt for older 200mhz or 266mhz ram?

 

[DC9884]

technically, the fsb is 100/200-133/266. but yeah, since it's an nforce board, it would incur some penalties from async clocks.

Do you mean synced RAM and processor clocks? I.E. 200 or 266mhz ram? What do you mean by penalties?

 

[Lil' Timmy]

Do you mean synced RAM and processor clocks? I.E. 200 or 266mhz ram? What do you mean by penalties?

since the max fsb on that mobo is 266mhz, you want your ram to be running at 266 also. you can get ddr400, which can ru as fast as 400mhz, but you don't want to run it at 400, since that would be out of sync with the fsb.

you should be able to clock ddr400 down to 266 (underclocking). which would be better than getting some 266 mhz ddr (ddr 2100), b/c it'd be better if you upgrade your proc/mobo later on (and then you reset it back to the native ddr 3200 [400mhz]).