upgrading memory

[ganonshin]

I am thinking about upgrading my memory from 512mb(333mhz) to 1gb(400mhz), and I wanted to know if my fsb would go up too.

At the moment it is at 167, so would it go upto 200?

If it did I would get 2300mhz out of my amd2600+, which is at 1921mhz at the moment. If it does not go up automatically could I put it up in the bios? I have not put it to 200fsb at the moment because it would not be in sync with my memory and I was told it had to be in sync.

Also would I need to get a bigger heatsink and fan if it did go up?

Thank you.

[ziba-june]

Your AMD 2600 FSB is 266MHZ, you can put any speed memory above 266MHZ and it would work but it's not going to improve performance. I am not sure how your motherboard is going to react with 400MHZ memory, different power consuption and one thing to think about , would you need 2 sticks of 400mhz memeory to work togather in your motherboard??

[ganonshin]

No my fsb is 167, thats what it says in the bios and with the core centre utility.

What do you mean I would not get any performance improvement? I must get some probably not in word etc, but I must do in some games.

Also I dont understand what you mean when you say, "I am not sure how your motherboard is going to react with 400MHZ memory", I know my motherboard can take 400mhz ddr ram, and when I upgrade I will probably buy 2 400mhz sticks and sell my 333mhz memory.

My motherboard is a MSI kt6 delta 6590, dont know if that helps.

Can you, (or anyone else), expand on your theories and touch on any of my other questions?

Thank you.

[ziba-june]

Since there was no mention of AMD 2600+ Barton I thought you have AMD 2600+ with 266fsb. My error.

www.amd.com (http://139.95.253.214/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=52,E=0000000000172601175,K=5817,Sxi=19,Case=ob j(1224))

[ski]

Installing faster RAM does not automatically increase your MB's FSB speed. Increasing the FSB speed has to be done manually in BIOS.
But you may not be able to increase your FSB speed, since Athlon CPU's are normally designed with 'locked' settings, i.e., each model will operate only at single specified FSB speed and multiplier, and changing either or both of these settings in BIOS will most likely result in a no display situation.
However, you can increase the 'DRAM Speed'(or similar) setting in BIOS from 167 MHZ to 200 MHZ for the 400 MHz memory. But doing this may adversely impact performance as the memory's speed(400 MHz) will now be out of synch with the FSB speed(333 MHz).

So if your MB is designed to run at a 200 MHz FSB speed and you want to install 400 MHz RAM and have everything running in synch, then you have to either upgrade to a 400 MHz Athlon(assuming your MB is compatible with them), or if possible 'unlock' your current CPU so that it can run at 200 MHz with a lower multiplier and thus operate at or near its design 1921 MHz.

Otherwise, just stick with the 333 MHz RAM.

[ganonshin]

mmmmm.... seems more complicated than I thought.

I thought my cpu fsb was at 167 to keep it in sync with my ram, meaning if I got 400mhz ram I could raise my cpu fsb.

I'm 99.9% sure my multiplier is locked not sure about cpu fsb though.

I did choose an option called Auto from within core centre, (its a utility that I downloaded from the MSI website), this utility was raiseing the fsb by it self it got to a number, (can't remember what), then the computer reset and it was back at 167 fsb. So maybe it is locked/maybe not, who knows?

I just wanted to get some more power out of my machine so it will be a bit better at games like doom3 and the upcoming half life 2.

Can anyone recommend anything else I could do?

Thank you and keep up the good work.

[ski]

In the center of the Core Center utility will be the FSB speed, the CPU's multiplier, and the CPU's speed.
They should be approx. 167 MHz, 11.5, and 1921 MHz, respectively.
Click the red triangle on the left side of the Control Center, click the radio button next to FSB, click the + button at the bottom until the FSB increases a few MHz to about 170 MHz, and click the OK button at the bottom to apply the change. If the 170 MHz setting gets applied, then click the Save button at the top. If 170 MHz gets saved as the new FSB speed setting, then your CPU is unlocked.
If 170 MHz does not get saved as the new FSB speed setting, and it reverts back to 167 MHz, then your CPU is locked.

If the CPU is unlocked, then in the 'Frequency Voltage Control' section in BIOS you can increase the 'CPU FSB Clock' setting to 200 MHz, and decrease the 'CPU Ratio' to a setting such that when these two values are multiplied they will not exceed the 1921 MHz design speed for the CPU.
If the CPU's design speed is exceeded, then you run the risk of reducing its life at best and immediately damaging it at worst. And you may also have to install a more powerful heatsink and cooling fan.

But if you simply want to run games more smoothly, then all that you may have to do is either add more 333 MHz RAM(512 MB is a little lean for current games running on a Win XP system, and 400 MHz RAM may not be that much faster than 333 MHz), and/or upgrade your video card.
BTW, which video card are you using?

[ganonshin]

I just tried upping my fsb to 170 like you said, when I pressed ok the mhz didn't go back down it went to 1955, then I pressed save and nothing happend. Then I tried an fsb of 175 and the mhz went upto 2012 I pressed save nothing happend. Then I thought i'd put it back to 167 and the mhz went back to 1920, I pressed save and nothing happend.

So it did accept the fsb rate and seeing as nothing happend when I pressed save even when I went back to 167fsb I think it isn't locked.

Then I went into the bios to see if I could change the cpu ratio. I changed it to 10 saved and exited, the screen went black and nothing happend. Then basically to cut a long story short I had to reset from the cmos jumper to get my computer back to default to boot to windows.

So does this mean I can't change my cpu ratio even though it gives me the option to? or does it mean I just can't change it to ten?

When I do upgrade my memory I think I have to have a pair of memory sticks so I might aswell buy 400mhz don't you think? As long as it will be compatible with my cpu that is.

If I have to get a larger heatsink and fan for my cpu I will, it won't be that dear will it? and it should be easy enough to put it in if I have instructions.

Can you or someone else help me out and/or give me pointers to the above?

Oh and my graphics card is a ati radeon 9800 pro.

Thank you.

ps. If anyone wants to recommend a cpu heatsink and fan it must be from a website from the UK seeing as I live there, tah.

[ski]

It certainly appears that you cannot change your CPU's ratio. To make sure, you can try a value other than 10, but less than 11.5.
However, I have a feeling that you will end up resetting CMOS again. My system also uses an Athlon CPU, and the same thing happened when I tried to change its ratio in BIOS.

WRT the FSB speed, did you check the value for 'CPU FSB Clock' in the 'Frequency Voltage Control' section in BIOS to see if it also changed when you changed the FSB speed in Control Center?
If it did not change, then your CPU is apparently locked.
This means that your CPU's FSB speed will run at 167 MHz, and the new DDR400 SDRAM's speed will be out of synch at 200 MHz which may actually result in a performance reduction when compared to the old RAM running in synch at 167 MHz. Of course, you can always run the DDR400 at 167 MHz, but you will probably end up paying more for it vs. DDR333.
Also your manual states that either 1, 2, or 3 RAM modules can be installed, which means they do not have to be installed in pairs.

If the 'CPU FSB Clock' value changed in BIOS when you changed the FSB speed in Control Center, then you can apparently adjust the CPU's FSB speed, but not the CPU Ratio.
But this means that in order to attain max performance by running the CPU's FSB speed and the DDR400 SDRAM's speed in synch, you will have to run the CPU at 2300 MHz(11.5 x 200 MHz), and your system may not boot at best, or the CPU may get damaged at worst, even with a higher capacity heatsink and fan.
In this situation, you may have to install a 200 MHz CPU if you want to get max performance from the DDR400 SDRAM.

The following link shows the Radeon 9800 Pro video card to be a top notch performer:
http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/index.html
Are you getting choppy gameplay with low frame rates?
If so, did you try reducing the games' settings, resolution, color depth, and disabling antialiasing and anisotropic filtering?