memory speed

[DoomUK]

OK, thanks for clearing that up.

So, what AMD 64 MoBo's in particular feature IMC? And also when are Intel supposed to be releasing 64-bit CPU's?

EDIT:

Actually, you can run memory at a faster speed than your FSB without any problems

How does this work?

 

[Nubius]

Actually, you can run memory at a faster speed than your FSB without any problems, however the best thing to do is to run your memory at the same speed as your FSB.

This is correct, best scenario I can tell you to explain how it works is as follows. I had a 2400+ XP chip, it's FSB is only 266 (which is PC2100 RAM Speeds) I had a PC2700 stick and a PC3200 Stick. My computer would automatically overclock my PC2700 to the PC3200 speeds but technically even the PC2700 was faster than my CPU. So you see in my case my RAM was running faster than my CPU, but then again my CPU had a real low FSB. I don't know what kind of effects you'd get with 400FSB and then trying to raise your RAM past those speeds.

 

[Comparisonman]

Basically, there should be a setting in the BIOS where you set the memory bus speed. Usually, it's in the same place where you set the CPU FSB.

 

[DoomUK]

OK, I've learned a few new things here, so let me go over this and get this right (please correct me if I'm wrong):-

With non-IMC MoBo's, the CPU connects to the Northbridge chip (the bandwidth of this being the FSB) which in turn controls the RAM, AGP slot and the Southbridge chip, which in turn controls basiclly everything else: PCI slots, IDE, SATA, PS/2...

I know that you can manually set your memory frequency, but what I want to know, if the above is correct, is how your RAM can run at a higher frequency than your FSB?

 

[Comparisonman]

Yes, that sounds about right. Although some CPUs have direct access to the memory, such as the Opteron.