Explain RAM speed vs comp speed for oc purposes

[Gryzandor]

Hello all,

I am quite a greenhorn in the field of hardware here, but hopefully im learning fast. I have purchased a new comp at the cost of handing the family jewels to the wife when she found out the cost. Comp specs listed:
AMD Athlon XP+ 1900, Heat Sink and Fan
Socket A Asus A7V266-E KT266A, 5 PCI, 6 USB, UDMA/100, 4X AGP, 3 DIMM, Sound
1,536 Mb PC-2100 266MHz DDR SDRAM **Note - 3 DIMM Motherboards Only**
100.0 GB UDMA/100 7200RPM Western Digital 8Mb Cache
56X CD-ROM
Hercules 3D Prophet III 64Mb GeForce3 AGP DVI/TV out
Hercules Maxi Sound Game Theatre XP
Dual Speakers with Volume Control
56k V.90 Data/Fax/Voice Modem
3Com 3C905B-TX 10/100 PCI Network Card
Windows XP Home w/CD
Mid Tower NexGen ATX Case 300w Power Supply, One Case Fan
1 addtional case fan added per buyer
17in. KDS VS-7P .24mm 1280x1024 Monitor
Microsoft Internet Keyboard
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical
3.5in. Floppy Disk Drive
1-year depot repair with toll-free 9 AM to 6 PM Mon - Fri support
$2,423.00

My question is this:
Exactly how is the ram speed figured? PC 2100 vs. 1600 or 2400 i have heard is coming out now? I know that the fsb x multiplier x processor = comp speed , but i have also read that raising the fsb will obviously raise the operating speed of everything on the mobo. Mainly, i have read that the agp or pci, (cant remember which) has to run at 33. So if i up the fsb multiplier in the bios (award on this mobo) which i intend to do, i have to reduce the said chipset for stability. I guess in short, if i increase the fsb by say a safe 5%, will i need to change settings for other things so as not to cause flakiness? Thanx for any help. Greenhorn lookin for knowledge

Steve

[jstnomega]

well, ya gota start somewhere, might as well be here http://www.lostcircuits.com/advice/bios2/1.shtml then check out the links to 'memory'

[RADAR1797]

Gryzandor,

Wow, man is that going to be a sweet set up (drooling), but what are yo going to be doing with it? I know TIMO ECCp team would welcome your new horsepower

Ok, to your questions after my shameless plug. PCI bus runs at 33 MHz right now, but there are MBs that have a newer version able to do 66 MHz. This I need to read more on, but I think if you plug any 33 MHz PCI cards into one of these neat 66 MHz boards, everything on that bus defaults to 33 MHz. Of course this is chipset implementation dependent.

AGP runs at 66 MHz default. 2X AGP runs at 66 MHz, but sends data on the rising and falling edge of each clock cycle, effectively doubling the data rate, 4X manages to squeeze 4 bits per cycle on each data line.

PC1600 has roughly 1.6 GB/s of bandwidth using 100 MHz FSB
PC2100 has roughly 2.1 GB/s of bandwidth using 133 MHz FSB
PC2400 has roughly 2.4 GB/s of bandwidth using 150 MHz FSB
PC2700 has roughly 2.7 GB/s of bandwidth using 166 MHz FSB

The bandwidth numbers are not exact, but more for marketing. I would suggest either Crucial RAM (conviently there is a link at the top of the page) or Corsaire. I have two sticks of Corsaire PC2400 256 MB and they are running happily at 167 MHz. Hope that covered most of it.

-RADAR

[simbob]

Originally Posted by RADAR1797

Gryzandor,

Wow, man is that going to be a sweet set up (drooling), but what are yo going to be doing with it? I know TIMO ECCp team would welcome your new horsepower

-RADAR

HAHAHA lol @ this thread