with a 533 FSB cpu, what speed of ram would you use? I'm looking at Greenlyph's site and they only have pc3200 400mhz ram. So, does the mobo overclock this 400 ram, or does it use it at 400 and the processor not realize it's full potential?
I know with the older systems if you just down clock the faster of the 2 to macth the speed. I would assume that the newer system's do the same.
It is always better to have the FSB speed and RAM speed running the same. But sometimes people will run with a devider to run the RAM at a higher speed then the FSB. if your cpu is a 533 chances are it's running a 133MHz FSB. You could get the PC3200 but it will severely be underpowered unless your motherboard can support that speed of RAM.
Buy the fastest and best ram you can afford. It will always underclock. The board shoudl automatically select the best speed for it to run at. Then when you buy a new mobo you can always use yur ram in it. I run 200 mhz ram (3200) at 166mhz. It works fine and when I upgrade to a 3200xp+ (if i can ever find one in 6 months or so) I wont have to buy new ram. G.i.P Edit: I want to address the question a little further. In reality yur processor is running at 133 fsb. The processor then sends 4 packets of data per clock cycle so you get an effective speed of 533 (4 x 133). Your memory in order to be in sync with the fsb would then also run at 133mhz. DDR sends 2 bits of data per clock cycle so you get an effective speed of 266 out of yur ram. In reality both are running at 133 fsb. It is possible to run yur memory speed independant of yur fsb speed on some motherboards. Look in the bios. This will in some cases make the system faster but sometimes (as is the case on the nforce2 motherboards) it will actually make the system slower. You may be able to run yur memory at 166mhz (ddr 333mhz, or 2700) or even up to 200mhz ( ddr 400mhz, or 3200). If you do run yur memory faster the yur fsb do some benchmarking with something like sandra sisoft, or 3dmark AKA futuremark and make sure it is a gain and not a lose. In the end still go with my first suggestion buy the fastest ram you can get you wont save much money buying slower ram and it wont be as reusable later on down the road. Hope some of that makes sense. G.i.P
