Ram Speed & motherboard compatibility

[Maxspeed996]

I'm upgrading the Ram on my mobo. (Asus P4P 800-E Deluxe) And I'm looking at upgrading from two 512 sticks of Kingston PC3200 to some PQI Turbo 1 gig x2 sticks of dual channel DDR533 (PC4200). My motherboards manual says that it is DDR400 standard which is what I'm running now , but will the new stuff be compatible with my board. Everything I've ever read about memory and how it works tells me that it will just run at the maximum supported speed. Is that the case here? SOMEONE HELP ME!!!

 

[jimbob200521]

i would say yes, it would work. ive had many, many asus boards in the past, and the memory i have put in them has always worked. they dont seem to be very picky with memory speeds

 

[Maxspeed996]

Will I notice a difference in performance with the jump from 1- gig (2x512) to 2-gig (2x1gig) dual channel. Will there be that much difference going to Dual Channel , and is a CAS Latency of 3 a decent number? Timings are listed as 3-3-3-8. I'm not an overclocker so will that be decent for my new MOBO?

 

[jimbob200521]

you should notice a diff when doing some games, but not all. games like bf2, doom lll, quake 4, games like that should notice a little diff, but mainly in loading. there are many other threads on memory size vs performance, so try searching for that if you want more info.

the times you listed are pretty good timings, mine are similay, 2.5-3-3-10, i believe. its been a while since ive looked.

as for the change to dual channel memory, someone else will have to comment on this, as ive never ran with single channel ram.

 

[scott0482]

it depends on your specific board.. it probably doesn't "officially" support memory at that speed, but you can probably set the memory to that speed.. someone with that specific board would be able to tell you for sure..

for the money, i would reccomend this ram however.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231032

i don't know how it overclocks though.. with an intel it generally would be better to do 250 @ 3-4-4 than 200 @ 2-3-3..

 

[Maxspeed996]

That makes me think now about something else. I've got a P4 2.4 533 fsc processor and the gig of pc3200 ram.
My Mobo will support 800/533 fsb
so if I get the new ram the 2 gigs of DDR533(pc4200) I would be good for upgrading to a better processor that has a FSB of 800 mhz. So I guess I just answered my own question.
Problem is , do I want to drop another $200 in a processor for a 478 socket motherboard? Or would I do better to save money for one of the newer LGA775 boards with PCI-E ?

 

[jimbob200521]

if you can afford it, you should notice a nice performance gain in not only games, but reg use, as well (depending on what you do, multitasking will certainly gain).

also, if you decide to upgrade, would the question be to save the money for a new LGA775 board, or switch to amd and get a socket 939?

lol, either way, amd or intel, performance will improve a good amount.