"Victor" said:
I intend to upgrade my existing memory to the fastest DDR allowed and cpu to
a 3200 400mhz. TIA.
Sure.
Look through some of the popular review sites, for the latest
articles on memory bandwidth and latency, to see what kind of
products are available, and what results they give. Anandtech
has another article, as a matter of fact.
Also, check the private forums like abxzone or nforcershq, for
typical max memory bus clock speeds achieved, to see what is the
best fit in terms of the memory you buy.
If you find, for example, that the max FSB used is 220MHz, then
running the bus in sync and using some PC3500 would be a good
fit, because it will generally have better timing numbers than
_some_ of the faster memories. If you really think the Nforce2
can go faster than that, then buy PC3700 and so on.
When you buy a PC4000 memory, it is being "binned" based on
max clock frequency, and not on the timing numbers, which are
loosened to 3-4-4-8. "Clock rate is king" but if you cannot
get to the necessary frequency, there is no sense sacrificing
low latency.
Memory strategies differ between chipsets and processor families,
so you will get a different answer for each question. Don't
believe all the hype (and there is a *lot* of hype in the
reviews out there). Use the reviews as a source of raw data
for comparing the various products, and draw your own
conclusions.
HTH,
Paul
