Differences between Athlon 3200 processors?

[David Miller]

Its been a while since I built a machine... The Athlon XP 3200 comes in a
400mhz and 333mhz version I believe. Why would you use the 333mhz version?
Just because a particular motherboard couldn't suport the 400mhz speed?
Does the memory installed need to match the processor?

I currently have a nForce 2 Pro motherboard. I have a 1ghz processor and
PC2700 DDR SDRAM. Could I just move up to the XP 3200 processor (the max
this motherbaord can take) and keep using the memory or do I need to change
my memory to PC3200 memory so that it runs at 400mhz also?

 

[doS]

Where did you get this info?

Its been a while since I built a machine... The Athlon XP 3200 comes in a
400mhz and 333mhz version I believe. Why would you use the 333mhz

version?

 

[Ruel Smith]

Its been a while since I built a machine... The Athlon XP 3200 comes in a
400mhz and 333mhz version I believe. Why would you use the 333mhz
version? Just because a particular motherboard couldn't suport the 400mhz
speed? Does the memory installed need to match the processor?

I currently have a nForce 2 Pro motherboard. I have a 1ghz processor and
PC2700 DDR SDRAM. Could I just move up to the XP 3200 processor (the max
this motherbaord can take) and keep using the memory or do I need to
change my memory to PC3200 memory so that it runs at 400mhz also?

I'm not aware of any 333 MHz XP 3200+ CPUs. The 3000+ came as either, but to
my knowledge, the 3200+ has always only been available as a 400 MHz FSB
offering. BTW, Athlon XP's with the slower bus actually run at a higher
frequency. The 3000+ on the 400 MHz bus runs at 2100 MHz, but the one on
the 333 MHz bus runs at 2167 MHz.

As far as your memory is concerned, why cripple your computer? If you're
going to upgrade the CPU to something that runs at a much faster FSB, why
cripple the memory at something less? That said, I think it depends on your
motherboard's BIOS as to whether or not your can independently set the DRAM
clock and the CPU clock. My older Gigabyte ties the two together, so if you
OC the CPU, your memory bus, in turn, gets overclocked. It can be set to
use certain dividers, but that's about it. My system has the options of
2.0, 2.66, or auto. I believe newer systems let you OC the DRAM clock
independent of the CPU clock, therefore allowing your to set your system up
to use the slower memory.

 

[Dave C.]

Its been a while since I built a machine... The Athlon XP 3200 comes in a
400mhz and 333mhz version I believe. Why would you use the 333mhz
version? Just because a particular motherboard couldn't suport the 400mhz
speed? Does the memory installed need to match the processor?

I currently have a nForce 2 Pro motherboard. I have a 1ghz processor and
PC2700 DDR SDRAM. Could I just move up to the XP 3200 processor (the max
this motherbaord can take) and keep using the memory or do I need to
change my memory to PC3200 memory so that it runs at 400mhz also?

If there are two versions of the CPU, it shouldn't matter which one you use.
Your current RAM will work with EITHER one of them. Most chipsets allow the
processor and RAM to run asynchronously. Thus, you could have a 400FSB
processor and use PC2700 RAM with it. If you upgraded to 400FSB processor
and PC3200 RAM, you would have a slightly faster machine. However, the
increased speed would not nearly justify the cost of the new RAM. HOWEVER,
if you currently have less than 512MB of RAM, I would suggest you replace it
with PC3200. That is, if you need more RAM anyway, you might as well ditch
your current PC2700, as it's not going to cost you anymore to upgrade to
PC3200. -Dave

 

[David Miller]

If there are two versions of the CPU, it shouldn't matter which one you
use. Your current RAM will work with EITHER one of them. Most chipsets
allow the processor and RAM to run asynchronously. Thus, you could have a
400FSB processor and use PC2700 RAM with it. If you upgraded to 400FSB
processor and PC3200 RAM, you would have a slightly faster machine.
However, the increased speed would not nearly justify the cost of the new
RAM. HOWEVER, if you currently have less than 512MB of RAM, I would
suggest you replace it with PC3200. That is, if you need more RAM anyway,
you might as well ditch your current PC2700, as it's not going to cost you
anymore to upgrade to PC3200. -Dave

Aye that was the deal. I already have 512mb of PC2700. I have no interest
in overclocking, just wanted to get a little faster system. I'm already
getting a new vid card so I can play the games I play a little better. I
need to really get up to 1gb of RAM also and replace the processor. I'm
likely not that concerned about the slight performance difference between a
PC2700 and PC3200, if it becomes an issue later I can replace the memory
then. More likely I'll have a new MB by then that supports SLI and all
that. This is just a "for now" measure.