I have a Pentium 4 2.4 B /533 Northwood CPU and 1 Gig of OCZ
DDR500 Gold Rev 2 dual channel memory running
Take it that this memory is actually two 512MB DIMMs? There's not really
any such thing as memory that's inherently "dual channel" - there's a lot of
marketeering going on there.
To use the full capabilities of the DDR500 ram I would like to upgrade
to an Intel 875 chipset MB with Dual channel ram capability.
You're not going to be able to use the full capabilities of your memory
with this CPU, no matter what motherboard you use. To get the best out of
DDR500 you'd need a processor capable of being overclocked into the
250-260MHz FSB area - like a 2.4C, 2.6C or a really sweet 2.8C.
My question is, Will my 2.4 B/533 cpu run on a MB with an 800 buss
speed?
Yes, of course it'll run. 875P boards are backwards compatible with 533 and
(Northwood) 400FSB CPU's, but to get the most out of your memory you'd need
it running at 250MHz FSB (or a little faster), which your processor
obviously isn't capable of.
What you should be able to do is run your memory bus asynchronously, with
the memory running *faster* than the FSB, at either a 4:5 or 3:4 ratio. If
we also assume that your CPU will run a little faster than it does at the
moment, you could end up running an FSB in the 167-180MHz range, which will
give you a maximum memory bus (with the 3:4 multiplier) of between 223 and
240MHz.
Unfortunately you won't be able to use all that memory bandwidth, due to the
lower FSB constraining the P4's bus, but the overall effect of the upgrade
should be an easily noticeable performance boost, assuming of course that
you have a pair of DIMMs right now.
if so any recommendations for a good MB with raid onboard.
Personal experience is that Abit's IC7-G or IC7 Max3 are excellent products.
If you don't need legacy serial or parallel ports, the Max3 version is even
more overclockable, more stable. If you do, the -G is 99% as good. Daresay
you'll get equally good reports about Asus' and other manufacturers' boards,
primarily because 875P is a bloody good, now well proven chipset and so it's
relatively easy to build a good board with it.
Most 875 boards will have at least one RAID controller, as most will be sold
with Intel's own ICH5R southbridge, which has SATA-RAID built in. Many also
have additional PCI controllers, although you should use the Intel one first
due to its PCI bypass function. Possibly worth pointing out though that if
you're running a RAID array on your current board, you will almost certainly
need to recreate it, while if you have parallel ATA disks, you'll obviously
need converters to use them on the Intel (or any other make of) SATA
controller.
--
Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
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