PC3200 to PC3500 Info Please

C

club708

New Member
Ok first off this is my first post to here so I hope it isn't a bad on.

A question about memory for my Asus P4SD-LA mother board. In the specs for the board it reads that the highest speed or memory type is PC3200 (400). I was wondering if PC3500 still being 184 pin would work or if the board itself would cap out at a certain speed. I only have 1gb now of Standard Kingston PC2700. I started playing a new game online (Vanguard) and it seems to have a little problem processing everyonce in while. I also know that the memory is running pretty high when the game is in use. The best thing I could come up with was getting some Kingston Hyper X (only because i've never had a problem with the brand). I know I should see a difference going from PC2700 to Pc3200 and that I am going to get an extra gig. Im not going to upgrade my mother board right now because of the video card purchaced earlier this year for AGP slot (ATI 1600Pro 512 DDR2) and I don't want to shell out more money for that as well right now. I have a Thermaltake setup which keeps my CPU temp lower then 111 degrees f at all time. So memory is my only downfall right now on the system as far as playing the game. I was looking for any insite in reguards to the PC3500 and PC3200. I would like to go with the higher if possible but if not I will live. Also I know there is other Ram by other manufactures out there. Is there anything wrong with the Hyper X or anything that would work better that would be noticable.

One last thing in reguards to the Video card listed above on the machine. The card works very well now and on the last game I played (SWG) I was able to max every video option out with no lag and it looked great and performed just as well. In BIOS for some reason the port for video is set for PCI instead of AGP. By switching this over to AGP will it increase anything about the boards function.

Thanks for any information that any of you could provide on this matter
 
The first thing you need is a Welcome to the Computer Forum! http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html Please remember to review the http://www.computerforum.com/52038-forum-rules.html

To start off Kingston is one of the best brands of memory along with Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin for ocing on Asus models, and of course OCZ is another premium brand to consider. The specifications page seen at the HP/Compaq site show the following as the memory supported.
Memory TypeDDR SDRAM (Supports duel channel)Memory SpeedPC3200 (400 MHz),

PC2700 (333 MHz),

PC2100 (266 MHz)
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...roduct=344629&lang=en&cc=us&docname=c00022505

PC3500 memory would run at the DDR400 PC3200 speed supported on this mdel board. The ATI video card you currently have is a discontinued model no longer seeing any driver support. Hyper X memory is a performance type like Corsair's xms series if you plan to on OCing any. But for stock purposes with the occasional gaming the Kingston DDR400 PC3200 Value Ram has worked on the Asus A8N-SLI Socket 939 model board here. But your present video card besides an increase with the faster memory is the item to consider.
 
Thanks for the welcome PC eye. I have been involved with gaming pretty frequently and up until Vanguard, I have never encounterd a problem with any lag what so ever. Other then the driver support why would you recommend changing the video card. The main problem that i see through processes is the 680,000 from the Vanguard client when running. It really takes a chomp off of the system which I haven't seen on any other online games that I have played. And the graphics right now are not even maxed they are set at default only because I think that if I increase now, It will require more memory from the main machine to drive the video card. I really don't know that to be true, its just a guess I have. I really don't want to change out the card. To do that would be a waste as far as I am concerned at this point in time. It would be better for me to upgrade the mobo, processor, ram and card since anything new would be pci express and the memory would be available at PC5400+. So spending a couple hundred for memory or a couple thousand for a new system seems not to be the best idea for me right now. By checking my stats on a 3rd party site, the only thing that balanced out on my machine was the memory everything else is above average. Though when I do switch I am looking to stay with Asus because I've never had a problem with them but thinking about switching to an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400. I was wondering if there would be any reason to stay with the Intel Core 2 Duo or Extreme over this processor if you have any input. I hear that the AMD (which i've never owned) has normally a faster bus speed and runs cooler over the Intel.

Thanks again
 
While the Radeon X1600 Pro is certainly an upgrade from the X1300 Pro PCI-E model here it's often reviewed as a slow boat to somewhere. When ATI finally releases the new R600 line like the Radeon X2000 that will speed right past the X1950 model as well as 7950GTs and new 8600 and 8800 models by NVidia. ATI is obviously trying to make a come back there to gain the edge.

At the present time the Radeon 9000 series is toast and just about all considered "discontinued". The current model you have will obviously work the occasional gaming and other things like video capture/editing, multimedia without hassles. For performance this would be the long term item to consider there. That's when the prices drop on the newer models instead of paying hundreds over what you need.

The newest addition soon to be available as far as AMD cpus is the new line of quad core models that will see a high tag on those. With the Socket 939 Asus model here I'm still waiting for either the Opteron 185 or FX-60 to come far enough for maxing this board with the fastest model. Having to replace the last board+cpu on short notice last spring that put off planning for a 2007 build. The AM2 model boards with an FX-62 would be the thought for the AMD lineup on the newer board there.

Currently I'm stuck with a 3500+ single core model until...? Right now the Core 2 Dou and Extreme lineups are the gamer's choice. But AMD is still focused on the fsb as usual seeing a 1,200mhz fsb over the usual Core 2 1,066mhz fsb. AMD did hold the lead over P4s by seeing faster results at lower temps by having more work done in less clock cycles. That was due to seeing Intel with 3.4ghz cpus and 333fsbs to AMD's 2.2ghz cpus with 400mhz fsbs in comparison. Intel's newer lineup simply closed the gap there.
 
As far as I am aware, any DDR memory above PC3200 is factory overclocked. I may be wrong on this though?

As for the Video, Q2-Q3 is just around the corner and with that is the new R600 core! Go for it, and all your nVidia fans will say "no mine is better lol" but in reality, it isn't.
 
While the old AMD Atholon XP3200+ was the fastest model cpu listed even at AMD for Socket A boards it was past by the 3400+ 2.3ghz model sold specifically to Compaq and maybe other prebiulders to compete with what was regularly available for you and me building our own. Gee? When I oced the 3200+ with a locked multiplier the post screen read 3400+.

When lowering the fsb from the 200mhz down to the 166mhz setting the post screen read "2500+"! One chip on the same die set to a different speed to make several models. Just a simple trick to perform. And you wonder why the 2500+ was a better ocer upto 2.3ghz? Difference in Core 2s? same chip different speed set most likely by resistors or a different value diode there.
 
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