The bus of the mobo compared to the bus of the CPU

[Garfield]

Okay, say you have a mobo which is a 333 bus. And, you have a 1600+ which is a 200/266 bus chip. How would this affect the system? Would the bus of the whole system just back off for the CPU? What other hardware would be affected? Hmmm...I'm not sure if this question is clear. If not, I'll try to re-word...

[Docta_Z]

bump. Someone answer this. I wanna know too.

[Jay23]

im pretty sure the mobo would just bump the fsb back... but thats from what i read.. heh :p

[JoshuaB]

The memory bus can be run equal to the CPU FSB or at a higher ratio (5:4) on kt333 chipset motherboards. The ability to run at a higher (e.g., a memory bus of 166(x2=333) with a CPU FSB of 133(x2=266)) depends on the quality/speed of your RAM. Of course you need to make the appropriate settings in your system bios.

[Garfield]

So you're telling me the only reason to have a 333MHz bus or the highest you can get is for memory purposes alone? Because, the CPU in that instance will only run off of stock 266. So, it's memory that benefits off the bus? And how/where do you change the memory ratio? In the BIOS? I might see how my Crucial can handle that OC! ;)

[JoshuaB]

Your current board is a kt266a chipset (like mine), so you would need to get the new board first. The real advantage of the newer kt333 boards is the 1/5 (or even 1/6) PCI divider which allows for some radical overclocking of the CPU FSB. Running the RAM asynchronously at +33 is at best a minor performance enhancement. Running your CPU FSB at 166+ is the real goal.

[Garfield]

So you're saying that these KT333 boards start at an FSB of 166 instead of 133?

[WyrmMaster]

The purpose of the 333 mhz boards is to overclock. Pure and simple. Most of them have a 1/5 PCI devisor, so all of your PCI devices run at stock when you are running at 166 fsb, DDR333. If you do not overclock you will be only running at 266.