question concerning memory ddr400

yes I am a noob at this so please bare with me. I recently baught the 8rda mobo with 2x 256mb geil ddr pc3200 cas 2.5 and a amd xp 2100+ B (0303). on my mobo the revision is 1.1 and on the nb and sb are A3. but that just run down of what i have so you guys know how to better answer my question. when I finaly put everytghing together and booted my pc first thing I did was update the bios to the newest one that epox has on there site. after that on the main post screen i notice that my ddr was not at 400 but at 200, so i went to the bios setup and choose 133fsb for the cpu. then saved etc. it then showed that my ram was at 266. so it was in some sense a improvement. I then went back to the bios setup and choose 166fsb and then saved. this time it stated my ram was at drr333. keep in mind that I had the memory timing on auto and not spd. when i put it on spd and saved. it showed that my memory frequency is 200mhz(ddr400)

what i guess my question is basicly, should i put auto or spd as my memory timming? and if auto or spd what are the proper timming my memory should have? currently on spd my memory is at 9.4.4.2.5 and the fsb speed spectrum is disabled along with the agp spectrum. also I cant seem to change any of the timming on the ram, how do change them to smaller numbers? please help this noobn understand what I need to do to obtain my ddr400 speed or best possible setting for my ram ty

also im using this program called fanspeed to check my cpu/system temps , if you guys know any better software to do this please let me know.

confused

ok i just put the memory on auto and these are the timming it got
6-3-3-2.5 arnt smaller numbers better?? but when I put it on auto it says ddr266 while on spd it said 200(ddr400) any help would be greatfull. this would be my first OC expereince so im not very knowledgable on this stuff.

don't run it on [SPD] mode. always run at 100% or Auto (same thing) when you run your memory at 100% that means it runs as fast as your FSB. which is good.

for 3200 2.5 cas: i think you can try 5-2-2-2, i can even run my corsair at 4-2-2-2.

thanks you so much terryb47 i switched back the memory to auto. so now my system is running ddr266 which is fine for now, im still wating for my new case and cooling equipment to come in so i can further overclock the fsb/cpu. but whats great is i tryed what you said about changing the timming on my memory to 5-2-2-2.0 and it worked like a charm I know the memory i got is pretty ****y (geil) which seems alot of ppl dont like this company and also my memory has aluminum plates not copper ><;; ill have to get different/better ram next time.

ah no problem, glad i could help. I remember nobody answered my question about the ram settings so i had to find out myself.

as for the heatspreaders: i don't believe they help much, it's more of a decoration i guess.