• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

using faster ram than the board can accept.

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

ziah

Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2002
Location
northeast usa
i have a k7s5a and it only supports pc1600/2100. can i use pc2700 and just run it at 2100? will it damage the ram or the board. i want to get faster ram so that when i upgrade to a new board i wont have to buy new ram too.

thanks

~z
 
Put any PC**** you want, but you won't have the ratio to run them at their specified speed, so if you throw in a pc2700, you've got to raise your FSB to use the memory at it's speed. But you can put in pc3500 of you want, it will work even if the mem is working at a slower speed :)
 
In other words, yes. If you want to buy the better ram now and underclock it, that will work fine, and will allow you to pack it with you for the next mobo upgrade.
 
BTW that is one awful MB. I have one and not only did it suck but it never really ran right.
 
thanks for the answer. now about the board, its great. ive have 2 and both work great. never a lick of trouble.

~z
 
It's a good work-horse board if you don't try to oc it. You don't need pc2700. Don't waste money. Get crucial pc2100, it will run flawlessly with this board.
 
I have that board as well and it works great. I have heard that some batches of ECS boards come DOA. Simply RMA it and get another. For the price though you cant beat it. No its not designed for OCing. It will do great otherwise. I agree with linlibj, use crucial-micron memory and you are set. Get whatever speed you plan to use on your next upgrade. Toss it and and have fun.
 
Samoyed said:
BTW that is one awful MB. I have one and not only did it suck but it never really ran right.


Interesting, I have built countless PC's for people using this motherboard, all of them worked flawlessly. Have you ever stopped to consider it might be that you didn't set it up correctly or that you just had a defective board?
 
ahh - so putting in say pc 3500 over the max pc-2700 the board can take can yield greater over clocking abilities....... as the memory will allow a higher FSB and thus no straining the memory as it was made for higher FSB's :)


i was never too sure about that, but now iknow :D
 
Mr.Guvernment said:
ahh - so putting in say pc 3500 over the max pc-2700 the board can take can yield greater over clocking abilities....... as the memory will allow a higher FSB and thus no straining the memory as it was made for higher FSB's :)


i was never too sure about that, but now iknow :D


Yep, you got it!!!;)


Plus buying faster memory buys you a little more time before having to upgrade memory again to keep up with the newest CPU's with higher FSB's. Just like the new AMD XP that is coming later this year with a 400MHz FSB, if you had with PC3200, you would already be prepared. Just another benefit besides overclocking.
 
k7s5a.... my personal favorite board also. i mean yeah no oc'ing but man is it stable. i have built 4 systems on it for family and friends. because hey nobody really needs the speeds we do
 
thanks all. i dont plan to OC with this board. i will however save a few extra dollars up and get crucial. im still pondering if i should wait for the hammer chips to come out before upgrading.

~z
 
My initial reaction is that Hammer will only be WORTH it if you plan on running 64-bit optimized applications in a 64-bit OS.

Eventually, this will be a normal thing, or there will at least be patches out for apps to take advantage of 64 bit architecture, but at the time of release, the pickings will be slim.
 
InThrees said:
My initial reaction is that Hammer will only be WORTH it if you plan on running 64-bit optimized applications in a 64-bit OS.

Eventually, this will be a normal thing, or there will at least be patches out for apps to take advantage of 64 bit architecture, but at the time of release, the pickings will be slim.

agreed. 64bit computing is a few years away from being a standard. there's alot of work that will have to be done to get it standard. most of the man power involved in doing this work will be allocated into making workstation and server solutions into 64 bit before they focus on the home users.
 
About a month I put a stick of PC3200 corsair in my BD-7II and it wouldnt boot. When replaced with some 2700 corsair it ran fine so i took that out and tried the 3200 again. All i got was a bright blue flash, some smoke, a dead stick of ram, board and psu. RMAd it to newegg and got a BE7 in replacement since they dont carry the BD7 anymore and another stick of ram. This combo works fine.
 
BTW that is one awful MB. I have one and not only did it suck but it never really ran right
I try never to post anything critical, but I have to say that was one lame comment. It made absolutely no contribution to answering the question and it looks like a lot of people have seemed to make the motherboard work just fine.
 
Redstone said:

I try never to post anything critical, but I have to say that was one lame comment. It made absolutely no contribution to answering the question and it looks like a lot of people have seemed to make the motherboard work just fine.
^^^
Agreed


It helps more if the person actually provides reasons WHY it did not work for them, and simply because one person has a bad experience, does not mean it is an over all crpa board - as ANY product out there, there will always be people who have issues with it - but often it is @ fault of a combination of items, nut just one in general.
 
Back