how should i have my settings?

i just recently upgraded and got an asus a7n8x deluxe motherboard with an amd barton 2500+. i am temperarily using the 256 stick of pc2100 ram from my old computer and was wondering if i have to change the fsb to run slower to match the memory speed or what. and also what kind of memory is good for this setup? pc2700 or pc 3200...?

ask anyone here and they'll tell ya get the pc3200, but, for your settings, drop multi's to lowest, then set the fsb to 133 and start upping till you find your limit, then up your multi's .5 at a time, upping the vcore when unstable, do this till you start crashing, then back up till you have stability, or, if you're not overclocking, just set the fsb to 133, and up the multi by .5 or 1, etc..., till you get close to what the chip is supposed to be

so i did what you said and lowered my fsb to 133 to match the memory speed. i started to up the multiplier up to try to match the 1.8mgz speed of the barton 2500+. in doing so i used the 12.5 multiplier and resulted in a 2200+(thats what it detected in start up) and that uped the speed to 1.6mgz. the next multiplier setting is 13. but when i set it to 13 and restart the comp at the start up screen it only detects it as a 667mhz. why is that?

the hi - lo bit.

I believe you have to CUT a bridge to achieve multipliers higher than 12.5 of the chip is set to use multis between 5 and 12.5. You don't want to do that, really.

Leave the multi at 13 (5x actual) and start increasing your FSB (with memory at 100%) a little bit at a time to find the speed at which your ram craps out. Drop it back a few points, and test for stability with the high ram speed, but the LOW multiplier.

If you're stable, you know your ram can do, say, 142 mhz or whatever it is you wind up at.

Then you can start increasing the multiplier. Really, I have a feeling that your pc2100 won't produce speeds that will make you want to run lower than 12.5x, but you could get lucky.

Case in point, if you can get your pc2100 to run reliably at 166mhz, that x 12.5 = 2.975ghz, which is not at all unreasonable when it comes to Barton 2500s.

So. Find out what you can run your mem at, as suggested, find out how high you can go on the multi (I'm sure it will be 12.5) and then wait for new ram. If you have the money, I suggest going with good 3200 or better, because it will be more likely to run tight timings at speed. If you don't want to overclock heavily, and are fine with running your fsb/mem at something like 166 or 180 (which is still not at all bad), then you could probably get away with the PC2700. (which will work fine at 166, it's designed for it, and would probably work fine at 180 with or without raising the CAS, most likely with for the majority of pc2700 you'll come across.)

so should i leave the fsb at 133 and multiplier at 12.5 or raise the fsb to what the barton 2500 is supposed to be at 166 with multiplier of 11? is it bad to have the fsb faster than the memory speed? what are you pros and cons of doing so? i'm not really trying to oc right now. just want it to run smooth.

no no, what we're suggesting to you is to run your memory at 100% of the fsb, starting at 133. Then raise the fsb incrementally, a small bit at a time, until you find that your memory can't handle the increased speed. Back off, test for stability. Then run THAT stable-yet-increased speed as your fsb.

If you're just trying to get it to run smooth, however, then run it at 12x5 x 133 until your new memory arrives.

i uped the fsb back up to 166 with multipier at 11(stock speed) and still using my old pc2100 memory at 133mgz and it runs ok. but seems to lag sometimes when opening and closing applications . is it ok to run at these speeds? i'm trying not to buy any memory right now cuz i'm low on funds but want the best performance out of this setup

you should be fine.

thx to everyone for their advice