Rambus and a P4C

When I upgrade next (as soon as I sell this stupid car) I'm getting a new motherboard and a 2.4 gig Hyper-Threading P4 with 800mhz fsb. I've been talking to a friend and he says that to really get the most out of a newer P4 you need to run RAMBUS. I really don't know much about this 'new' kind of RAM, I'm barely getting used to not using SIMMS. Any info you can provide about RAMBUS or RIMMS or RDRAM or any of these, even what they mean would be great.

Fallen Phoenix said:

When I upgrade next (as soon as I sell this stupid car) I'm getting a new motherboard and a 2.4 gig Hyper-Threading P4 with 800mhz fsb. I've been talking to a friend and he says that to really get the most out of a newer P4 you need to run RAMBUS. I really don't know much about this 'new' kind of RAM, I'm barely getting used to not using SIMMS. Any info you can provide about RAMBUS or RIMMS or RDRAM or any of these, even what they mean would be great.

Click to expand...

Umm, all the newest P4's use DDR RAM, not RAMBUS. Your friend seems to still be living in the past, lol. Rambus is just about dead. Just make sure you get some good DDR rated at at least 3200. Corsair, OCZ, Twinmos, Kingston Hyper-X are all good brands. When you are ready for some new ram, check back in as new ram seems to be coming out weekly lately.

some more memory questions

How about that... lol I've got a stick of PC2700 DDR but it's not enough, I'm thinking about getting two 512 MB sticks to run in dual channel, should help when I have to be server at LANs. How good is the PC4000 stuff out now? Also, how can I tell what speed my RAM is running at? Last question, what are the numbers in BIOS that read like #-#-#-#? What does it do to change this? I think it's memory speed but that means nothing to me, I thought it was measured in Mhz.

the RAM timings (#-#-#-#) tell you how fast the computer asks for information from the RAM.

generally, they are given in this order:
t(CAS) = Column Address Strobe
t(RCD) = Ras-to-Cas Delay
t(RP) = Ras Precharge
t(RAS) = Row Address Strobe

well, RCD and RP may be in the wrong order, but they're the same value most of the time, anyways. =P

suggested value for t(RAS) is t(CAS)+t(RCD)+2

RAM speeds:
100FSB = PC1600 = DDR200
133FSB = PC2100 = DDR266
166FSB = PC2700 = DDR333
200FSB = PC3200 = DDR400
216FSB = PC3500 = DDR433
233FSB = PC3700 = DDR466

I think it's memory speed but that means nothing to me, I thought it was measured in Mhz.

reminder: Memory speed is the second chart. measured in mhz. the first list was the timings and stuff - how many clock cycles it waits for the data to be processed.

BIG thanks Amorphus, that clears some things up and makes more questions that just enhance my thirst for knowledge. In that chart it only goes up to 233 fsb... what happens with the P4C with almost 4 times that speed?

Phoenix,
Remember that P4 CPU's are quad pumped, Thta is, they operate at 4x FSB. The P4C 800 MHz is actually 200FSB x 4 = 800.
So, if you kick a P4C 2.4 to 233FSB it will actually be running at just about 2.8GHz. -Dave

Forgot about the quad pumping thing, how do you tell what speed RAM is rated for? I'm thinking 115MHZ fsb is ok for Crucial PC2700.

RAM speeds:
100FSB = PC1600 = DDR200
133FSB = PC2100 = DDR266
166FSB = PC2700 = DDR333
200FSB = PC3200 = DDR400
216FSB = PC3500 = DDR433
233FSB = PC3700 = DDR466

Click to expand...

If you're going to a P4C 2.4GHz CPU, you'll need memory that will run at 200FSB = PC3200 = DDR400. If you're going to overclock. you'll need to run memory faster. High quality DDR400 will o/c very nicely. There is a wealth of info right here in the mem section here at O/C. - Dave

The easiest way I've found to calculate speeds are...

FSB * 2 = DDRxxx speed
FSB * 16 = PCxxxx speed

Useful for knowing, so when you run odd FSB speeds (like 272mhz), you can figure what the common name for it would be.