Intel 3.4 chip and memory question...

I am getting a 3.4mhz Intel chip that has 800mhz fsb and I currently have PC2700 memory in my machine. Do I need to buy PC3200 memory with 400fsb or can I still use the 2700 stuff I have? Also, would it make that much of a diff going from 2700 to 3200? Sorry for the dumb question, I just totally forgot

Thanks
Dark

Well, I'm a noob to OC'ing too, but from what I understand you'll either need to:

1) Run async and leave your FSB at 200 and your RAM at 168.75 for a 32:27? ratio

2) OC your ram to run sync at 1:1 ratio

3) Buy new DDR400 (PC3200)

Again, I'm new to OC'ing, but I think these are your choices.
Hope this helps. --Lutzy

edit: 3.4 Mhz? I hope that was a typo and was supposed to be 3.4 Ghz or else you're screwed either way

LOL yeah that was a bit of a typo

I might go ahead and buy 3200 memory. Already have 512 of it sitting here, another 512 shouldn't cost me that much.

Dark

Who makes the memory?
If it's from a good manufacturer OC'ing it might not be that big of a deal (if your BIOS supports it of course) --Lutzy

You'll need to set your ram to run at 166 or 333, depending on what your bios uses for numbers. Or you may see a 6:5 divider in there, which is basically the same as the above figures.

It will help performance for sure, you'd see about a 5-10% difference going from PC2700 to PC3200, in dual channel. Single channel wouldn't be as profound but still worth doing. Intel's architecture loves memory bandwidth.

The mobo I am getting has Dual channel for the memory. The one I have currently is single channel I believe. The memory i have at home here is Mushkin (won in a tournament ). Was gonna run into the city and pick up another 512 mabye gig stick 3200.

Dark

I was going to say, if you plan on overclocking, you might need more than PC3200, but if the extra stick you have is Mushkin, they usually O/C pretty well, so getting another one to match it might be the best bet.

To answer your original question, PC2700 RAM will work, but you'll have to run the 5:4 ratio at default speed and maybe even have to drop down to the 3:2 ratio if you overclock it much. So, you'll lose a lot of memory bandwidth.