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ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios

By KingOfTheNerds ·
Hi All,

I am a bit confused as recently I have been learning about RAM and how it relates to processors but it doesn't seem to fit with my home setup.

I have a ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mainboard, with Athlon 2700XP processor and 512 DDR 400 RAM.

The ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Mainboard has a FSB of 200MHZ. But in the bios it is set to 166Mhz.

I try and change it to 200Mhz but the computer doesn't startup? Can someone explain this to me, because I thought I was on the right track believing that if you had a 200Mhz FSB that you should have DDR 400Mhz (PC3200) RAM installed (which i do) which should make your computer capable of having its CPU frequency set to 200Mhz instead of 166Mhz.

On startup it tells me I have an Athlon 2700XP and makes reference to my 512MB RAM at 200Mhz, I don't remember the exact message.

The computer works fine, but now I don't understand why it is happening.

So the question is shouldn't my processor frequency be a 200Mhz instead of 166Mhz, considering my RAM is at 200Mhz?

Thanks

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by TyroneD In reply to ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios

You processor's frequency is not 200Mhz, it is 166Mhz. To give you a more clearer answer and explain the identification of the Athlon XP frequency, I have pasted couple of links below:

AMD Athlon 2700 XP Tech. Info:

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon%20XP%202700%2B%20-%20AXDA2700DKV3D.html

Athlon XP Identification Table:

http://www.cpu-world.com/info/id/AMD-K7-identification.html#Athlon_XP

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by TheChas In reply to ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios

As the first answer stated, your FSB setting MUST match the FSB speed of the CPU itself.

While you can often "over-clock" AMD CPUs, you usually can't speed up the FSB very much.

That said, on most motherboards you can clock the RAM at a different rate than the FSB.

Per the Asus manual, you can adjust the RAM clock to be higher than the CPU FSB.

On the Advanced Chipset Features section, change the Memory Frequency setting.

To set the Memory clock to 200 MHz with a 166 MHz FSB, set the memory frequency to 120%.

Ideally, the SPD setting "should" automatically take care of this. If you see no performance difference between the SPD and 120% settings, you can assume that the BIOS is doing it's job properly and is setting all of the clock settings to recommended values.

Chas

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by TheChas In reply to

As to your added question, you pretty much understand our response.

If you do want your entire system running at a 200 MHz bus speed, then all components must support the desired bus speed.

Only you can determine if the cost of the faster CPU is worth the potential performance increase.

The overall CPU clock and the amount of cache on the CPU will have a greater performance impact than running your memory at 200 MHz.

That is, unless you run applications that are VERY memory intensive. Then, cache and memory clock rates will impact performance more.

Chas

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by KingOfTheNerds In reply to ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios

So are you saying that every processor has its own limitations of Bus speed. It is not just the motherboard and the RAM that contribute to bus speed limitations but processors as well.

Does this mean that I must replace my processor that is only capable of 166Mhz with say a 3.2Ghz AthlonXP that is capable of 200Mhz. That way my motherboard, RAM and processor will all be operating at 200Mhz?

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by KingOfTheNerds In reply to ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Bios

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