Another question for all hardware gurus....

[darkufo]

Hi All,

I have nearly got my system up to it's max specs, mostly due to all of you here on the forum.

My new 2.5 P4 is running sweet, my hard disks are now running at full tilt, my new Wildcat VP560 is making my graphics run faster as well as providing a lovely Dual DVI monitor system.

My last quest is that of memory.

Previously I had 3 * P100 256MB SDRAMS (total 768MB)

And have replaced these with 3 * P133 512 SDRAMS (total 1.5GB)


Now running my benchmark software it seems to warn me that my memory bandwidth seems low. It seems to be going at a max rate of 640kbs.


I have a i405L motherboard from Jetway which has the following:

168-pin SDR SDRAM module socket x3
Support PC133 SDRAM
Expandable to 3.0GB

Now I do not currently need 3GB of memory but I am more interested in geting better bandwidth between the CPU and the Memory.

Q1) Do you know of any tweaks or areas in the BIOS which may need setting to improve this bandwidth ?
Q2) Do you know if this motherboard suppors the DDR Ram ? I'm not sure it does as I was under the impression that all DDR SDRAM came on 184 Pin modules.

Any other hints and tips greatly recieved.

I feel so close to having my dream system .. for now .. (next step is a dual CPU with SCSI Raid... but the wife won't let me just yet !)

Many thanks once again in advance.

[Heavensent]

your motherboard doesnt support ddr, only sdram.
why did you go with sdram anyway?
prices are allmost the same for motherboard that supports both.

i guess you had a good reason, goodluck any way.

[Bob W]

I didn't know they made motherboards for a P4-2.5GHz cpu that didn't support DDR. Anyway you should be using PC2700 or higher I would think.

[darkufo]

The Machine is a 1.5 year old PC with i845 Chipset. It originally had 256MB of Memory and a 1.5Mhz CPU.

I've upgraded it to 1.5GB and 2.5Mhz but I guess, I should really look at replacing the MOBO.

Any suggestions for a good motherboard ?

[turbosteve]

Yep I'd spend a few bucks, if you scour under $60, and buy a new mobo with DDR. I just built a machine in the last 2 days using the MSI GNB Max (granite bay) mobo with double rate DDR a 2.53 P4 and 200G raid 0 WD Hd's. My memory scores came in at 3.4gb throughput and it makes a huge difference. you might also want to consider setting up a raid0 setup, the speed difference is noticable.

Good luck.

TurboSteve