upgrading to a gigabyte board - a few queries

I'm ditching my Abit KT7-Raid and 1.1GHz TB and thinking of going for a
Gigabyte GA-7N400-L1 and a 2500+ Athlon XP (333MHz Barton core) with PC2700
RAM as it's a reasonably priced combination. I just have a few questions
before I get the credit card out;

1. Does anyone have any comments, good or bad, about the GA-7N400-L1?

2. Is a 400MHz Athlon/PC3200 RAM combination worth the difference in price?

3. Is it worth buying PC3200 RAM anyway (with the 333MHz Athlon)? Could I
run it at 400MHz and would that be desirable ( I believe the FSB & RAM are
better to be in synch)? Would PC3200 RAM running at PC2700 speeds overclock
better?

4. Would 2 sticks have RAM have to be the same model/brand to be used Dual
Channel?

5. It's not just PC3200 RAM that can be used in Dual Channel mode is it?

6. Is RAM in Dual Channel mode noticeably quicker?


Many thanks for any thoughts on any of the above.

TIA
Iain

hi ian,
got it running in the same configuration except the two sticks of ram.
the board runs great and is performing great. the only thing it does not
like, is my pioneer dvd-rom (105s) as the secondary slave, it rips my config
appart and no operating system will work. the cpu runs at 40C aund the mobo
at 35C.
As far as i know it is better to run the fsb synch because your not
achieving any better performance, instead sometimes the performance breaks
down.
the dual ram is deffinetly faster then only one stick of memory. you can use
2700 ram in dual ddr with out any problems.
i can see there is no list for ram on the gigabyte-site so you have to try
it out.
as far as you do not want to upgrade to a 400 fsb athlon you can save the
money for the 3200 ram or buy better 2700 ram (two of a kind).
cu
joe


"Iain Robinson" schrieb
im Newsbeitrag ...
I'm ditching my Abit KT7-Raid and 1.1GHz TB and thinking of going for a
Gigabyte GA-7N400-L1 and a 2500+ Athlon XP (333MHz Barton core) with
PC2700
RAM as it's a reasonably priced combination. I just have a few questions
before I get the credit card out;

1. Does anyone have any comments, good or bad, about the GA-7N400-L1?

2. Is a 400MHz Athlon/PC3200 RAM combination worth the difference in
price?

3. Is it worth buying PC3200 RAM anyway (with the 333MHz Athlon)? Could I
run it at 400MHz and would that be desirable ( I believe the FSB & RAM are
better to be in synch)? Would PC3200 RAM running at PC2700 speeds
overclock
better?

4. Would 2 sticks have RAM have to be the same model/brand to be used Dual
Channel?

5. It's not just PC3200 RAM that can be used in Dual Channel mode is it?

6. Is RAM in Dual Channel mode noticeably quicker?


Many thanks for any thoughts on any of the above.

TIA
Iain

Hi joe, thanks for your response.

So you recommend getting 3200 RAM but still running it in synch with
the processor (ie, at 2700 speeds)? At least that way I'd have the
option of upgrading the processor to a 400MHz FSB one in the future I
guess.

The board seems really good value - you get a lot for your money these
days!

Iain

After installing all of your hardware try running the barton at 200 fsb amd
a multiplier of 9.5. This gives you a small overclock of 1900 instead of
the 1837. Run your 3200 memory at 400.

"Iain" wrote in message
om...
Hi joe, thanks for your response.

So you recommend getting 3200 RAM but still running it in synch with
the processor (ie, at 2700 speeds)? At least that way I'd have the
option of upgrading the processor to a 400MHz FSB one in the future I
guess.

The board seems really good value - you get a lot for your money these
days!

Iain