Ram is faster?

[jjsole]

Recently, I decided to go the route of "build your own" computer, rather than go retail (previously had Gateway), and am trying to understand things as I go along. I noticed differences between a couple of motherboards, an Asus p3v4x and a Supermicro p3DME (as I mentioned in a couple other posts).

One difference that's very interesting is how fast the cpu processes cached data from ram.

Why would one board (asus) read the data from ram faster than another board (smicro)? All other factors are basically the same - cpu (p3), bus (133), hd, ram stick, software thats doing the work, OS (win2k), etc. I thought it could be the lower cpu temp on the asus, but after its cranking for a while, its probably only a few degrees celc. lower, but the speed difference is still very noticable.

The asus uses the Via chipset, and the smicro uses the 840 chipset, so maybe that's it?

Don't get me wrong, I love the smicro - it has its other advantages. But anyone know what could make the ram faster on the Asus?

[KillerBug]

Simple, the the 840 chipset uses Rambus which is slower and further from the chipset than normal memory.

[jjsole]

Even if I'm using dram instead of rdram?

[skywalker[TSG]]

have you checked in BIOS on the asus board
so that the memory does not run @100mhz

this is a feature of the VIA chipset
so that u can use PC-100 ram with a 133mhz CPu

[skywalker[TSG]]

can u use dimms on a 840chipset ??

also killerbug
i thought that rambus was slower than sdram

[jjsole]

I think what you're saying Sky, is the same as Kbug, that that its because the chipset with rambus. The Asus board is the faster one. The smicro board is for rdram, but allows for sdram as well, which is what I've been using.

Its a bummer to find this out because I wanted speed (albeit flexibility), and the store that suggested it didn't tell me this (although THANK YOU both for the replies). Sounds like its not exactly what I got.

Anyhow, It's good to learn these things... http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif