PLEASE HELP DIVX on Pentium 4!!!

[HDRed]

Actually you can run a 266mhz fsb processor asynchronous to the memory speed and still see a gain in performance.

I.E. - PC2700 DDR on a 266mhz athlonxp will still be faster than PC2100 DDR, even though the fsb/mem is async.

The 2.53Ghz P4 runs on a 533mhz fsb (133mhz). So to run PC2700 memory would be to use a 4:5 memory divider which would still be async - you're contradicting yourself on the fsb issue, because a 133mhz p4 runs sync with PC2100 DDR, not PC2700.

Get an athlonxp 266mhz and use pc2700 memory.

[Enchanter]

I.E. - PC2700 DDR on a 266mhz athlonxp will still be faster than PC2100 DDR, even though the fsb/mem is async

I don't own an Athlon, but I have read conflicting reports from others. Given that they really know their stuff (and they're respectably knowledgable and pretty hardcore at it), you will understand that I trust their sources more.

The 2.53Ghz P4 runs on a 533mhz fsb (133mhz). So to run PC2700 memory would be to use a 4:5 memory divider which would still be async - you're contradicting yourself on the fsb issue, because a 133mhz p4 runs sync with PC2100 DDR, not PC2700.

I have to disagree with that. The quad-pumped 533MHz-FSB (it's FSB is NOT 133MHz) P4 requires an optimal memory bandwith provided by a 533MHz memory. The PC2700 (aka 2x166MHz) does not even provide close to 75% of the required memory. Even the PC3200 (aka 2x200MHz) does not. RDRAM possess the bandwith required by P4 chips (dual-channel 800 & 1066), but unfortunately, it's price isn't the most budget-friendly around and its memory latency does not match that of DDR.

Get an athlonxp 266mhz and use pc2700 memory

Correct me if I'm wrong. To be able to utilise the extra bandwith of PC2700 memory with the 266MHz-FSB Athlon, this would require overclocking via the FSB, does not it?

[HDRed]

Correct me if I'm wrong. To be able to utilise the extra bandwith of PC2700 memory with the 266MHz-FSB Athlon, this would require overclocking via the FSB, does not it?

No, it doesn't require overclocking the FSB. Only on the newer nForce2 boards does running the memory async yield lower performance than running it sync.

You're thinking of memory bandwidth here, and while the 266mhz fsb will not utilize as much of the bandwidth provided by the pc2700 speeds, it will certainly utilize enough of it to make it faster than pc2100.

PC2700 is better on a 266mhz fsb than PC2100 because higher frequency means lower latency. In other words, the memory is faster at caching the data being sent to the cpu because of the higher speed = lower latency phenomenon. PC2700 is noticably faster (check the benchmarks, don't take my word for it) than PC2100 on a 266mhz frontside bus IF you are not using an nForce2 motherboard.

Also, as far as the RDRAM for the P4 comment - that's irrelevant. We're talking about PC2100 vs. PC2700 memory here, not RDRAM. Of course RDRAM is the best choice for the P4, but that has nothing to do with this gentleman's dilemma.

[chickeneater]

Of course RDRAM is the best choice for the P4, but that has nothing to do with this gentleman's dilemma.

not exeactly true, recently in the PCWORLD magazine, the benchmark test showed that DDR actually performed better on the P4 than RAMBUS on the P4...in which case after reading that article, we got DDR for our computer

[Enchanter]

Originally posted by chickeneater
not exeactly true, recently in the PCWORLD magazine, the benchmark test showed that DDR actually performed better on the P4 than RAMBUS on the P4...in which case after reading that article, we got DDR for our computer

A little correction. RDRAM-based systems remain unbeatable when compared against DDR systems.

However, the more recent chipsets (Intel e7205, to be more specific) that use Dual-channel DDR-RAM have been found to outperform RDRAM-based systems at a fraction of the cost.