[vorador]

So Mac OS X says my 10v N280 has a 667 FSB speed but the DDR2 memory is running at 533?

[reydemia]

Originally Posted by vorador

So Mac OS X says my 10v N280 has a 667 FSB speed but the DDR2 memory is running at 533?

Your fsb is totally different than your ram. It acts sort of like a "buffering line" between the cpu and ram, etc. No fsb, like in new core i7's and most all amd chips = no fsb bottleneck.

The speed isn't relevant to your actual ram speed though. The faster your fsb, the faster you will go, of course ultimately every other part has limits that slow you down as well. hence faster ram would increase speed. so faster 677 ram would still increase the speed even if the fsb was only 533. haha if that makes any sense the way i worded it.

[vorador]

Let me try this again in plain English. My Mini 10v has a N280 which has a 667MHz FSB speed, my RAM is a DDR2 800MHz... should now my DDR2 800MHz technically limited to 667MHz to match my FSB speed? Not 533MHz like the Mini 9 I have!

[woodscomp]

That would be better answered by finding out what the limitations that Intel placed on this chipset. Because ultimately they do this with all of there chipsets by standard and then it is upto manufactures of the boards and bios to make any extra settings available. Unfortunately Dell follows pretty strictly to what Intel puts on there whitesheets.

Intel sets the rules by which processor and chipset combo will run at what speeds, 533 667 800 1066 etc... They will do this staright across the board for all the processors of that family regardless of the fsb of the processor. You have to find a BIOS that will give you the option to change fsb in order to force it. The only other way you can achieve what you want is to find an overclocking utility that will allow you to change the fsb of the memory.

I just wish that the market in this segment was more friendly to people who could build there own.

[dch]

If it's like the ASUS 1000HE w/ N280, then ram speed is locked at 533. I believe it's the limitation of this Intel chipset. The processor fsb is 667 but your ram fsb is locked at 533. Thus, ddr2 ram rated at 667 or 800 have no advantage.

[reydemia]

The current lineup of Intel Atom chipsets support up to 677...however, dell could have limited it via the BIOS to 533(why i don't know). So check there to see what it is running at. either way, your not getting 800 out of it on your mini.

[vorador]

Understand not getting full speed, was aware of that, but at least match the FSB. I guess that was one of the perks of going with N280 instead of n270 but I guess I was wrong! Thanks guys for the replies!

[kommissar]

wow. glad to hear that. i almost didn't get the outlet store one i have cuzza i wanted the faster bus speed. if you get a solution to that vorador, could you post it? i was thinking the same thing as you about that.

[daneelshof]

What chipset does it have? According to Intel the memory controller is in the chipset, and that could be the source of this limitation.

[woodscomp]

945GME, correct that is what we have been saying that Intel limits the bus speeds according to the chipsets and the processors used with them. The only way this can be circumvented is if you find a way to overclock it or can get a hold of a third party BIOS that will let adjust the settings manually.