z70va component compatibilities

I have some extra parts around, including a 1.7 ghz/400fsb dothan cpu and ddr 333 notebook dimms. I thought I might put together a new machine on the cheap using some of these parts. According to one webpage, the z70v is compatible with both 400 & 533Mhz cpus, but this seems a bit odd to me, since IIRC the 400mhz fsb works with ddr memory (anything from 200mhz to 400mhz rated memory - 200mhz "double pumped" = 400 mhz fsb), while 533 mhz works with ddr 2 memory. Is the motherboard compatible with both ddr and ddr 2?

Another question, does anyone know if the dvd-r drive that came standard with the m6ne is compatible with the z70v? I would think it would be, given that it's pretty much the same chassis, but I wondered if anyone had tried this?

It might seem to be counterproductive to put "outdated" components into an expensive machine like a z70va, but the point is the upgrade can be done cheap since I have the parts, and the x700 video chip in the z70va is more important than the cpu/memory.

 

i may be wrong about it but. The z71v has a dip switch for fsb. Basically functioning as the pin mod. I think without the mod the older cpu will not work in a 533fsb sys tho i may be wrong. Never tried my self. As for ram it must be DDR2 the z70va uses only ddr2 ram and will not work with any other. If you look up pin mod dothan you will find a thread that explains how to make it work. I have to say tho i would never do it to my lappy

 

DDR won't work, it's not physically compatible with DDR2.

The 400MHz FSB Dothans will work just fine as is. The FSB doesn't have to run synchronous with ram. When the Pentium-M first came out the Intel 855 chipset only supported single channel DDR266. For best performance you just want to make sure you have enough memory bandwidth so as not to bottleneck the CPU but it's not that big a deal really.

The only CPU/chipset combo I know of that actually took an unnaturally large performance hit with asynchronous ram was the AthlonXP with Nforce2 motherboards.

Pin modding is certainly an option, but there's no guarantee your CPU will run stable at 2.26GHz, though it's a fairly good chance it will.