Santa Rosa FSB & Memory

What's the relation between these two? If the Santa Rosa FSB is 800mhz and Memory DDR is 667 Mhz, will it run at 800mhz or 667mhz? Is it advisable to get a Santa rosa laptop now?

 

It'll run at 667mhz. Even when 800mhz comes out, it'll still run at 667mhz, as the processor's FSB is 800mhz, doesn't mean the RAM can run at 800mhz too.

 

So essentially Santa Rosa processors are not that great except for their power saving features?

 

Well, the other features are Intel Turbo Memory and better integrated graphics. But the Turbo memory drivers aren't working right now so we can't see the benefit of it.

They wont have 800mhz until DDR3 comes to notebooks due to power concerns. But if you want to look at the bright side, most desktop memory are running at 800 or even 667mhz while the fsb is 1066 and 800mhz is the sweet spot price wise.

 

DDR2-800 (PC6400) RAM is starting to appear. Crucial is listing some.

Whether or not we see notebooks supporting 800MHz RAM @ 800MHz remains to be seen. Indeed, it might be there but until some suitable RAM is installed then 800MHz support in individual notebooks won't be certain (check specs) but I understand that Santa Rosa supports 800MHz memory.

At present, what little 800MHz memory that is around is at a significant price premium (which could explain why no one is using it). For older notebooks the attraction of this faster RAM should be an improvement in timings. CL=5 @ 800MHz should become CL=4 @ 667MHz.

John

 

memory still runs at DDR2 667, chances are if anything try to overclock to DDR2 800... but I dont think notebooks give you the same kind of options as desktops do :/ Im still on the market for one.

In desktops tho is always better to buy quality lower rated ram and overclock it than to pay the premium for the "overclocked" ram. If it uses the same IC's its the same ram just comes at a higher stock speed and cost alot more.

It wont really give you much more performance I dont think outside of a benchmark anyways, and it will increase the noise emmisions, not a good thing for a notebook with all the components so close.

 

How does DDR 667mhz limit the performance of the Santa Rosa? Is the impact huge?

 

There won't be much difference in performance between 800Mhz capable RAM running at 800MHz and the same RAM running at 667MHz. The physical time for each memory function is the same.

The important feature of the 800MHz RAM is that the timings are all a little shorter than the current 667MHz RAM so the new RAM will shift data a bit faster, even at 667MHz. However, at present the 800MHz RAM has a 50% to 100% price mark up.

John

 

You guys are forgetting 1 important aspect:

the cpu fsb is quad pumped, so it's 200MHz (800 after pump)
the ram bus is dual pumped, so it's 333MHz (667 after pump)

So the cpu bus is still under the ram clock, so the 667 ram will not limit the fsb of the ram. The cpu fsb will still run at 800MHz (200MHz before pump) while the ram is running at 667MHz.

It's the same way with current cpus. The merom fsb is 667 and runs fine on 533 ram.

 

Ok thanks guys, this information has been very helpful

 

Still no one that can truely answer the question if 800 MHz is supported? Zepto has it in their systems. I just want to see some CPUz screenshots!