Ram Tec..

[ShadeMoon]

Greetings all..

I am new to these forums although i have been looking at OC for sometime and drooling over all the tasty products they have on their site.


So a bit about my set up before i go into my problem.

I am one of these guys who buys his top end PCs from Dell then Alienware(yup, i know people will have something to say about dell but i have never had a problem with them) at the moment i have a year old Alienware Arora R2.

As of last week i have decided to upgrade the machine i have with new tec parts but still keeping the PC.

First thing i am going to do is buy some ram from OC.UK and install it. The thing is i have looked on my CPU-Z and i don't understand some of the info it is saying about my ram.

My system information says i am running 2x 2GB of DDR3 PC3-10660 (1333 MHz)-Mem_Frequency: 1336MHz.

CPU-Z is reading something different..

It says PC3-10700(667MHz) kingston part number KP223C_ELD..

I thought my pc was running at 1336mhz and why does it say pc3-10700 and not pc3-10660?

I want to install another 4 gig but i am not sure which ram to get.

Thanks..

 

[cmndr_andi]

Hi there,

Yea, that seems to be a Kingston 1333MHz kit you have there. Ideally if you want to do a RAM upgrade you will either buy another 2x2GB of the same type or do a full replacement (buy a new 2x4GB kit like this, and sell of the existing kit). The PC3-10660/10700 difference is really nothing to worry about - it's basically all to do with rounding - it sounds like your RAM is running at exactly the speed it should.

May I ask what you use your system for mainly? If it's just gaming then I would suggest sticking with the 4GB of RAM (plenty for modern PC games) and instead consider spending the money on other parts (like a new graphics card or an SSD). May I ask what your full system spec is?

 

[ShadeMoon]

Greetings ..

Okay thanks for response but could you tell me why the cpu-z is showing me my ram running at 667mhz and not 1333mhz?

Do i need to over clock the ram or something? That ram you liked,will it fit into my PC because it's running at higher frequency?

As for my pc the specs are..

Alienware Arora R2

Windows Home Premium 64bit

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz (have not over clocked it)

4gig ram..

875 watt PUS

1TB Hard Drive

2x 5870 ati crossfire..

0RV30W P55 Motherboard .. Link with x8 Max support x16

I want to change to Nvidia and was thinking of a nvidia 580 gtx single card. I am also thinking of replacing my cpu with a new sandy bridge and a new motherboard but i don't really know where to start.

Do you think i should just replace the graphic cards with the 580gtx and that will be okay?

I am told i could overclock but i have never overclocked anything in my PC.

 

[cmndr_andi]

With Dual Data Rate (DDR) ram the effective clockspeed (the frequency advertised - eg 1333MHz in your case) is produced from an actual clockspeed of half this frequency (666MHz) since data is sent on both the rising and falling clock pulse. Therefore your RAM is running perfectly fine.

As for replacing your graphics card - that should work fine, however please bear in mind that in terms of gaming performance 5870CF is faster than a single GTX 580, have a look here.

As for replacing the CPU and motherboard with sandy bridge, I would suggest the i5 2500K CPU and a good P67 board like this MSI P67-GD53 (here is a review).

That said, instead of spending £260 on a Sandy Bridge upgrade I would strongly suggest sticking with your existing (still very fast) i5 750 system and perhaps overclocking it a bit. If the cooler that comes with the alienware isn't great then I would suggest upgrading it to a new one like this.

 

[ShadeMoon]

With Dual Data Rate (DDR) ram the effective clockspeed (the frequency advertised - eg 1333MHz in your case) is produced from an actual clockspeed of half this frequency (666MHz) since data is sent on both the rising and falling clock pulse. Therefore your RAM is running perfectly fine.

As for replacing your graphics card - that should work fine, however please bear in mind that in terms of gaming performance 5870CF is faster than a single GTX 580, have a look here.

As for replacing the CPU and motherboard with sandy bridge, I would suggest the i5 2500K CPU and a good P67 board like this MSI P67-GD53 (here is a review).

That said, instead of spending £260 on a Sandy Bridge upgrade I would strongly suggest sticking with your existing (still very fast) i5 750 system and perhaps overclocking it a bit. If the cooler that comes with the alienware isn't great then I would suggest upgrading it to a new one like this.

Okay that sounds like a good idea then. So how do i overclock my cpu,do i have to go into bios or something.