4gb fast or 8gb slow RAM

janesssssy · 1 Oct 2009 at 20:36

I have 4Gb DDR2 800mhz and 4gb 1066Mhz.

shall I run just 4gb fast or combine at the slower speed. I dont like the idea of 4GB sitting around.

Pic is of PC with 4gb 8500 Ram. Will I really notice the difference in speed if I stuck all 8GB in the system running at 6400 (800mhz). or would it be faster? I dont overclock now, PC has been running like this for over a year with any tinkering.

Soz for rush post but gonna eat some cake.

PermaBanned · 1 Oct 2009 at 20:46

8GB won't give you much of an increase in 99% of tasks. But you wouldn't notice a difference between 800MHz and 1066MHz anyway, it's mostly in the CAS and voltages.

Arthalen · 1 Oct 2009 at 20:46

Well, tbh 8GB is overkill for my needs, I've run 8GB for 9 months or so and tbh I don't need it.

I had 8GB of OCZ DDR2-800. I sold the first kit as unneccassry for what I do with my PC (game, game and oh game), and have just purchased some Dominator 1066mhz memory to do some higher overclocking with. The second set of OCZ will be sold when I've got the Corsair up and running.

At the end of the day, its down to what you do with your PC. There isnt that great a speed difference, but I just wanted memory that guaranteed speed wise above the 400FSB threshold and hence the purchase...

JonJ678 · 1 Oct 2009 at 21:05

It depends on use of course. I'd rather 8gb over 4, but then I'm fond of virtual machines. If you don't use virtual machines/ramdisks/mad databases then you probably want 4gb.

However, this is based on cpu clocks going higher with 4gb rather than 8gb. The difference between 800mhz and 1066mhz is probably negligible, but needing it running at twice fsb makes the faster ram appealing.

dangerstat · 1 Oct 2009 at 21:08

Superewza said:
8GB won't give you much of an increase in 99% of tasks. But you wouldn't notice a difference between 800MHz and 1066MHz anyway, it's mostly in the CAS and voltages.

Erm it's not about getting an increase in speed with more memory it's about being able get much faster access to more data :confused:

janesssssy · 2 Oct 2009 at 08:37

Well my clock speed with stay the same at 3Ghz as ive been running for for about a year. Plus i do use VMware to play with server 2008 so 8GB would probably be a good idea.

Thanks.