best ram

scholesy · 6 Aug 2007 at 01:06

Hi, a few questions i need help with.

i'm looking to get some new memory for an upgrade with;

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail

either;

Gigabyte GA_P35_DS4 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Gigabyte GA_P35_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

i can't decide.

i've currently got an a8n32-sli Deluxe, and a 939 amd 64x2 4200@2625mhz with 4x1gb of crucial

ballistix pc 4000. i'm running vista 64 ultimate.

having 4gb affects my read/write/latency times going from 1T to 2T

using everest read/write on 2 gb is 7813Mbs/7019Mbs/56.8ns

using everest read/write on 4 gb is 6986Mbs/4695Mbs/55.4ns

so latencys slightly better on 4 gb but read/write not good atall.

saying that vista ultimate definetely runs smoother with 4gb rather than 2gb imo.

anyway, so for my new build i still want 4gb of ram.

3 questions, cheers in advance

are read/write times affected going from 1T to 2T with ddr2?

if so, would i be better buying 2x2gb of ram to run in 1T or 4x1gb to run in 2T?

what would be the best combination of ram to go for, taking into consideration my new cpu/mobo?

i'm unfamiliar with core 2 duo and ddr2 so i'd really appreciate some advice

Kingy1968 · 6 Aug 2007 at 15:05

Ive had the Crucial Ballistix 8500 stuff and I never had a problem with it

Cob · 6 Aug 2007 at 17:15

scholesy said:
3 questions, cheers in advance

are read/write times affected going from 1T to 2T with ddr2?

if so, would i be better buying 2x2gb of ram to run in 1T or 4x1gb to run in 2T?

what would be the best combination of ram to go for, taking into consideration my new cpu/mobo?

i'm unfamiliar with core 2 duo and ddr2 so i'd really appreciate some advice

Forget about 1T for an Intel system. It has far less effect on Intel systems than it does on the AMD systems. Infact the nVidia chipset motherboards are the only ones to offer 1T for Intel, and even then it can't be used over ~800mhz, often a lot less.

scholesy · 6 Aug 2007 at 22:13

Cob said:
Forget about 1T for an Intel system. It has far less effect on Intel systems than it does on the AMD systems. Infact the nVidia chipset motherboards are the only ones to offer 1T for Intel, and even then it can't be used over ~800mhz, often a lot less.

so, your telling me that 1T/2T isnt a factor worth thinking about when it comes to intel.

thats good, thanks for that

so, if i'm buying a e6850 and i've decided to go for the gigabyte ds4, what is the best 4gb of memory to buy for £200 or less if possible?

taking into account that i want to overclock this chip to about as high as it gos and i don't want the memory to hold it back.

i'd prefer to go for 2x2gb so theirs the possibility of another 4gb down the line.

choices i've looked at are the corsair, geil, ocz and the g.skill pc2 6400. which should i go for?
or should i go for something else? :confused:

i've been reading reviews and thinking about this for ages so when i've finally chosen the memory i can FINALLY get the stuff ordered!

cheers in advance for a reply

MumboJumbo · 7 Aug 2007 at 13:20

By the time you need 8gb to run anything DDR3 will be common place and probably a better upgrade to go for as youll be looking to upgrade your CPU by then probably and might even need the new PCI-E 2.

Im considering getting 4gb of this and overclocking it to 1000mhz. But now im told they may have switched the chips recently in them and they might not overclock as well?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-088-CR&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=144

BlackEyedAngel · 7 Aug 2007 at 14:42

I just bought 4Gb of the Ballistix 5300 to go with an E6850 on the Gigabyte P35 board. Not sure how it will perform though, should all arrive on Saturday.

scholesy · 7 Aug 2007 at 17:19

8igdave said:
By the time you need 8gb to run anything DDR3 will be common place and probably a better upgrade to go for as youll be looking to upgrade your CPU by then probably and might even need the new PCI-E 2.

thats the way it goes, i know, so i'll rule out the 5300 crucial anyway.

BlackEyedAngel said:
I just bought 4Gb of the Ballistix 5300 to go with an E6850 on the Gigabyte P35 board. Not sure how it will perform though, should all arrive on Saturday.

tell me how ya get on

but hopefully i'll be busy settin mine up :rolleyes:

So what is the best bang for buck to get the best out of this chip and board i'm purchasing?

MumboJumbo · 7 Aug 2007 at 17:23

well if the 5300 still runs D9 chips then they are by far the best bang for buck. 65 quid to get 1000mhz at 4-4-4-12 or over 1000mhz at looser timings.

If they havn't changed it im going to buy it but i need to find out. There are people posting reviews of having these overclocks this jully. So if it was changed, it must have been done very recently!