CL4-4-4-12 or CL5-5-5-15 memory?

skanky

skanky

skanky

Associate
Joined
21 Jul 2005
Posts
1,416
im buying a system for a mate and atm its running over budget and looking to save some money where possible. i can see 2 different types of corsair 2gb ram, with different costs but the only difference i can see is the above numbers.

it will be going into a p5b/c2d e4300/8800gts system that will hopefully be overclocked to at least 2.7ghz.

if i go for the slower 5-5-5-15, how much will that hinder my overclocking ability. infact apart from being "slower" what else does it impact on?
 
It will make a very small difference. If you're on a budget, why not buy something that's not Corsair?

Also - the rated speeds are for the RAM at the rated speed. On a P5B with an E4300 at 300MHz the RAM will probably be running at 600MHz (PC5000) and you'll probably find both sets of RAM will run considerably tighter timings than the ratings suggest. (possibly as low as 3-3-3-10).

The P5B has a 1:1 a 2:3 and 3:4 divider I think?

If so, then PC7200 RAM would let you run 300FSB and 900MHz RAM. There is some Patriot PC7200 RAM in the clearance section that would allow you to do that. It would give a decent performance improvement over PC6400 RAM that was clocked back to PC5000.
 
whats the very lowest rated speed of ddr2 that i could get away with, that i could overclock with. i only spec'd his system with pc2-6400 as thats the bundle i got for myself..
 
Realistically, with that board and CPU, 667MHz PC5300, but if you ever changed the CPU for a 266MHz FSB one, you'd be kicking yourself for not getting PC6400 or better.

The GeIL CAS5 stuff is £100 this week for 2Gb which is good RAM at a decent price. I only suggested the stuff in clearance because it would give a decent performance hike over the other stuff in that price bracket.

It is possible to buy the phenomenal Crucial PC5300 Ballistix for £115 (OcUK no longer stock it, I think) and if you can get that, it's the best of what's available.
 
so dropping down to 5300 wont affect overclocking much? i change the fsb from 200 to 300 to get my e4300 to 2.7ghz, will i be able to do the same with 5300 rated ram?
 
If you're using the 1:1 or 2:1 ratio then at 300FSB your RAM is only running at 600, which is well inside the 667MHz rating on PC5300.

What divider are you using on the RAM?
 
skanky said:
i think i understand the ratings now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR2_SDRAM#Modules

so according to that table, in theory with pc2-5300, i wouldnt get the fsb to 334mhz as the limit for that ram is 333mhz, correct?
Click to expand...

Theoretically, in fact you can often go much higher. The Crucial Ballistix PC5300 with the 'golden' Micron chips is rated 667MHz 3-3-3-8 but several samples have actually ben tested stable at 1200MHz 5-5-5-31 if you care to push it that hard.

Like CPU's, you can often overclock RAM as well!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom