DDR2/DDR3 800/1066 ?????

ndeller

ndeller

ndeller

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18 Nov 2007
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104
Hi,
I am looking at building a brand new machine from scratch and have had trouble deciding between DDDR2/DDR3, P35 or X38 chipsets etc.

I think I have now decided upon P35 (more choice and less problems from what I can tell) and DDR2 because DDR3 is far too overpriced for what appears to be a minimal increase in performance to money ratio.

The one thing I am not sure on is whether or not to buy DDR2 800 modules or DDR2 1066 modules. From what I understand 1066 is not an official standard and also slightly more expensive.
Ideally I want 4GB of ram but cannot find any 1066 2GB modules. Would you advise me getting 4GB of 1066 speed in 1GB modules or 4GB 800 speed in 2GB modules?

Obviously if I get 800 speed it leaves me able to add an additional 4gb later on (should I ever need that much) and I believe would then enhance the machines power more so than 4x1GB modules of 1066 speed.

Please can you confirm my thoughts are accurate/inaccurate? Please also give any suggestions as I am not too hardware savvy.

Thanks for reading guys & gals

Nick
 
There's no real point in buying faster than PC6400 unless you're going to be overclocking a CPU with a low multiplier.
 
DDR2 MHZ

Hi,

Thanks for the reply definately worth noting. Could somebody please clarify the following:

If the mother board I get says it runs DDR2 1066MHZ, does that mean I need to buy DDR2 memory modules that run at 1066mhz.
Or do I just need to get 533mhz because its actually doubled so it is really 1066Mhz.

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks
Nick
 
You need PC8500/DDR2-1066 to run at 1066mhz.

But you will be able to run PC5300 and PC6400 fine on the board.
 
I think you're right about DDR3, but I'm fairly happy with my CellShock DDR3-1800.

The big problem with DDR3 at the moment, apart from the price, is that current mobos can't drive them fast enough. For my RAM, I need 450 FSB which is ok (max I can do, tested with either E2140 and Q6600, is 465 for DDR3-1860), so I've kept to stock speed and voltage but tightened the timings from 8-7-6-21 to 7-6-5-15. But I'd dearly love 500 FSB or more from the P5K3 P35 chipset; the trouble is that P35 chipsets vary as much as CPUs when it comes to performance. The serious overclockers buy 5 mobos and keep the best one, sell the rest on ebay - I'm not that crazy about it though!
 
hmm....

I Think I must have misunderstood Overclockers advice then. I rang them earlier and explained that I was buying the following board/processor:

P5K3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP:
1333 / 1066 / 800 MHz
4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 1066*/800 / 667

I will be running Q6600 SLACR processer

I explained that I wanted to get 1066 MHZ DDR2 ram and I was informed that the actual ram I would need would be the 4200 (or 5300 for OC) because this is 533mhz (667 OC) which is actually 1066 because you double it.

Is this not the case. If I want to gain maximum potential out of the above board would I need to get 1066mhz (8500 series) DDR2 Ram.

Sorry to dwel on this I just need to make sure im getting the absolute maximum potential out of my new machine.

Thanks everyone
Nick
 
They were confused.

The Q6600 needs only PC4200 (533mhz) to run at stock speeds (266 x 2= 533).
 
ndeller said:
I Think I must have misunderstood Overclockers advice then. I rang them earlier and explained that I was buying the following board/processor:

P5K3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP:
1333 / 1066 / 800 MHz
4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 1066*/800 / 667
Click to expand...

Whoa, that's a DDR3 board.

Also, DDR2-1066 is like PC8500 as you say. Stop and look into this some more.
 
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The Q6600 runs off a 266mhz FSB (ignore the 1066mhz rating that Intel give their chips as it creates far too much confusion). You double that 266mhz to get the minimum required memory speed - 266 x 2 = 533 ie- PC4200/DDR2-533.

Ofcourse if you're intending to overclock then you need faster memory. PC6400 is considered to be the wisest as it will allow a Q6600 to get to atleast 3.6ghz (400 x 9).
 
Confused :confused:

So if I was to buy the Q6600 and the Asus PK5 DeluxeP35, the best ram to get would be the PC6400 DDR2 800 MHZ (as it would run at 1200+MHZ OC). Even though the FSB on the motherboard is 1300max?

Cheers for everybodies help so far.

Nick
 
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No PC6400 runs at 800mhz (it's actually 400 x 2). And the max FSB of the P5K Deluxe is actually well over 2000mhz, tho they don't advertise this.

If you're going to use the Intel FSB rating (which is 1066mhz for a stock Q6600) then you divide that by two to get the required memory speed (so 1066mhz = 533mhz, which is PC4200).

The PC6400 will stick with an overclocked Q6600 until the Q6600 is over a 1600mhz FSB (3.6ghz or 400mhz x 9).
 
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