DDR2 PC2-8000 - worth it?

Euphoria · 3 Oct 2006 at 01:47

i am looking to upgrade my whole system and hit a problem with what memory to buy. At the moment i am still on DDR PC3200 i think thats 400mhz and a 800fsb intel chip. I am looking to upgrade to core 2 but noticed there is 6400 and other speeds. What catches my attention is the PC2-8000 since this 1024mhz right? a lot of people are selling PC2-6400.

Is 8000 worth it with a core 2? from what i can see in the name on the OcUK web site the core 2's run at 1024Mhz so the memory at that speed and chip should produce little bottleneck oppose to a other a dual core chips running at a slower rate?

Cob · 3 Oct 2006 at 02:59

Decent PC6400 will be more than enough. I'm running my Conroe at 450x8 and the Geil PC6400 runs happily at 1:1 @4-4-4-12.

And Intel use the quad-pumped fsb rating of 1066Mhz to advertise their Core 2 Duos. You need to divide that by 4 to get their 'true' fsb rating of 266Mhz. PC4200 is enough to run a stock Conroe.

Euphoria · 3 Oct 2006 at 11:03

so quad core will be 1066Mhz? i am just wondering it might be worth spending the little extra for the faster memory so i will not need to upgrade later on. When is quad core expected to be released?

Cob · 3 Oct 2006 at 11:42

Quad-core will run at 266Mhz as well. You only need pc8000 if you've got a chip that will overclock to 500Mhz +. And even then quite a lot of pc6400 is capable of hitting that level.

Azrael1 · 3 Nov 2006 at 16:04

It depends, some PC8000 is only a little more the their 6400 counterparts.

In fact I've seen some 6400 thats are more expensive then 8000

Nelly · 3 Nov 2006 at 18:46

H'mm say for example using G.Skill 2GB DDR2 HZ PC2-8000 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8000PHU2-2GBHZ) (MY-010-GS) if it was run at 6400 would you be able to tighten the actual timings from 4-4-4-5 to something better? Anyone with the sticks able to enlighten us?

Flanno · 13 Nov 2006 at 00:57

I'd like to know this as well ?

According to an Anandtech review of the Gskill 6400 HZ, it uses Micron D chips like the 8000 chips but the 8000 is a better binning and should be capable of 333 at 2.2v, whereas the 6400 stuff can reach 333 but at 2.35v which my BadAxe of course won't do without being modded. So I guess if I had the 8000 stuff I could run at 3335 at 800mhz possibly since they are guaranteed to do 4445 at 1000mhz. Question is what voltage would be needed. Hopefully 2.2v. But these chips are guaranteed to work in the 2.2v-2.4v range so it's a crapshoot.