Looking to buy 4x 2Gb DDR2 800 RAM, recommendations?

[Jed Shields]

Hi guys,

I've currently got 3 PCs running:

HTPC - 2x 1Gb DDR2 800 budget RAM running Athlon 4850

Wife PC- 2x 1Gb DDR2 800 budget RAM running Athlon 4450

Mine - 2x G Skill F2-6400CL4-2GBPK 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-15 @ 400 MHz) (4-4-4-10 @ 266 MHz) (taken from Everest)

I've got a Q6600@ 3000MHz, ABIT IP35.

I'm looking at upgrading both HTPC and Wife PC to 4Gb, so I have a couple of options:

1 - move 2x 1Gb RAM from HTPC to wife PC and get new 2x 2Gb budget RAM

2 - move 2x 1Gb RAM from HTPC to wife PC, move 2x 2Gb RAM from my PC to HTPC and buy 4x 2Gb RAM for my PC.

3 - move 2x 1Gb RAM from HTPC to wife PC and get new 2x 2Gb budget RAM for HTPC plus new 2x 2Gb RAM for my machine.

With option 3 I'm not sure if I can find the same RAM that I've currently got in my PC. Does this matter if it doesn't match, or is option 2 better as they will be the same?

If I go for new RAM for my PC, I have a budget of £120-£150, what would you recommend?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated as I'm not too knowledgable in this area ...

 

[exotic444]

Are you planning to over clock to 4Ghz? if not then I suggest you keep your ram. you ram will still let you clock to at least 3.4 - 3.5Ghz then will have problems after that. Even if you wanted to clock to 4Ghz with that chip you would probs need some good cooling.

 

[Jed Shields]

The Q6600 is overclocked from 2.4GHz, probably not going to look at clocking any more than where it's at now ... although never say never ...

If I do keep my ram, I'll still look at getting another 2x 2Gb sticks - can I mix and match brands? What would you recommend?

 

[exotic444]

Its not reccomended to mix and match brands. If your looking for 4GB I would advise OCZ reapers 4gb (2x2Gb) pc-6400 800Mhz - really good ram, Ocuk used to sell them but I could not find them sorry, I'm sure you can find them elsewhere

 

[Jed Shields]

So if I keep my ram then I should try and find the same brand and model, or brand and spec? Finding the same ram would probably be a nightmare. If that's the case it might be better to move my ram to the other machine and by 4x 2Gb new matched ram ...?