Which memory spec for E6600 (confused)

Roachman · 6 Mar 2007 at 17:40

I'm looking to upgrade soon to an E6600 so have been looking at other components too.

I'm really confused about the Ram though :confused:

I see a lot of posts about what people are buying but I don't understand the specs/speeds - PC4200, PC5300 etc.

I'm not looking for brand recommendations (Geil get mentioned a lot though) but some pointers about which spec/speed would be great. If it helps I'm not into O/C'ing but I am a gamer.

Cheers.

Cob · 6 Mar 2007 at 17:46

PC6400 with CAS4 (4-4-4-12 or 4-4-4-15) is what you're after.

PC4200 and PC5300 isn't really worth the money atm since PC6400 can be had for around the same price.

This, this or this would be perfect.

Roachman · 6 Mar 2007 at 19:39

Cob, thanks for the reply.
So is PC6400 a better spec than the others (therefore better value for money) ?

Cob · 6 Mar 2007 at 19:48

It is. It'll help get you a few more frames in your games too.

Roachman · 6 Mar 2007 at 23:39

Superb, thanks a lot.

clv101 · 6 Mar 2007 at 23:49

E6600 is a 9 x 266MHz FSB = 2.4GHz.

266MHz = 533MHz DDR.

That 533MHz gets multiplied by 8 to give 4266 = PC4200.

So for stock operation get PC4200.

However... you don't want to do that!

Overclocking an E6600 by using a 400MHz FSB gives 9 x 400 = 3.6GHz (as much as can be reasonably expected).

400MHz = 800MHz DDR.

Multiply by 8 gives PC6400.

So, for RAM not to be an issue get PC6400 stuff, like:

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £113.96 inc VAT

Roachman · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:18

Thanks for the explanation (so you have to double the FSB then multiply that by 8... no wonder I'm confused

)

Right, so in fact I could use PC4200, PC5300 or PC6400 with the E6600.

Bearing in mind that I'm not intending to O/C I'm assuming that I'm being recommended the PC6400 purely because the prices are so close that I might as well get the best ?

clv101 · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:01

Roachman said:
I'm assuming that I'm being recommended the PC6400 purely because the prices are so close that I might as well get the best ?

Yeah - no point buying slower. On the nVidia chipset at least, you can run the RAM at 800MHz even with the FSB and CPU still at 266MHz / 2.4GHz stock speeds.

Roachman · 7 Mar 2007 at 23:32

Thanks again.

Macro · 10 Mar 2007 at 10:19

So just to ask a daft question where does the PC8500, PC2-9136 and PC8888 memory I see mentioned a lot fit into things?

Ta

Cob · 10 Mar 2007 at 14:39

Athanor said:
So just to ask a daft question where does the PC8500, PC2-9136 and PC8888 memory I see mentioned a lot fit into things?

Ta

They're nearer the cutting age of technology.

Mainly for those with fat wallets.

Tho, like everything else, they will drop to mainstream levels pretty soon.