Another which RAM is best for me :P

Hi, Im going to be getting a new PC soon and wanted a bit of advice. Here are the specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail

EVGA 122-CK-NF68 NF680i SLI, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1200/533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX (if it turns out to be a good mobo)

Hopefully a 8800 when I have the money (a 7800GTX for now)

All watercooled

I was wondering what RAM to get? Some DDR2-800? I don't want it 2 be too expensive.

Thanks

I'm sure most people would steer you in the direction of getting some ram that has the Micron D9 chips in it. Some stuff that I have read good things about and a few members from these forums have picked up are these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820148017. They are only ddr2 667 however they can clock up to 500 mhz + from what I have read. The price is not too bad considering what you get. That would be my suggestion to you and I'm sure others here would agree. I do see that you are in the UK however so Newegg is a no go for you unfortunately. Also that was a 2 gig kit, is that what you were leaning towards?

Check out this list of ddr2 modules and the chips that they contain, it can be a great help and was shown to me by another member of this forum: http://ramlist.ath.cx/ddr2/

Sorry im kinda new to this, so because they can clock up to 500mhz, due to it being double data rate, i will get a clock of 1000mhz?

Yes, that is correct. Potentially anyways! YMMV (your mileage may vary!)

But are they not 667mhz stock, so that would be 1334mhz stock speed?

No, they are 333 stock so that equals ddr2 667 or pc2-5300. Also, check out this thread here, it talks about that Crucial ram I mentioned.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=484649

Oh ok, but would it be better to get some ddr800 ram? Ive read the thread and they are subtituting some CAS for the speed. Is that worth it?

Thanks

Well getting ddr2 800 will certainly guarantee you 400 mhz (at least) however you will most likely spend a little more for them. DDR2 800 ram in the US is going for at least around $250 and up to $300+ so you would have to decide if that's worth it to you.

But is it worth letting the CAS delay increase for the speed?

Also what makes this RAM overclock so high?

Well the higher you go up the worse the timings will get, generally. Adding more voltage can help but all in all that's typically how it goes.

As far as what allows those Crucials to clock so well, from what I understand anyways, it is that they have the Micron D9 chips in them. From what I have read that is the cream of the crop for ddr2 right now so getting any sticks with the d9s in them should clock very well. So for a relatively cheap solution and decent clocks those Crucials fit the bill well for alot of people. Again, take a look at this list of ram and pretty much anything with a flavor of Micron D9 will do you well: http://ramlist.ath.cx/ddr2/ .

Think I will go for this RAM then, but its not avaiable in the U.K if the CAS increases by 1, will i see much of a difference?

Also soory for the stupid question, but will my CPU overclock higher with better RAM? And also what are the advantages of running RAM at a higher clock rate? Sorry for the stupid questions

Thank you

I am not too sure how much increasing the timings will affect performance. Obviously there will be a hit but I really doubt it would be all that noticeable. You would notice it in benchmarking but for normal use you most likely wouldn't.

Having good, quality ram will certainly allow your cpu to clock better than using some generic value ram however there can always be exceptions to the rule. Advantages of running ram overclocked will get you some better performance, a few more points in a benchmark and maybe a few more FPS in a game. There are other people here who can probably better answer that question for you however.

This is the stuff that I picked up for my e6300: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227139, although I am having second thoughts. In a few days I will see how it fares but I wish I had goten some stuff with d9's in it.

Also I am at work and it will most likely get busy soon so this may be my last reply to you for awhile, I hope I helped a little anyways! lol

Thank you so much for your time and for helping me Ive learnt a lot

Thanks

To answer your question about the timings a little more you will find that most ddr2 800 has 4-4-4 timings. So yeah those people with those Crucials are increasing their timings as they increase the MHz but they are doing it on par with what you would get from ddr2 800 for the most part.

What kind of options do you have to choose from in your location?? Were you going through a local retailer or an e-tailer in the UK? Also were you getting 2 gb or just one?

I was going to get 2GB from an online retailer. Such as www.overclockers.co.uk, www.overclock.co.uk, www.over-clock.co.uk, www.ebuyer.co.uk, www.misco.co.uk

Ok, ive read up on some material. So the FSB of a computer is the clock rate. SO because im using DDR memory in my current computer, the memory will operate at twice the speed of the fsb. So my fsb is 200mhz, by RAM should operate at 400mhz if im using a 1:1 ratio. But my RAM is pc4000 so should operate at 500mhz. But its only on a frequency of 200mhz (400mhz due to DDR). So does that mean I can decrease my timings? On the OCZ website it says:

CL 2-3-3-8 at 2.6V(400MHz)
CL 2-2-2-8 at 3.3V(500MHz)

But why does it have lower timing for 500 than 400Mhz? Is it because the voltage is higher? So if i increase my voltage, can i get CL 2-2-2-8 at 3.3V on 400Mhz.


Also does RAM affect CPU overclocking because if i raise the FSB, and the RAM will not operate very well when the FSB is raised, this will limit my clock? So by getting RAM that operates at a high frequency it will be able to reach high speeds. So if i was to get a ddr800 ram on a 200mhz FSB, with a 1:1 ratio the ram would operate at 400mhz (so i could decrease timing) or if i wanted to overclock the CPU, the RAM would have no problem going higher as it can operate easily at 800mhz. But how does a motherboard affect this? And how can some motherboards accept different types of ram? (is this because it changes its ratio to make the RAM work)?

Also some motherboard specs say 1066MHz FSB. What does this mean?

Ok, I understand it all now (i hope ) So if i get that memory, I can overclock my fsb to around ~400Mhz max which is what i am hoping for. Then the RAM will run at 800mhz but since it is capabile 1000+Mhz, so after the CPU has reached max speeds I can change the ratio to around ~4:5 to make the RAM run faster and obviously increase vDIMM and increase the timings.

Have I got that all right? Also I can get the RAM from crucial directly.

Thanks

Yeah, I'd say you have it all down now. The thing about the core 2 duo is that they actually run at a default bus speed of 266. The 1066 is quad pumped (its an intel thing) so dividing that number by 4 gives you 266. On your current a64 setup the default bus speed is 200 so running 1:1 allows your ram to run at 200mhz or ddr400.

The reason that the ocz ram can have tighter timings at higher frequencies is due to all the extra volts as you can see. Going from 2.6 to 3.3 is a big difference and probably would require some extra cooling like a fan blowing on the ram. Also not alot of motherboards have that high of a vdimm in the BIOS to my knowledge. But yes, increasing your voltage should allow you to achieve better timings at that lower frequency, and you may not even have to raise it that much.

If you're planning on getting the e6600, which has a multiplier of 9, running at 400 FSB would get you up to 3.6 potentially and that would be really, really nice! I'd say you have it down, now just get the parts and start oc'ing!

Ye I changed my timing now to 2-2-2-8 at 3.3volts. Yay i understand it all Gonna get all the stuff soon. Thank you soo much for all the help

Hopefully I was more of a help rather than confusing you more or anything. It certainly sounds like you have it all figured out though so I'm glad to see that! Definitely keep us posted with your results when you get the new c2d system up and running!

Also out of curiosity what do you have your 4000+ clocked at right now?