PC4000 DDR

Is PC4000 DDR worth the extra price over PC3200 DDR?

Its up to what you want, all pc4000 will give you is a guaranteed overclock as its rated to run 250mhz/ddr500 so if you need ram that guarantees you that then yes, if not then you could just pick up good OCing ddr400 as it *should* oc just as far, of course good ocing ddr400 will probably run roughly the same price.

well, from what I read, the pc4000 was 500mhz, compared to the PC3200's 200mhz... didn't know if it'd be worth it to get it.

Ok, let's help you understand this:

PC3200 is "rated" for 400mhz operation. (200FSB at double-data-rate speed is 400mhz effective)

PC4000 is "rated" for 500mhz operation. (250FSB at double-data-rate speed is 500mhz effective)

However, simply installing "faster" ram isn't really what you're doing. The ram is rated to go faster in systems where it needs to, but if your computer is only running your memory at 333mhz, then no matter what ram you drop in, it's only going to do 333mhz.

As such, the only time it really becomes necessary to buy higher speed-rated ram is if you expect to force your system to run the ram at that higher speed. You typically do this by overclocking...

Make more sense?

Albuquerque said:

Ok, let's help you understand this:

PC3200 is "rated" for 400mhz operation. (200FSB at double-data-rate speed is 400mhz effective)

PC4000 is "rated" for 500mhz operation. (250FSB at double-data-rate speed is 500mhz effective)

However, simply installing "faster" ram isn't really what you're doing. The ram is rated to go faster in systems where it needs to, but if your computer is only running your memory at 333mhz, then no matter what ram you drop in, it's only going to do 333mhz.

As such, the only time it really becomes necessary to buy higher speed-rated ram is if you expect to force your system to run the ram at that higher speed. You typically do this by overclocking...

Make more sense?

Click to expand...

X2.

You will have to manually make some adjustments in the bios to get these "FASTER" sticks actually running "FASTER"

Three years ago i purchased my ddr4000 mushkin sticks and o/c'd them to the specs in my sig. My rig is still running great today. There's not much of a chance of o/cing like i have with 3200 sticks. But you can always try!

all right, you sig and you statement there are confusing. You state you purchased DDR4000, which can be a typo of either DDR400 or PC4000. You sig states it is PC4000 which makes them DDR500 rated ram. Now you report that you FSB is 230hz, so im going to assume (if you read one of my other posts you'll laugh at that) that you are running this "PC4000" ram at 230Mhz, but if it is in fact PC4000 its rated to run at 250Mhz, therefore you have underclocked them, not overclocked. Now all i have just said can be beat'n down with a stick if you say you acutally meant the ram is DDR400(PC3200) and therefore rated at 200Mhz, showing you have overclocked to 230Mhz (DDR460) which is fairly good for DDR400 ram.

Now if you want to just upgrade to 2Gb ram with your current system, we can assume (there i go again) that your ram isnt limiting your current overclock. That means you will only every run you 2gb kit at 230Mhz, which is within reach of most DDR400 2Gb kits. If you get DDR500 ram, you are garrentied that 230Mhz will work, but you are also going to run them 20Mhz underclocked.