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Question about ram before I buy...

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Chizzer

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Nov 6, 2006
I am currently running 1 gig of DDR2-667 OCZ GOLD XTC... Tigerdirect has 2 gig kit of this for 89$ or 79$ with rebate which is pretty solid price compared to local... I am going to be upgrading my cpu to most likely one of the 1333fsb processors... would it be pointless of me to use the 667 if I would be running a 1333fsb or maybe 1066fsb depending on price... What's the best way to go? I mean if I stick with what I have now then I'd have myself 3gigs of ram... other way I'd be at 2 gigs of ram but optional speeds up to 1066 before OC...

What to do what to do?

Thanks
 
Since the new 1333MHz processors OC so well they will most likely be pushing high FSB's then you would probably want better RAM at least DDR2-800. I would get a nice set of 2x1GB DDR2-800 and just sell the 667 RAM.
 
If you buy one of the newer 1333mhz fsb processors (E6750, E6850), you'll definitely want at least DDR2-800. depending on how well your ddr2-667 ocz memory overclocks, you may be severely memory limited if you try to overclock one of those new cpus. IMO, you'd be well advised to ditch the ddr2-667 (sell it or use it in another computer if you can), and invest in solid DDR2-800 if you plan on buying a new CPU anytime soon.
 
Thats what I was thinking, with my current setup when I do OC I think the highest I've had my ram was 753mhz I think.... Now with a solid ddr 800 setup what's the average highest OC that's normally reached?
 
^I hope you mean 377MHz, because 753MHz would mean you managed to get DDR2-667 memory overclocked to the equivalent of DDR2-1500 :beer:

anyways, with the excellent crucial ballistix ddr2-800 sticks, you can expect them to easily overclock to 500MHz, or DDR2-1000 speeds. they can go even higher with more voltage and looser timings (higher latencies), but with a cpu on air cooling it's highly unlikely that you would ever reach those FSB speeds
 
shirker said:
^I hope you mean 377MHz, because 753MHz would mean you managed to get DDR2-667 memory overclocked to the equivalent of DDR2-1500 :beer:

anyways, with the excellent crucial ballistix ddr2-800 sticks, you can expect them to easily overclock to 500MHz, or DDR2-1000 speeds. they can go even higher with more voltage and looser timings (higher latencies), but with a cpu on air cooling it's highly unlikely that you would ever reach those FSB speeds
Click to expand...


I meant the ram which is 667mhz was running at 753mhz as in 376.5 lol....
 
Now if I decide to go with Ballistix... is 2gb more then suffice or would anyone recommend the jump to 4 gig? I plan to run vista as it seems to run hellova alost nicer with 2 gigs...Would 4gig benefit much more?
 
running 4GB of memory puts more strain on your NB, possibly hindering your maximum overclock with a new intel cpu, not to mention your memory timings might take a hit if you run 4x1 (or even 2x2). that said, vista 64-bit really does benefit from 4GB of ram as opposed to 2GB, although the gaming performance gains are negligible from what I've seen
 
If you could put a % to it.... how much of loss would you in oc with running 4 gigs over 2 gigs? Or say even with no %... we looking at say max oc 4 ghz on 2 banks of ram down to 3.5ghz with 4 banks of ram type thing? Has anyone done any real bench testing showing if the gain of the ram out performs the loss of the few .ghz??
 
running 4GB of ram might cause you to lose a few performance percentage points, but nothing that should really worry you if you need the extra memory. I recall, although don't hold me two it, that someone tested a DDR2-800 2x1GB kit, and then 2 kits of that for 4x1GB total, and as far as memory bandwidth and benchmarks went, the 2x1GB had 3-6% better performance. AFAIK, it's not that big of a performance hit at all
 
Alrighty sounds good.. I will stick with the 2 gigs for now...

I sold my Dual Core 3.4ghz today.. so going to pick up a E6550 proessor, now to find someone locally that sells crucial ram...
 
ok so I found ram...the crucial PC-8500 Ballistix is 174$+tax and the PC 6400 is 140$... So for the price difference is the jump to 1066 worth it over the 800?
 
Ok so I ordered the 1066 Ballistix 2 gigs... was able to sell some old school ram I had kicking around so only gonna cost me 115$ Cad for the new stuff...

Does this 1066 version oc as well as the 800 stuff?
 
meionm said:
It depends on what you get. The pc8500 could oc better.
Click to expand...

Depends on what I get? Do you mean in the way of cpu's? Cause the memory is still Ballistix but the PC 8500 version.
 
They are referencing the chips themselves. It's the luck of the draw on the quality of the chips on the ram sticks. Just like with CPU's, some are better then others.

This makes no difference if you are not OC'ing, but can make some when you are.

It's the life of an OC'er, Welcome!
 
The PC8500 will probably clock better, you're paying for more of a guarantee of getting the clocks you want. Of course, it's not a guarantee, but you are more likely to get the speed you want with the PC8500 instead of the PC6400.
 
Chizzer said:
ok so I found ram...the crucial PC-8500 Ballistix is 174$+tax and the PC 6400 is 140$... So for the price difference is the jump to 1066 worth it over the 800?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's the good choice for the 7x multi e6550. 500MHz on the Ram (DDR2-1000) would yield 3.5GHz. You could potentially still be bottlenecked by the Ram with a 7x multi if you can oc it above maybe 7x550 (DDR2-1100) but then you're really pushing everything, the mobo, ram and the CPU.
 
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