Stupid DDR3 triple channel RAM question: socket 775 board

I'm considering an i7, but might end up getting a socket 775 board for now. (Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3P http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128369 )

Anyway, it'd all be bought with upgrading in mind. Either migrating to an X58 board or a Q9650 or some such.

Question: If I buy a pack of 6GB triple channel DDR3 ram, it's not going to cause me problems in a board that only supports dual channel, right? (Or if I bought 2 packs, and have 4 slots, I'm basically just running 8GB dual channel and have 4GB to sell or hold on to until I get an X58 board, yeah?

I mean, there aren't going to be compatibility issues 'cause RAM is RAM, right? (Other than any compatibility issues that the board may suffer from with certain sticks anyway.)

Just wanted to double check before I do anything stupid.

Thanks for the help

If you can afford the i7 I suggest you get it.
Even a budget i7 tends to match/outperform a high end quad core in performance

Madmann135 said:

If you can afford the i7 I suggest you get it.
Even a budget i7 tends to match/outperform a high end quad core in performance

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I could be wrong, but I'm pretty confident that overclocked C2D's still rock most of the gaming world, which is all I'm interested in doing. (Talking 4~GHz OC's on E7400 or E8400 series.) It'd save me roughly $300 at this time over going i7-920 + X58 mobo. Then maybe in 2010 I'd be taking a look at any new sockets that may have been released/lower prices on i7's and X58 boards or getting a quad, depending on performance. (If I did switch to i7, everything aside from the CPU and board would be migrated over to it, hence why I'm asking about the DDR3 RAM question; the board uses socket 775 and doesn't support triple channel, only dual. I assume it's not a problem, but wanted verification.) Additionally, with that extra $300, (roughly, might be $200-$250) I could get a higher end GPU or go SLI/Crossfire, which would further kick the pants off a similarly priced i7 system at this time.

Not bashing the i7, just at this time I'm thinking an overclocked E7400 or E8*00 series + a 775 board is a much better buy for what I want to do with it (play games) and still out performs it. Plus, as I said, everything minus mobo/cpu (which I'm sure could be sold for a budget system without a problem) could be migrated if I wish to do that next year sometime.

I know in my first post I said I was considering the i7, but obviously the more I think about it, the more I am leaning towards a C2D. Depends when I actually get around to building the system though. hehe

So then why get DDR3? DDR2 can still be had for dirt cheap.

If you are upgrading now, I think it is better to move to i7 than waiting, as there will be cost of the 775 board and the Q9650. An E8400 vs a core i7 in older games are clock for clock identical, but the core i7 does much better in newer games that are multithreaded and also handles multi-gpu setups better.

Otherwise DDR3 will have no benefits on your 775 setup unless in memory bandwitdh benchmarks...

Badbonji said:

If you are upgrading now, I think it is better to move to i7 than waiting, as there will be cost of the 775 board and the Q9650. An E8400 vs a core i7 in older games are clock for clock identical, but the core i7 does much better in newer games that are multithreaded and also handles multi-gpu setups better.

Otherwise DDR3 will have no benefits on your 775 setup unless in memory bandwitdh benchmarks...

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Wouldn't using DDR3 give me the advantage of being more easily able to achieve a higher FSB without having to worry about my RAM crapping out and being the bottleneck for my OC?

TehGoober said:

Wouldn't using DDR3 give me the advantage of being more easily able to achieve a higher FSB without having to worry about my RAM crapping out and being the bottleneck for my OC?

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Decent to good DDR2 RAM can hit speeds of 500mhz or more. With a 1:1 ratio, that is a FSB of 500mhz. Most quad cores won't hit that and any decent dual core will. Now add a low 8x multi and that is 4ghz right on the button.

That is assuming only 500 for the FSB, good ram can do 600+ (1200 DDR2) and a low multi on the processor.

thideras said:

Decent to good DDR2 RAM can hit speeds of 500mhz or more. With a 1:1 ratio, that is a FSB of 500mhz. Most quad cores won't hit that and any decent dual core will. Now add a low 8x multi and that is 4ghz right on the button.

That is assuming only 500 for the FSB, good ram can do 600+ (1200 DDR2) and a low multi on the processor.

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Right. I know the DDR2 1200 can definitely hit those higher FSB speeds, but I didn't want to shell out so much to get something that I'd be dumping when I do upgrade. (The ones available at newegg right now are $270 , even if the cheaper ones were available, they'd be $105 for 4GB, which is more than I paid for 6GB of DDR3 1600, which I'll still be able to use after upgrading my board.) Wonder what I can squeeze out of the timings at the lower FSB...

I'm seeing your point with the quads not being able to hit that high anyway though.

But yeah, $100 for 6GB of DDR3 1600. I bought my last set of 4GB DDR2 1000 RAM for $100. It's not like it's super expensive, it's relative. To me, this is more valuable as I'm looking to future upgrades, and again, saving an extra $200-300 (or more, lots of stuff going on in the classifieds) and I'll be able to get a much nicer GPU, which I think is a smarter move. To each their own though. I think the answer to my question is the RAM should work without a hitch. Thanks guys.

TehGoober said:

Right. I know the DDR2 1200 can definitely hit those higher FSB speeds, but I didn't want to shell out so much to get something that I'd be dumping when I do upgrade. (The ones available at newegg right now are $270 , even if the cheaper ones were available, they'd be $105 for 4GB, which is more than I paid for 6GB of DDR3 1600, which I'll still be able to use after upgrading my board.) Wonder what I can squeeze out of the timings at the lower FSB...

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105 for 4gig?! All you need to do is find some with the d9 chips and overclock them yourself, don't get the ones rated for those speeds, they are going to be way overpriced. Do some research and find out what ones overclock really well and get the "lower speed" ones.

Like my G.skill overclock very well and they are rated 1600mhz 9-9-9-24, when it easily does 1800mhz 8-8-8-20 1T at 1.62V

Teh Goober, you are right both the CPU point and the Memory point.

I have C2Duo E8500 Wolfsdale OCed only to 3.8 and it hit 33,000 processor score on 3D Mark Vantage on a 64b Vista. I am yet to see such a score there for an I7. I see plenty of i7 OCed to 4Ghz with a 23k range scores.
I have never seen game tests where quad cores beat a E8500 (OCed), bar Crysis. This will change in future though, but who knows when.

What is funny I have the same mobo you think of buying, only mine is the 1 PCI Express slot version. It looks identical. Overclocking is cake. May be too many options. The explanations in the manual how to work the BIOS are 100 useless..

I also played OCing C2Duo E7300 with different Rams and it is easy with DDR3 1333 but impossible with the OCZ black DDR2 1066 I had.

And yes, it's hard to bottleneck an OCed E8500 with games. Even with two 9800 GX2 cards still the GPUs are the bottleneck in games.

I am not expert though, these are just things I experienced myself in the last year..

thideras said:

105 for 4gig?! All you need to do is find some with the d9 chips and overclock them yourself, don't get the ones rated for those speeds, they are going to be way overpriced. Do some research and find out what ones overclock really well and get the "lower speed" ones.

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I'd considered that, but I'd honestly just rather have the RAM for when I migrate. Granted, it's possible DDR3 plummets in price and the cost ends up being the same either way (buying the DDR3 now or buying the DDR2 now and the DDR3 later), but I'd rather not take a chance at getting something that *should* be able to overclock (aside from the CPU) because I can't deal with returns.

Badbonji said:

Like my G.skill overclock very well and they are rated 1600mhz 9-9-9-24, when it easily does 1800mhz 8-8-8-20 1T at 1.62V

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I actually went ahead and ordered a set of those as instead of the OCZ. Looking forward to it. I know people are recommending DDR2, but this just seems like a better move for migrating to i7 next year. (If needed.)

ravaneli said:

Teh Goober, you are right both the CPU point and the Memory point.

I have C2Duo E8500 Wolfsdale OCed only to 3.8 and it hit 33,000 processor score on 3D Mark Vantage on a 64b Vista. I am yet to see such a score there for an I7. I see plenty of i7 OCed to 4Ghz with a 23k range scores.
I have never seen game tests where quad cores beat a E8500 (OCed), bar Crysis. This will change in future though, but who knows when.

What is funny I have the same mobo you think of buying, only mine is the 1 PCI Express slot version. It looks identical. Overclocking is cake. May be too many options. The explanations in the manual how to work the BIOS are 100 useless..

I also played OCing C2Duo E7300 with different Rams and it is easy with DDR3 1333 but impossible with the OCZ black DDR2 1066 I had.

And yes, it's hard to bottleneck an OCed E8500 with games. Even with two 9800 GX2 cards still the GPUs are the bottleneck in games.

I am not expert though, these are just things I experienced myself in the last year..

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, great to hear real experiences. Unless I can get a really good deal on the E8*00 in the classifieds, I'll definitely be going with an E7300 which I can buy locally for $115~. (In addition to saving a bit, I've read that it overclocks about the same and the cache doesn't really make a difference in your games at that speed. Also interested in overclocking a different model CPU.) Last E8400 I had was rock solid stable @ 4Ghz. Was a C0 though and I think the RAM was also holding me back. Still, 4GHz was overkill for games I played.

If anyone is looking for ddr3 triple channel, look here for a good deal on G.skill ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247
I just saw it going for $104.99 for 1600Mhz 8-8-8-21 which has higher stock timings but runs at 1.6-1.65V (may mean it performs the same overall) but has those PI heatspreaders.