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Big newbie question reguarding memory and 939

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Phoenix87

Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2003
This question came to me as ive decided to upgrade my system and looked at what other memory people have in their systems. Ive noticed that most people are using PC3200 memory in their computers. What I dont get is why dont people use faster memory? Basically, why do people buy PC3200 memory and try to OC it to PC4000 speeds instead of just buying the PC4000?

Maybe Im missing something here but this is something I just dont understand.
 
Phoenix87 said:
This question came to me as ive decided to upgrade my system and looked at what other memory people have in their systems. Ive noticed that most people are using PC3200 memory in their computers. What I dont get is why dont people use faster memory? Basically, why do people buy PC3200 memory and try to OC it to PC4000 speeds instead of just buying the PC4000?

Maybe Im missing something here but this is something I just dont understand.

The reason I do it is because I am looking for a great bang for the buck. I paid only $100 for a GB of G.Skill PC3200 that runs fine at 250MHz with only 2.9v. To get 1GB of real PC4000 would have cost me considerably more.

So, in essence, I do it for bang/buck through reviews and research, others do it for the challenge of squeezing the most performance with what money they have, and then there are those that do it because they got lucky with good RAM. :p
 
I think Pheonix87 is under the impression that PC4000 ram runs at the speed stock.

The 3200 and the 4000 numbers are the maximum rated speed for that ram, the actuall speed it is running at is decided by your FSB or HTT speed. For example, if I put 4000 memory in my rig it will run at 3200 until I turned off my memory divider.
 
I only buy higher speed memory if its cheap or on sale. Buying PC4000+ is a waste when there are PC3200 modules that easily break that speed.
 
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