Swimming through the Sea of DDR2

[wing]

I am looking into upgrading my mobo and am therefore doing alot of research into what will work best. I did this last time and the result was a finely tuned box. Someone reccomended I look into OCZ for my last box (OCZ Gold PC4000, 3.2Ghz P4) and now I am looking to upgrading to LGA and PCIe video card....thus the DDR2

I am looking at either the Abit AW8-Max or the AW8-Max 3rd eye II, the AW8-MAX handling DDR2 667 and the 3rd eye doing DDR2800-1000

First question is does the jump from 677 to 800 make a lot of difference? I am very likely not going to go with 1000 but 800 is not out of the question, i want to get the best performance for the dollar. So I am not set on one or the other of those mobos either since they are basically the same other than the one handles higher speed memory and a couple other items.

Secondly is what brand is your favorite or have you had good luck with? Like I said last time I built my rig someone cued me into OCZ which at the time I had never heard of before but it has been a star. I was looking at some OCZ DDR2 (I would likely be looking at 2GB) and saw some OCZ 667 but no 800. I was also looking at some corsair one being the XMS2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145590

The other corsair I was looking at was the XMS2 TwinX Pro Series

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145589

Both of the corsairs are DDR2 800 But am not sure of the difference between the two, im sure latency has something to do with it but I cant find the timings on the prior...the latter is 5-5-5-12

Any info or past experience is much appreciated!

 

[batboy]

The Abit AW8-Max will handle any DDR2 RAM. The Third Eye version is the same exact motherboard except it has the optional fancy little "third eye" external clock thing that displays frequency, temps, and voltages.

Right now, there are several brands of DDR2 RAM that would be acceptable, like OCZ, Corsair, Kingston, Crucial, and Mushkin. I have some older OCZ EB rev 2 PC2-4200 that does great and has tight timings, but it's not available anymore. The Mushkin Extreme Performance DDR2-667 is wonderful. But looks like you want 2 gig of RAM, so maybe look at the 2X1 gig dual channel PQI Turbo DDR2-667. It overclocks pretty well and you can't beat the price. Look for a forum thread made by Crimedog for some overclocking results.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141211

 

[wing]

Wow that is pretty cheap for 2 gigs! Low prices sometimes also scare me but I will read up some on it and try and make an informed decision

On newegg it listed the AW8-MAX as only handling DDR2 667 and for the 3rd eye listed 800 (up to 1000). So i fyou are saying they are the same exact boards do both handle up to DDR2 1000?

Also I see that you are reccomending DDR2 667...is there much of a benefit in the 800?

Thanks!

 

[batboy]

The DDR2-800 is guaranteed to run faster, but of course at the price of looser timings. My experience so far is that most DDR2-667 RAM will do close to DDR2-800 speed with a bump in voltage. I have Kingston PC2-5400 that will do DDR2-800 and my OCZ PC2-4200 will do DDR2-760. You have to use a high memory ratio to do those high speeds and while that helps performance a little, it's not as much as some folks think. It's still better to run high FSB. I find the 3:4 ratio is pretty much ideal. If you feel more comfortable getting DDR2-800, by all means spend the extra cash and get it. The Corsair is good memory, no doubt.

About the Abit AW8-Max, the official Abit site says both AW8-Max and the Third Eye supports DDR2-800. The Third Eyes also says it supports "Dual DDR2 800. Overclocking both CPU and memory (up to dual DDR2 1000)." They are not officially supporting DDR2-1000, but claim it will O/C to DDR2-1000. It's the same motherboard and any DDR2 will work in both. Here is a link that tells about the Third Eye thing.

http://www.abit-usa.com/technology/3rd-eye.php

 

[wing]

Thanks a ton bud.