[max302]

I am currently in the process of building a sickass gaming box for myself, and I've gotten pretty much everything decided on, but one thing remains unclear in my head, and that is what type of memory to use.

I've been looking into this motherboard, and the manufacturer page page tells me that it supports dual channel DDR2, at speeds of PC6400, or 800 mhz.

Now, I've been reading a lot of french overclock magazines and such in which lots of articles deal about overclocking memory to match the front side bus, as too unify the speed of transfer between CPU and memory, resulting in greater performance. Lots of overclocks have gotten up to 1033 and 1150 mhz, which has gotten me into thinking that 800 mhz is ghey.

So no I don't know who to trust: can I buy these sticks, at 1033 mhz and be ok, or do I have to stick to old skool 800 mhz stuff? Will the 1033 be retro-compatible with the 800 mhz that is advertised, and if yes, is there any overclocking potential? What determines the possible RAM speed, isn't that FSB?

EDIT: Also, personal recommendations on both RAM and mobo wouldn't hurt.

This post has been edited by max302: 30 July 2007 - 10:56 PM

[max302]

Answer me @ now.

[Thorian]

It should underclock if it will fit in the slot. However i dont know at what speed the pin out switches.

That is more Box then I would ever need for a PC. But it should be nice for gaming what videocards are you planning on putting in it

[PsychoCoder]

max302, on 30 Jul, 2007 - 10:55 PM, said:

I've been looking into this motherboard, and the manufacturer page page tells me that it supports dual channel DDR2, at speeds of PC6400, or 800 mhz.

Thats a nice motherboard, and it'll support the Intel Quad Core processor, thats the one I'd get my. I bought my wife one that had the NVIDIA chipset (have to find the box to find what chipset) but she's been more than happy with it.

[1lacca]

It will underclock, but what is more important, that you might get better latency with it, too. Running your RAM in sync with the FSB really pays out, if the latency can be kept to the minimum. (However it is really worth to think about the performance gain you can achieve by buying the best things, because depending on one's preference, it might just not worth the additional cost - howver if the difference in cost is minimal, then it is a no brainer to buy the better one, assuming it is supported by the rest of the config)

[max302]

Thorian, on 1 Aug, 2007 - 10:31 AM, said:

It should underclock if it will fit in the slot. However i dont know at what speed the pin out switches.

That is more Box then I would ever need for a PC. But it should be nice for gaming what videocards are you planning on putting in it

An MSI Geforce 6200 passive cooled.

NOT!

XfX 8800 GTS overclocked. SLI maybe after christmas. It's gonna be a beast i tells ya!

I wrote a couple of articles about the box I want to build, here they are, for those of you that are interested:
Project Fr0stByte is Underway
My Dream Gaming PC

The latter is a bit outdated, but still contains the basics.

[supercharged_V6]

Hey dude. Whats Up.Like stated above. You need to keep the timing settings on a Memory module down in order to truely benefit. There have been so many reviews I have read where DDR1 outperforms DDR2 because DDR1 has lower timing settings than the DDR2 modules. Even though it has a slower BUS it still outperforms it due to the lower timing settings.

PC6400 you can get 2 x 1gig sticks for around 130-150. Good Brand. Do Research! Lots of it! Before considering which memory module to get. I am also looking for PC6400 to buy. I was on NEWEGG.com reading customer reviews. And I am contemplating buying either OCZ or KINGSTON HYPER-X memory modules. Both are at good prices.

of course, as the PCXXXX numbers start to go up, so does the FSB and PRICE. You will most like also see HIGHER TIMING settings.

I have also read alot of reviews, that recommend just buying good PC6400 memory and calling it a day. Spending the extra money on memory modules that maybe 1-10 nerds can afford is not really worth it.

As for me myself. I am not getting anything faster that PC6400 for years to come. Not everyone has gotten there hands on anything that is faster and really stable.

I am currently building a system. Its a SUPER-COMPUTER. Not really. But it will have processing horsepower.


GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3P LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor - E6600 @ 2.4GHz
PC-6400 800MHz. 4-Gigs Memory
XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT 256MB XXX GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
MAXTOR 80Gig SATA-150 HDD's x 3 (XP, VISTA, MAC OS X , LINUX MANDRIVA)
SEAGATE 400Gig IDE-100 HDD (Storage)
SAMSUNG SATA Writemaster DVD Burner w/ Lightscribe

500Watt PSU
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX CASE
22" ACER WIDESCREEN LCD Monitor

IKEA Desk.

at the moment i am waiting for my keyboard, mouse and 3D card to get here from TENNESSEE, stupid NEW EGG, why couldnt they ship to from CALIFORNIA... the warehouse is like 30 minutes away!