DDR2 education

PretzelB · Post by **PretzelB** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 6:59 am

It's been a while since I shopped for memory and while looking at a new Intel P35 board the choices for DDR2 have me a bit confused. I used the Crucial website to show the available options and it came up with a ton of stuff. Here's a sample for a 2GB kit:

PC2-5300 $117.99
PC2-4200 CL=4 $ 53.99
PC2-6400 SLI $115.99
PC2-5300 CL=5 $ 53.99
PC2-8500 SLI $137.99

I assume the 4200, 5300, 6400, and 8500 is some kind of speed rating but I'm not sure what to make of the options. With a price difference of $53 to $137 it seems extreme. Any tips on what to look at?

antifro · Post by **antifro** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:39 am

You need to find out what DDR2 speed your motherboard natively supports. Then pick the speed of memory you need. PC6400 = DDR2 800.

If you're planning on overclocking, you'll need to buy ram that will be able to go higher. Since you probably wont be buying an extreme edition CPU, you wont be able to increase the multiplier, therefore you'll need to icrease your FSB, which will in turn work your memory faster. So if you have native DDR21066 support on your mobo, and plan on a 25% overclock, you'll need to make sure your memory is capable of running at 1333. DDR2 Standards only go up to DDR2 800, so when you see DDR2-1066 or DDR2 1333, its the Maker telling you that they guarantee that memory is capable at running at these speeds. However, unless you overclock your system or your ram, it will by default only run as fast as the motherboard can support on default settings.

So in other words, if you dont plan to overclock, dont spend your money on memory thats faster than your motherboard can natively support.

CyberDog · Post by **CyberDog** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 8:37 am

A good 800Mhz memory will run fast enough even overclocking your system. I don't know about cruzial but G.Skill and OCZ are good runners... Check google about reviews.

PretzelB · Post by **PretzelB** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:49 am

What's strange is that according to Crucial, the MB I picked will support ALL those options. Maybe what they (and you) are saying is that those speeds are possible via OC. I'll go back and see if the board specifically says something. I wasn't thinking OC so I just need what works best.

aaa · Post by **aaa** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:15 pm

IIRC you should get the ram that matches the fsb of the cpu you get (or the fsb you plan to set when you oc). For performance reasons. Any of them will work, if that's all you want.

pjeremy · Post by **pjeremy** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:12 pm

This might help your decision as well.
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/for ... 1005387831

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:45 am

The P35 runs a FSB clock of 333 MHz. Therefeore, your RAM should run at that speed (DDR-667, PC5300) if you're intending to run the FSB & CPU at stock speed. Note that you can also get faster memory and run it at full speed by raising the FSB/OC'ing or using a divider and keeping the FSB at stock speed.

If you're keeping the system at stock speed and you're set on using Crucial, go with the PC2-5300 CL=5 $ 53.99 option.