ddr2 800 standard

[smallz]

i am looking to buy a mobo that says that the stardard ddr for it is ddr2 800. I have heard that unless you have a dual core processor you do not need taht much but that ddr2 667 will work just fine. i dont have a dual core processor. so will i be ok with the ddr2 667?

 

[The_Prophecy]

There are lots of boards that have native ddr2-800 support..... here are a couple examples:

AMD based: Asus M2N-E

Intel based: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3

 

[RichPLS]

That depends on if you are using AMD or Intel. AMD needs expensive high end DDR2 800, Conroe works fine using less expensive DDR2 533.

Here is a quote from Crashman regarding memory for Conroe...
I seem to be the only one here who cares, but I'm going to tell you something that most other people simply refuse to believe: Synchronous RAM for the 1066MHz bus is DDR2-533, aka PC2-4200, ie, the slow stuff.

But wait you say, that's only half as fast? Nonsense. 1066MHz FSB runs at a 266MHz clock rate. DDR2-533 runs at a 266MHz clock rate. But wait you say, it's still only half the bandwidth because of Intel's Quad Data Rate FSB? Nonsense, that's what dual-channel is made to fix.

So why do higher-speed modules win benchmarks? Latency. Think about it, using DDR2-800 CAS4 as an example: a 400MHz cycle is 2.5ns, so that CAS4 has a latency of 10ns. If you compare that to DDR2-533 CAS3, well, the same math says its over 11ns. That sounds small right? The difference in benchmarks isn't that big either, 200 3D Marks is only 3% of 6000 3D marks.

So quit worrying about 1066MHz and start worrying about latency. Corsair has some PC2-6400 CAS3 you might like.

 

[smallz]

i am getting an amd single core processor the AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2000MHZ . i just want to know if i can use ddr2 667 with a board that stats its standard is ddr2 800 and will the difference be that big?

 

[godman]

yeh you should be able to use ddr2 667 on a mobo that says it has ddr2 800 support.
but if you use a single core am2 (eg athlon 64 3500+)processor you can only use
ddr2 400???
ddr2 533
ddr2 667
as the integrated memory controller only supports these ram types its a bummer i know
as for athlonx2s however they can use up to ddr2 800 and the onle listed above (dual cores will need more bandwidth).

 

[smallz]

ok so its to the ddr2 667 thx man

 

[theaxemaster]

That depends on if you are using AMD or Intel. AMD needs expensive high end DDR2 800, Conroe works fine using less expensive DDR2 533.

While I will agree that AMD performs better with higher bandwidth ram (if it didn't, that would be ridiculous, right? right.), it doesn't NEED it.

I'm likely going to make the same purchase you are, so get the lowest latency 667 you can afford. The latency is going to do more for you than the bandwidth will. Most of what I have seen is 4-4-4-12, but you might be able to find some 4-4-4-8...