RAM for D975XBX + E6600

Grab 2 of these Corsair XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800 sets. This way, you'll be able to overclock by quite a bit (which I am assuming you are planning, since you're going for a 975X based mobo). If you aren't planning on overclocking and the board hasn't been ordered yet, switch to an Abit AB9 Pro, or Asus P5B.

I know Corsair is supposed to be the best, but can I get just as good for less money? I would also prefer CAS 3 and these are CAS 4. I shudder to think how much they want for CAS 3 Corsairs. How good are OCZ and other brands?

OCZ is really good, but the only manufacturers at Newegg that make CAS3 DDR2-800 are G.Skill and Corsair. The G.Skill has better timings at 3-4-3-8. You can find some here

im getting the same setup, e6600/intel or asus im not sure yet. my choices are corsair/ocz 800 mhz 2048. can sum1 tell me what brand to choose? AND! corsair 800mhz has the option of either twinkx c4 or twinkx pro for 60 bucks more, what do i get?

If you want to save a few bucks and get the OCZ, that would be OK. If you don't mind paying a little more for slightly faster ram, get the C4 set from Corsair. Forget about the pro set.

The Intel mobo only really supports up to DDR2 667mhz. I know it will still work, but is there any reason to get 800mhz memory for a 667 mobo? The 667 pair is about $70 cheaper than the 800 pair.

Get the 800 if you're into overclocking, otherwise go for the 667. I still think you should go for one of those other motherboards I suggested earlier though (provided you don't already have in hand the D975XBX).

I already have the D975XBX. It was the only one available locally and it got very good reviews.

If you want to overclock that E6600, get the DDR2-800 from Corsair I suggested awhile back. If not, find some 667 and stick with it.

By the way, the D975XBX is the only Core 2 Duo board I found that has 8 SATA ports. I need 8 SATA ports. I will be using 7 of them from the start.

You guys say the consair 800 is for overclockin...is ther any advantages in it other than that>? I dont care about money i just wanna future proof. and maybe I might learn to overclock and try it  

I have a SATA card I am using right now, but I prefer them all on the motherboard. I don't use RAID. For me the small gain in speed is not worth losing the ability to hot-swap the drives.

Since no one got the E6600 in today, I gave up on getting my system running today and ordered the Corsair C4's from NewEgg.

By the way, I will soon have a Prescott CPU for sale...  

Yo how come you got the c4 instead of pro? Some1 else also said to me to get c4 but didn't say why and I wanna know if pro is better than c4 for gaming. I dont care about price.

are u sure? i thought it was naitive 800. or maybe thats asus?

The price diff from C5 to C4 isn't much, but from C4 to C3 is huge. If money was no object, I would go for C3.

The Intel web site says is goes to 667. It's possible that revision 304 of the motherboard goes to 800. Not sure. I ordered the 800 memory anyway. Better safe (and fast) than sorry (and slow).

damn, well were i live i only have the choice of c4 or pro...only 1 store i can buy from.if i order the 800 2 can anything go wrong? can it just not work?

The Abit AB9 Pro has 9 sata ports, and the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 has 8.

Edit: The Asus P5B Deluxe has 7.

I don't like that Abit board at all, but the Gigabyte board looks pretty awesome!

Why don't you like the Abit board? If I wasn't going for the Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 in my next build, I would be going for the AB9 Pro....

That ram is great for your E6600.

Actually it's not that bad. I like the lack of legacy crap. I just don't like the 9 SATA ports in 3 different locations.

I find the SATA port locations a bit awkward, but i'm not totally against it.

Wasn't there a review done about a week ago that showed latency changes from CL3-CL5 on DDR2-800 + E6600 did next to nothing?

I ordered a set of these from Newegg, and they sent me the WRONG chips! Word to the wise - don't order memory from Newegg! Now I have to find a set! Either these or the OCZ Platimun R2.

So send it back and bitch at them to send you the right set.

No can do. The set I ordered is now listed as sold out! I will return it, but must seek the correct set elsewhere.

I ordered the OCZ Platinum R2 from New Egg instead since the Corsairs were out of stock. In theory they gave me a free upgrade to next day shipping. Should have them by Tuesday.

-Mike

ARGH! I should have listened to folks who said not to get the Intel mobo. Here is the ultimate in lame:

This Intel mobo has 8 SATA ports. Hot-swapping is one of the STANDARD features of SATA, right? WRONG! Not on this mobo! The second SATA controller is the Silicon Image 3114 (not the 3112 that supports hot swapping). The 3114 is a "RAID only" controller. You can define a RAID with just one drive, but you can't swap drives! This is useless to me since I use removable drive trays. Anyone want to buy a brand new Intel mobo?

I hope the OCZ works with the board you have. A large computer retailer where I live has noticed that OCZ memory has trouble with the Intel Conroe boards. Corsair seems to have no problems. I am trying to get my hands on the ASUS P5dwg2-ws-pro. I need the PCI-X slots. I have some infineon which is listed as qualified. Does Intel have a Qualified Vendor Listing like ASUS does?

WTF are you planning on running? RAID 50? I'm running a 4 drive raid 10 off my ICH7 ports just fine and hotswaped with a spare drive as a test no probs. Seriously if you wanted more hotswappable ports get a Workstation or Serverboard or a Discreet controller card. These are desktop solutions not workstation solutions!

I ordered a set of these from Newegg, and they sent me the WRONG chips! Word to the wise - don't order memory from Newegg! Now I have to find a set! Either these or the OCZ Platimun R2.

That's funny, the exact same thing happened to me. Just about two weeks after I made my original order, and I end up with a refund on the RAM. Props to them for giving me my money back, but now I'm hunting for RAM again...

Well keep hunting for the Corsairs. Do NOT order OCZ Platinum R2. The ones I got had SPD ratings different from the advertised ratings (5-4-4-14 rather than 4-4-4-15). That "5" really bugs me and I may be doing an RMA to get memory that is within the spec I paid for. Unfortnately I already sent the rebate stuff in, so I am stuck dealing with OCZ.

Further, If I hard-code the spd settings into the bios rather than using "automatic", the memory fails with nothing overclocked. So much for running to spec, let alone overclocking.

Nope - no RAID at all - I have removable storage trays with different hard drives for different video editing projects. I need to keep them as individual drives without setting up a RAID. To my knowledge, no high-end motherboard other than the Intel cripples it's SATA support by ONLY supporting drives in a RAID configuration, even on half the ports. I have never heard of such a thing before and I am shocked to discover it now. 8 ports usually means you can plug in 8 individual drives! There is nothing in their marketing materials to suggest otherwise.