memory for ds3 (not overclocked)

[minty]

I realise that my query may be basic for a lot of you but would be grateful is someone could take the time to elucidate things for me.

I'm planning on buying a DS3 board with an e6400 but have fallen down when trying to select memory.

Assuming that 2gb is required, the recent price hikes (which are even worse in the UK) have threatened to destroy my budget.

I am wondering how big a difference higher speeds and lower latency memory makes on a system that will not be overclocked. I understand the board runs at 266mhz FSB by default, and if I leave it at this (and don't overclock the CPU) just how big a difference is there between 800mhz and lower rams? Or indeed is the FSB a setting that really ought to be changed?

Sorry if any of this doesn't make sense, been a long time since i built a new system 8O Thanks for any advice.

 

[weilin]

dont need fancy ram. DS3 likes corsiar. Other manufacturers work but might require a bios flash first. Anyways, the minimum ram you need is ddr2 533. Anything faster would be for overclocking (or futureproofing).

 

[cd14]

You can still run your RAM at its rated speed (if that's what you are worried about). For a 266 bus setting, use a mutiplier of 3 which will give you 800mhz for your ram. I noticed in Sandra the ram efficiency goes up with tighter timings. How the "efficiency" stat affects performance, I don't know. I have to relax mine a bit to reach higher ram speed.