ddr2 800 or 1066

[Reapermaster]

I am looking to build a new rig with the following

Core 2 Duo CPU
nVidia 650i or 689i chipset

I have no intention of overclocking!

the cpu has a 1066 FSB.

I am very price concious, yes I like top end, but if I can save myself $200 I will do it so long as the trade off isnt to big.

according to the review at:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/21/680i-motherboard-comparison/

if you look at the performance charts the 800 is usually only about 5-10 points different from the 1066.

So I guess the real question is, is the performance boost really worth it where I am just a gamer and have no intention of over clocking?

thanks for all your thoughts. And if there is a post already out there covering this please post a link to it

 

[nobly]

Not overclocking? You just need DDR2 533Mhz.
Pick whatever's cheapest between DDR2 533Mhz, 667Mhz, 800Mhz, 1066Mhz. I'd shove the $ you save into getting more RAM.

 

[fredgiblet]

I second nobly

 

[grifter33]

Like others have said, if you arent overclocking anything over 533 is overkill.

I agree with nobly. If you aren't overclocking your money would be much better spent buying quantity over quality. Better to have 4 gigs of 533 value ram than 2 gigs of performance ram whos performance you'll never need.

 

[Reapermaster]

thanks for helpin me put my money where it counts

 

[Reapermaster]

ok follow up, and you can call me a complete dumbass....been out of the market that long. So running the ddr2 533 in dual channel mode is how the 1066 FSB comes into play, right?

Once again laugh at me all you want, I deserve it hehe

 

[nobly]

No, you're not dumb. Its the dumb marketing people that are screwing everyone up.

OK here's how I understand it. Anyone feel free to correct me.
The base clock of the system for a C2D is 266Mhz. (I know the E4300 is 200Mhz, but we'll just use 266Mhz for the example here).

Ok, so now RAM. DDR and DDR2 have the ability to transfer data 2x per clock cycle. Its also called "double-pumped". Hence the Dual Data Rate RAM name. So while DDR2-533Mhz really runs at 266Mhz, its multiplied by 2 because it can carry 2x the data per clock cycle.

Ok, so now CPU. The FSB of Intel systems is quad-pumped. This means that it can carry data 4x per clock cycle. So while its really running at 266Mhz, its called 1066Mhz "effective". 266.667x4 = 1066.

So you see that we want to 'sync' up the base clock speeds for all the components. When you overclock the FSB, you start at 266Mhz in this case, and increase the base clock speed. This in turn increases the base clock speed for the RAM and CPU, making their 'effective' speeds 2x and 4x, respectively.

 

[fredgiblet]

ok follow up, and you can call me a complete dumbass....been out of the market that long. So running the ddr2 533 in dual channel mode is how the 1066 FSB comes into play, right?

Once again laugh at me all you want, I deserve it hehe

No, the way dual-channel works is like this. Single-channel RAM send 64 bits (8 bytes) per cycle (533 million times per second in this case), when you switch to dual-channel it has each piece of RAM (in each pair) sending 64 bits for a total of 128 bits per cycle. For the highway analogy it means that instead of doubling the speed limit they are doubling the number of lanes.