New Build - Need General Novice RAM/mobo Help - Homebuilt

June 22, 2007 9:12:29 AM

Hey everyone! Like many people stopping in here, I just completed a build that I wouldn't mind having glanced over and approved. It's nothing unique, I've seen some other posts with similar builds recently, but I'm mainly curious about the RAM and motherboard and how well they will work together.

To get it out of the way, I'm no computer expert, I've never built a machine before, I plan to do some overclocking as you can probably tell by some of the parts I chose. It's scary! I pretty much drained my account on these damn things and want to make sure everything goes smoothly.

-------------------------

Motherboard - GA-P35-DS3R I choose it for the mixture of positive overclocking reviews and some bits of futureproofing. It's also really affordable which my budget appreciates (though I've already went over it

)

RAM - G.Skill 2gb ddr2 800 I went with the cheapest, best rated RAM on NewEgg. Here is where my noviceness comes into play:
1) I know the RAM isn't top notch like some of the other ones, but it will still work well with my proposed build, right? Those Gigabyte boards just seem to have some problems with certain RAM from what I've read, I want to make sure.
2) Also, I'm geting Vista 64-bit, and since I love me some gaming, I want to offset the huge resource hog it is. To do 4gb of RAM, I'd simply purchase two of those that I linked, right? May sound dumb, I know, but I wasn't sure if my system would crap out without a 2 x 2gb or 4 x 1gb setup which costs a lot more. 2 x 1gb + 2 x 1gb is fine and still OCable, right?

Ok, that is where my major concerns lay. If anyone else is interested in what else I got, it's:

Case - Centurion 534

CPU - e4300

Vid Card - 8800gts 320mb

PSU - Corsair 520w (got it for $75 on buy.com)

HDD - SG 7200.10 320gb

CD/DVD Burner - Samsung SH-S183L

I'm pretty happy with what I've gotten so far, but I welcome any help or suggestions. Thanks!

More about : build general novice ram mobo

| E-mail me updates
| Report abuse

haywood

June 22, 2007 1:05:05 PM

Looks good.

Yes to the RAM question. buy 2 kits of that RAM for 4Gb total.

| Report abuse

Yoosty

June 22, 2007 2:19:47 PM

Quote:

Looks good.

Yes to the RAM question. buy 2 kits of that RAM for 4Gb total.

Haywood is correct. You need to get the 4gb sets (2x2gb), reason is that they most definately will be matched sets. By matched sets, they are usually from the same lot and work better together.

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $209.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Also if you wanted to go with the 4 sticks of 1gb match sets, they will be higher in cost.

Overall your stsyem specs are pretty good.

| Report abuse

dancingcats

June 22, 2007 4:57:19 PM

Thanks guys, that was what I was curious about. I was ready to buy one set of performance RAM and then the GSkill kit to fill the other slots but figured "yeah... I better ask about that." :lol:

| Report abuse

humbe

June 22, 2007 5:06:06 PM

Only reason for getting 2x2 Gb instead of 4x1 Gb is to still have two memory banks open for later expansion. It is recommended to by the memory in pairs though, and install them such that each pair is used together.

I'm not an experienced overclocker, but I wouldn't worry about needing kick ass high performance RAM. I assume you're going to use a CPU with 1066 MHz FSB stock, which fits 1:1 with DDR2-533 MHz ram.. If you buy DDR2-800 MHz ram you can overclock the rest of the system quite a bit before the RAM will run faster than it's supposed to.

| Report abuse