What memory for an E6850 at 1666FSB?

[Rendili]

Do I go for

PC2-8500 at 1066MHz
or
PC2-6400 at 800MHz

the timings are the same (5-5-5-15)

how do you decide which is the correct memory speed for the motherboard and CPU?

the memory will go in either

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4
or
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R

thanks for any help

 

[Rendili]

i made a typo in the subject and it wont let me edit

the subject should be "What memory for an E6850 at 1333FSB?"

 

[geofelt]

The C2D processors are not very sensitive to memory speeds. There is virtually(1-3%) no difference in application performance(vs. synthetic benchmarks) between the fastest DDR3 memory and DDR2-800 memory. If you are going for high overclocks, then that is a different matter. Since memory is so cheap these days, I suggest that you spend the savings on 4gb. Saving a few hard page faults is worth more.

 

[Rendili]

i have the option of :

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (5-5-5-15) x 2
or
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C5DHX TwinX (2x1GB) (5-5-5-15) x 2
or
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C4DHX TwinX (2x1GB) (4-4-4-12) x 2

I am not worried about the cost, there is not much in it between them.
I just want to get it right.

I am not planning on overclocking. i dont want to buy the 1066MHz to find that it will not be running at full speed

in each case i will be going for 4x1GB modules

 

[Rendili]

thanks, but in the supported memory list, there is nothing with 2gb modules

 

[swifty_morgan]

I don't know why the mobo manufacturers post a memory list. You should be able to use just about anything on those boards without a problem...... 2gig sticks included. ( 4-8gig )

Last Gigabyte board project I used Transend Axe-ram. When did you ever see any board maker recommend that ?

1066 ram is relatively cheap right now. 800 is even cheaper. Try and get some quality ocz or crucial.

 

[geofelt]

Once you pick your mobo, then go to the memory vendor's web site and use their configurator. For corsair and the gigabyte ds3l mobo, you will find supported 4gb kits with both a 2x2 and 4x1 configuration. Other major memory vendors will have the same info.

The motherboard memory support documentation can't be updated as quickly, nor do they have the incentive to do so.

 

[Rendili]

so will the 1066 run at full speed in the above motherboard with the E6850 at 1333?
i just dont want to get it and find it only runs at a fraction that due to fsb:memory ratios limits on the mother board

gigabyte have a link to the supported memory for that motherbaord :

http://www.giga-byte.com/FileList/MemorySupport/motherboard_memory_ga-p35-ds4.pdf

 

[geofelt]

It should. You usually have to increase the memory voltage in the bios to get higher speeds than the default. Will you see an increase in application performance, or Frame rates? No, so why pay more for 1066 memory?

 

[Rendili]

i dont know what to get. have not bought pc upgrades for 5 years.
My pc died last night and i need to buy some stuff to get up and running again

from my out of date knowledge, the e6850 looks good
i would like to buy gigabyte motherboard
bfg graphics card
and corsair memory

other than that i do not know what to get

 

[geofelt]

A few questions:
1) What do you want to use the PC for?
2) What is your budget?
3) What parts can you reuse if you want to?
case
monitor
mouse/keyboard
HDD
dvd drive
Operating system
etc...

 

[Rendili]

i dont know which bit is broken so i am going to replace the important bits, needs an upgrade anyway.
I think all should be ok except the following so i will replace on the the following :

CPU (currently P4 2.4GHz)
RAM (2x512gb very low latency 2700MHz Corsair)
Graphics card (BFG 7800GS AGP)
M/B (Gigabyte P4 Titan 667 GA-8INXP)

I have the rest including Enermax Liberty 620w
i think the psu is ok, but i am not 100% sure as i have no way of testing.
For this upgrade i will assume it is ok, will replace if new system does not boot.

 

[Rendili]

oh forgot
Mainly use it for Games, BF2 and supreme commander type games
video editing, programming and the usual (web browsing, email...)

(thanks for your help btw)

 

[Rendili]

budget
well, i dont want a bottom end system, more mid range
so 880GT rather than 8600GT type system

 

[geofelt]

The key component for gaming is the vga card. I think the 8800GT is very good today. Wait and see what the 8800GTS-512 looks like, I like the idea of a better dual slot cooler.

Q6600 and E6850 are good cpu choices. E6850 for gaming, Q6600 if you will do lots of multitasking and video editing.

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L is a good basic mobo.

4gb of DDR-800 ram. Either 2x2 or 4x1

Consider vista home premium-64 if you can't reuse your os.

If you have a ide HDD and DVD, it might be time to reconsider replacing with sata versions.

---good luck---

 

[Kari]

Well, since you only need DDR2-666 to run with 1:1 mem ratio at stock FBS of 333MHz, anything faster just gives you more room to overclock easily. And as others have pointed out, you wont notice any difference if you are just using different ram dividers/ratios with the stock fsb, but if you are aiming at overclocks with fsb close to 500 than the 1066 would be better, otherwise get the 800.

 

[Rendili]

Thanks for all your help everyone.

I have decided to go for the following :

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 "LGA775 Conroe" 3.00GHz (1333FSB) - Retail x 1
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard x 1
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C4DHX TwinX (2x1GB) (4-4-4-12) x 2
BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) x 1

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache x 2
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache x 1

Have gone for that motherboard due to the number of SATA, i use a lot of diskspace/disks due to the video editing and photo storage.

Those disks will fit in with the disks i already have for 2 lots of mirrored raid (OS 2x250gb SATA and data drive 2x500GB SATA)

Does anything look like it is wrong there?


thanks again for all your help

 

[Rendili]

damn , just re-read the posts again.
forgot i have 1 ide disk, 1 ide dvd rw and 1 dvd rom
i assume the 1 ide connector on the motherboard will support 2 devices
so i will have to buy a new SATA dvd rw (it stopped being able to write CDs anyhow)

 

[geofelt]

You might want to think again about the merits of mirrored raid. Raid speeds up recovery time which is essential for servers, but not the home user. It does not protect you from loss due to viruses, user mistakes, mobo failures, or software errors. These are more common than just HDD failures. I would suggest that you keep things simple by backing up your valued data on a removable external hard drive. It will take less space because it is compacted, and it will be more secure.

 

[Shadow703793]

DDR2 800 or better will work with both motherboards listed.

 

[Shadow703793]

You might want to think again about the merits of mirrored raid. Raid speeds up recovery time which is essential for servers, but not the home user. It does not protect you from loss due to viruses, user mistakes, mobo failures, or software errors. These are more common than just HDD failures. I would suggest that you keep things simple by backing up your valued data on a removable external hard drive. It will take less space because it is compacted, and it will be more secure.

True


PS:500th post

 

[Rendili]

Geofelt
thanks for the info
so far my mirrored data drive has served me well. one of the drives failed (electronic i think, not mechanical), bought a new drive plugged it in and all back redundant again
for home use, protecting against motherboard failure cant be too practical or cheap.
One reason i have a dvd re-writer is to hopefully cater for all the other scenarios you listed. I take a backup of my changing user data to a RW DVD and cycle the DVD's.
for the video editing i have the mirrored raid. once i have finished the editing i keep the raw source data, but have multiple copies of the end video on DVD.

just had a thought, would my current mirrored raid on my failed pc connect up and work on a new motherboard with different raid controller?

 

[Rendili]

thanks shadow, thats good to know

 

[WazzaUK]

"Home" users shouldnt really have any need for mirrors, everything critical backed up. Frequently used data just ends up pushed onto newest HDD anyway. Why have 1TB mirrored when ya can have 2TB storage....

 

[Rendili]

incase of disk failure
when 1 of my mirrored disks failed, i still had all the data on the another disk
had i not had it mirrored then i could have just had the disk that failed and i would have lost the data
if i have a removable disk, i still have 2 disks, so i may as well have them mirrored