6400 vs 8500 (Company sent me the wrong ram)

[smous]

Hi all
Ive ordered 4 x 1gb pc2 8500 ocz reaper ram but I got
2 x 1gb 8500 and
2 x 2gb 6400

What would be the best way to deal with this? Keep the ram as it will give me a total of 6gb ram or send the 2 x 2gb slower ram back and get my original order of 2 x 1gb 8500 ram?

Is there really a big difference between the speed of the ram?

I have a q6700 cpu, 9800GTX and gigabyte p35 ds3l motherboard.

Thanx alot

 

[dagger]

No, there is no noticable difference between speed of ram in games or any real applications. But for typical usage, there is no difference between 4gb and 6gb either, since 4+ gb is more than you'll be able to use without very heavy multitasking or atypical programs.

You're okay either way.

 

[jevon]

That's an interesting mix up!

The difference between PC2-6400 and PC2-8500 is that the 8500 will allow you to overclock your processor more before you have to overclock the memory. I believe the Q6700 has a multiplier of 10x?

6400 = DDR2-800. With this memory, you can overclock the Q6700 up to 4.0Ghz (400mhz x 10). The 8500 = DDR2-1066 would OC the processor up to 5.3Ghz.

Now clearly you can't actually reach those overclocks, so really to answer your question I would just use the DDR2-800 (6400), as long as the "timings" are low. 4-4-4-12 is nice and low. 5-5-5-15 occurs more often though.

If you don't mind going through the return/RMA process, I'd probably return the whole bunch and buy a cheaper 2x2gb DDR2-800 pack!

 

[flyin15sec]

No, there is no noticable difference between speed of ram in games or any real applications. But for typical usage, there is no difference between 4gb and 6gb either, since 4+ gb is more than you'll be able to use without very heavy multitasking or atypical programs.

You're okay either way.

^
l
What he said.

 

[smous]

Thanx guys, think Ill prob stick with what ive got, alot less hassle. will just open the package and insert the rest of the ram (running on 2gb only atm).

What you guys are saying is that Ill still be able to overclock my cpu to 3ghz without the memmory being a problem?

 

[orangegator]

Hi all
Ive ordered 4 x 1gb pc2 8500 ocz reaper ram but I got
2 x 1gb 8500 and
2 x 2gb 6400

What would be the best way to deal with this? Keep the ram as it will give me a total of 6gb ram or send the 2 x 2gb slower ram back and get my original order of 2 x 1gb 8500 ram?

Is there really a big difference between the speed of the ram?

I have a q6700 cpu, 9800GTX and gigabyte p35 ds3l motherboard.

Thanx alot

Performance wise, there won't be much difference between pc2-6400 CL4 and pc2-8500 CL5. However, unless you are using a 64bit OS, your system won't be able to use all 6gb of the Ram. The max would be 3.5 to 4gb.

 

[knotknut]

You are in luck. Lucky that they sent you DDR2-800 Ram.

Your Motherboard, Ga-P35-DS3L works the best with DDR2-800 Ram.
Be sure you set the voltages in BIOS to what the Manuf. specs are.

Send the 8500 back.

 

[jevon]

Yep, overclocking to 3Ghz shouldn't be a problem at all. In fact, all you will likely have to do is adjust the fsb from 266 to 300 w/o worrying about voltages. Your memory won't be an issue

EDIT: Knotknut snuck in there so I better edit for clarity: You won't likely need to make any volt changes for your processor/overclock @ 300 fsb. He's talking about the voltage for the memory sticks and what they recommend for them (1.9-2.2 usually)

 

[knotknut]

Overclocking GA-P35-DS3L


Sorry, I use as few words as possible. Try this link

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=29&post=245679&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=3&trash=&trash_post=&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0#t1742852

 

[smous]

Cool
Thanx for the quick replies. You guys helped me out alot. Gonna take all the info onboard and sleep on it tonight. Think ill send the 8500 back.