8 GB DDR2 vs 4 GB DDR3

4 GB of DDR2 and 4 GB of DDR3 are almost identical, except you pay $100 more for the DDR3 and bragging rights, and the motherboard will be more expensive too.

Do you need more than 4 GB? If it's just a gaming machine stick with 4 GB of DDR2.

I'd rather have 8gb of DDR2, then you could turn off your page file in windows.

aevm is right though, 4gb ddr2 is plenty for gaming, probably overkill if you're using XP.

Well, yeah, just to answer the original question, I'd very much prefer 8 GB of DDR2 to 4 GB of DDR3. Of course, a 64-bit Windows is required, otherwise you see only 3.5 GB or less.

to me ddr3 hasn't proven itself. most of the time, ddr2 will outperform it, from what i've seen. i'd say get 8gb of ddr2, an x64 operating system, and turn off that annoying paging file in windows...with all 8gb of memory being accessible in winblows...sorry, i meant windows...you dont need it, so your computer doesnt need to use your hard drive for extra memory storage, which will in turn speed up your system. that, and ddr3 will not really reach its performace peak until about late q1 of next year when both amd and intel fully switch over.

if i were you, i'd take advantage of the low ddr2 prices. just my 2 cents

damn, you 2 beat me to it.

Once Intel removes the FSB and no longer has to deal with the memory timings, DDR3 will show its strength. You see more of a diffrence on a AMD machine than an Intel machine.

DDR3 makes sense only at very high speeds.

So whats the sweet spot here? is it 4 GB of DDR2? I kno some of the boards have 2 slots of DDR2 and 4 slots DDR3 would that be good for future upgrades you think? Or do i need to wait for FSBs to go away? Any good board suggestions are appreciated also if you want to back up DDR2 or DDR3

FSB bottlenecks DDR3 right now. Faster memory realy only matters on an AMD system right now, with that integrated memory controller. No reason to get DDR3, I have 8gb of DDR2 800 with the paging file disabled, and it flies.

Some boards have 4 slots of DDR2 and 2 slots of DDR3, like my own GA-P35C-DS3R. Nah, I wouldn't bother. These boards cost more and tend to overclock less well. If they could use DDR2 and DDR3 at the same time I'd love them, but they can't.

Before we give you motherboard suggestions, tell us what you want from the PC. Since you're considering DDR3 at all, I'll assume you have a pretty good budget.

If you want a gaming machine, get yourself a GA-X48-DS4 or Asus P5E Deluxe, then add one or two HD 4850 or HD 4870.

If you're not that interested in games, something like GA-EP43-DS3L or GA-EP45-DS3R or Asus P5Q Pro.

yea i mean i def wanna play games and yes I have a big budget around $3200 but the thing is i just want something that does the trick like i'm not gonna be playing crysis or anything. I would like to get a nice reliable board thats future proof as well so its easy for me to upgrade. And right now I don't want to anything too high end as well b/c there is alot of new stuff coming out soon so I wanna stick w/med to low end if I can contain myself from getting a ridiculous setup

a mobo with a good sound card would be nice to because i want good sound but dont want to spend $90 for good sound

All right. I'd just pick a single-slot motherboard with a good video card. Assuming you don't care about RAID and don't need more than 5 hard disks+ 1 burner, the $95 GA-EP43-DS3L is enough for what you need. Add a $155 HD 4850 video card (or HD 4870, if you want). Keep the rest of your $3200 in the bank for now. Next spring we'll have both Nehalem and some video cards made on 40nm technology, and that will be a good time to upgrade IMO.

aight sounds good. thanks bro

So noob question here what does it mean when it says "DDR2 1200(O.C) / 1066" which one can i just throw in there? Does O.C stand for overclock or what and what would that involve to get DDR2 1200 on that board or is it something completely different.

It means any DDR2 up to 1200 is expected to work. For example DDR2-800 or DDR2-667 should work with a motherboard like that. Yeah, O.C. stands for overclocked. If that bothers you, you can get something based on a more advanced chipset than P43 (e.g. GA-EP45-DS3R, GA-X48-DS4) but they cost more.

o yea i knew that i just didn't kno that if i just slapped 1200 in there if it would work or not. Or would i have to overclock something?

You'd have to adjust a bunch of settings in the BIOS, I think. I can't say for sure because I don't have one of those, I just read some reviews.

Anyway, if you're planning to get that kind of RAM then I assume you're serious about overclocking, and in that case you're better off with a P45 instead of the P43. Look at the Asus P5Q Pro for example, or the GA-EP45-DS3R. I like the P5Q Pro more because it has Crossfire, but you don't have to care about that.

hi there I run 4GB 800 ,so What do you say must I change it to ddr3 if I want my pc for gaming

You can't change it to DDR3 unless you have one of those weird motherboards like mine, with dual support for DDR2 and DDR3. Also, it's not worth it, the speed improvement would be very small.