Can someone explain why RAM speed and CPU speed are related?

[TheCowardRobertFord]

I dont really feel confident enough to build my own rig, because im kinda clumsy, and dont know the details of choosing components that compliment each other well.

So, im thinking of getting a PC from some build-em-from-a-template site like Dell or Alienware (Alienware seems better, but they seem to overprice some stuff).

Im not really interested in a future-proof gaminng PC, what im really after is something that will probably be able to run things like Empire Total War and Spore, and current games more than competently, but might not be able to run the next Crysis on full settings. And more importantly, something that can handle 1080p video playback with ease (i.e. I mainly wanna use it for watching stuff).

My question is:

What sort of RAM should I be looking at? I understand that processor power sometimes doesnt take full advantage of RAM speeds, or vis a vis. So, would a couple of sticks of 1gb 800mhz DDR2 RAM go well with a Core 2 Duo or Phenom X4 based system from Alienware? Should I be looking at faster RAM? Should I be looking at more RAM, say 4gb (I think some OS dont recognise that much or something)?

Any help would be appretiated.

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

Just to clarify:

Would a Core 2 Duo with 1333mhz FSB go well with two 800mhz DDR2 sticks?

 

[roadrunner197069]

The 800 ram will be more then enough bro. 4G will be good if you get 32bit os otherwise its overkill.

You might want to consider building yourself. Its fun and easy. I love building PCs.

I've built a ton of PCs around town for people, and been having some decent luck on Ebay as well. To bad everyone don't leave Feedback.


A Dell XPS is to crappy for the price, and a Alien ware is about 200% over priced.

I would be happy to help you choose the parts yourself on a site like Newegg, so you could see how much you could save. You could choose your parts and if your not comfortable builing it yourself, I charge $100 to assemble, and you get Free tech support, and a optional 3 year warranty.

I have a few auctions up right now if you want to have a look see.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130245486681&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

 

[astrotrain1000]

Intel measures their FSB by saying that it is quad pumped. Therefore to find the actual FSB its 1333/4=333.3. DDR=double data rate so 800mhz ram runs at 400 mhz. Therefore 400 mhz ram would be running at 333.3 mhz. If you buy a 1333mhz FSB cpu you can buy 667(which is 333.3 x 2) ram. If you plan to overclock then get the 800mhz ram.

 

[roadrunner197069]

A core 2 duo 1333 will over clock to 4.0 easy with 800 ram on a custom build. If you buy OEM you might get a locked Bios with no OCing options.

If you overclock to 4.0 with 800 ram it will be running in a 1:1 ratio at a final bus of 1600 insted of 1333. Talk about fast. You will be blown away.

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

The 800 ram will be more then enough bro. 4G will be good if you get 32bit os otherwise its overkill.

You might want to consider building yourself. Its fun and easy. I love building PCs.

I've built a ton of PCs around town for people, and been having some decent luck on Ebay as well. To bad everyone don't leave Feedback.


A Dell XPS is to crappy for the price, and a Alien ware is about 200% over priced.

I would be happy to help you choose the parts yourself on a site like Newegg, so you could see how much you could save. You could choose your parts and if your not comfortable builing it yourself, I charge $100 to assemble, and you get Free tech support, and a optional 3 year warranty.

I have a few auctions up right now if you want to have a look see.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=130245486681&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

Thanks, ill probably go for something like that - a Core 2 Duo and 800mhz DDR2.

Just out of interest, is the Phenon Quad Core any good?

I would build it myself, its just I always get paranoid when I have to force a component in and stuff (scary thinking you might bend the legs on some £100 component lol), so ill probably just go for a pre-built one.

I live in the UK, so I dunno if there are any better sites than Alienware around that post here - the rig im looking at is like £1600 (thats like $3000 I think), and I can tell its overpriced as hell - although I am looking to by a new 1920x1200 monitor, which added about £500 of that.

 

[njalterio]

I'm not sure if Roadrunner197069 made a typo, but if you get 4 GB of RAM you will definitely want to get the 64 bit OS. Otherwise you will not be seeing all of your RAM. Remember, the system needs to address all RAM, including video cards, sound card, whatever else you may have, etc.

 

[njalterio]

Thanks, ill probably go for something like that - a Core 2 Duo and 800mhz DDR2.

Just out of interest, is the Phenon Quad Core any good?

I would build it myself, its just I always get paranoid when I have to force a component in and stuff (scary thinking you might bend the legs on some £100 component lol), so ill probably just go for a pre-built one.

I live in the UK, so I dunno if there are any better sites than Alienware around that post here - the rig im looking at is like £1600 (thats like $3000 I think), and I can tell its overpriced as hell - although I am looking to by a new 1920x1200 monitor, which added about £500 of that.

I haven't seen any reviews, but the Phenom 9850 and 9950 are looking pretty good at their price points with clocks at 2.5 and 2.6 GHz.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000343+1050733654&Description=Phenom&name=Phenom+X4

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

I looked around for a site that would build one cheaper than Alienware.

Overclockers.co.uk will do it £200 cheaper (i.e. £1400), but it still seems a lot.

The system itself makes up about £1000 of that, then the monitor and OS are like £400.

Does anyone know a better site, or is that the best value im likely to get from pre-built stuff?

We pay a lot of tax on stuff like this in the UK, so it might be just more expensive than buying one in the US.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Yup I meant 64bit, good eye.
Personally I wouldn't but a Phenom, but I like to overclock.
A stock Phenom would be ok for a normal user.
Find a Ebayer with good feedback in the UK and get a better deal $3000 is a lot of $$$

 

[roadrunner197069]

I wonder what shipping is like from the US to UK.

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

This is the setup I was looking at on Overclockers:

Intel Core 2 Duo = 3.0ghz / FSB = 1333mhz

OCZ Reaper 2GB 1066MHz HPC DDR2 - (because its only £10 more than 800mhz)

ATI Radeon HD 3870 XT 512MB GDDR4 - (dunno how this compares to the Geforce 9600, but I hear the Radeon HD cards do video playback well)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB 7200RPM SATA-II 32MB Cache - (I was gonna get a fast but small OS HD and a slow 1tb one for storage, because I do a lotta downloading, but this is cheaper)

Corsair TX 750W Power Supply

Plus a monitor for £339 and probably Vista (I know lol) and Office.

This comes to:

£1,428.61

 

[njalterio]

HD 3870 are pretty much identical in terms of performance with the 9600 GT.

Do they mention what motherboard they are using?

I am not too familiar with European prices, but assuming the price includes the price of Vista and Office that seems reasonable. I would look into getting the 64 bit version of Vista and 2 GB more RAM.

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

Do I need a 64bit CPU to run 64bit Vista?

I dunno if the Core 2 Duo is 64bit or not.

But if it is, ill get 64bit Vista and 4gb of 800mhz RAM.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Ya looks pretty good. Will they overclock it for you since their name is Overclockers? Id get a 4850 or 4870 tough.

It is a 64bit CPU

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

HD 3870 are pretty much identical in terms of performance with the 9600 GT.

Do they mention what motherboard they are using?

I am not too familiar with European prices, but assuming the price includes the price of Vista and Office that seems reasonable. I would look into getting the 64 bit version of Vista and 2 GB more RAM.

Unfortunatly, although this site seems better than Alienware, unlike Alienware, it doesnt mention the motherboard they are using. Could be something cheap ass, I dunno

 

[Granite3]

I actually like Vista, after SP1.

The 3870 is in my HTPC right now, does HD at no more than 21% cpu on my 5000+ BE cpu. It rocks on my 42" plasma, but it has a native res of 1024x768.

My gaming machine has a quadcore 9450 cpu and 2x8800GTX's SLI'd to run my 28" lcd @ 1920 x 1200. This maachine at this res cannot render Crysis at all high like the HTPC can at the lower res.

Still looks better on the 28", but not all on highest.

Helps to know the model of C2D you are looking at, but prolly the 8500 at that clock speed.

If you are bigger than a 22" monitor, look to the 4850 as a minimum.

And the WD 640 is a scorching fast drive, as fast as the last gen raptors, but cheap and reliable. Running 4 in my rigs now, started at $120 for the first, down to $80 now.

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

Ya looks pretty good. Will they overclock it for you since their name is Overclockers? Id get a 4850 or 4870 tough.

It is a 64bit CPU

Cool, ill go for the extra memory then

To be honest, I might have to wait a while before buying, so this setup might not be the final choice.

Overclockers do overclock, so I might check out what they do - I think they overclock 3.2ghz CPUs to 4ghz and stuff.

 

[TheCowardRobertFord]

I actually like Vista, after SP1.

The 3870 is in my HTPC right now, does HD at no more than 21% cpu on my 5000+ BE cpu. It rocks on my 42" plasma, but it has a native res of 1024x768.

My gaming machine has a quadcore 9450 cpu and 2x8800GTX's SLI'd to run my 28" lcd @ 1920 x 1200. This maachine at this res cannot render Crysis at all high like the HTPC can at the lower res.

Still looks better on the 28", but not all on highest.

Helps to know the model of C2D you are looking at, but prolly the 8500 at that clock speed.

If you are bigger than a 22" monitor, look to the 4850 as a minimum.

And the WD 640 is a scorching fast drive, as fast as the last gen raptors, but cheap and reliable. Running 4 in my rigs now, started at $120 for the first, down to $80 now.

Hehe, the ATI Radeon 4850 512MB GDDR3 adds another £40

Im not really that interested in playing Crysis at 1920x1200 or anything - as long as it runs decently in 720p I would be happy - im more interested in 1080p h264/x264/Xvid playback - I think the 3870 XT would be alright for this wouldnt it?

Ill be getting a 24" 1920x1200 monitor with it, assuming I do end up buying it.

 

[Granite3]

As I stated, 2 different things-

The 3870 is great on my HD stuff, but does not cut the mustard trying to play most newer games at 1920 x 1200. Will do HL2 and the ilk ok, but lays down on Company of Heroes, Bioshock, Age of Conan, Crysis, etc. It is not as effective as 1 of my 8800 GTX's in that respect.

My HTPC has a 780G mobo that supports hybrid graphics thru the 3800 series of ATI/AMD cards. 4800 coming soon.

Again, GREAT on the native res of my bigscreen, not so much on the higher res screen.

 

[bf2gameplaya]

I dont really feel confident enough to build my own rig, because im kinda clumsy, and dont know the details of choosing components that compliment each other well..

I have never seen an honest self-aware man such as you claim to be be incapable of building something with his own two hands. You do have two hands right?

Even if you are missing a few fingers you can type, which means you can ask questions when you get stuck and the boffins can answer continuing you on your progress to computer guru.

So, im thinking of getting a PC from some build-em-from-a-template site like Dell or Alienware (Alienware seems better, but they seem to overprice some stuff).

If you have the money and you want to trade that money for a pre-built PC that's fine, just make sure you completely understand that you are merely trading one set of cares and concerns and headaches for a new and exciting set of cares and concerns and headaches. However, if your budget allows it, get the boutique pre-made PC with a fancy chassis, loads of software and documentation and service up the wazoo, call the techs out to your house whenever you get lonely or you think a spider crawled into your PSU and if you turn it on your house will burn down.

Im not really interested in a future-proof gaminng PC, what im really after is something that will probably be able to run things like Empire Total War and Spore, and current games more than competently, but might not be able to run the next Crysis on full settings. And more importantly, something that can handle 1080p video playback with ease (i.e. I mainly wanna use it for watching stuff).

Good news, any current PC will do what you want..any Dual core CPU will be fine. Any $150 GPU will be fine, isn't that nice to know? The rest is personal style.

My question is:

What sort of RAM should I be looking at? I understand that processor power sometimes doesnt take full advantage of RAM speeds, or vis a vis. So, would a couple of sticks of 1gb 800mhz DDR2 RAM go well with a Core 2 Duo or Phenom X4 based system from Alienware? Should I be looking at faster RAM? Should I be looking at more RAM, say 4gb (I think some OS dont recognise that much or something)?

Don't take this the wrong way, but what do you care? You're a clumsy oaf who can't build your own PC so you not only will not be able to describe the differences in certain pieces parts, but side by side comparisons wouldn't help you either.

You need in this order for your new PC:

1) Reliability and Stability
2) Full Service and Support
3) Best bang for the buck
4) Fitness of purpose

I say give the swankest boutique builder a try, be honest with them about your wants, and how much you are willing to pay for it and that you don't want anything other than those four points noted above.

Oh, Get a fancy case too.

 

[Granite3]

720p should be a native res of 852 x xxx, which should allow the 3870 to rule.......

 

[Devilz]

You can try DDR2 but I would suggest go for DDR3, you might not need it right now but then you won't need to upgrade RAM in future

 

[Scotteq]

You can try DDR2 but I would suggest go for DDR3, you might not need it right now but then you won't need to upgrade RAM in future

DDR3 is not compatible with DDR2. They are keyed differently and therefore one will not fit into a slot made for the other. There is no 'upgrade' available unless he buys a new motherboard. Further, the current state of DDR3 is such that it's only faster than good, low latency DDR2 at the very highest clock speeds.

For these reasons, I feel that DDR3 is a waste of money for current builds unless you have to have the "best" and are willing to pay a hefty premium for it. I expect this situation will change once Nehalem is released and has had some time to gain market share. But not until then.