Need new RAM for video Editing system immediately

[Spitfire7]

Hey guys,

I am building a video editing system and no one has really been able to answer my question. I want to go with the fastest memory possible for this system below. For my mother board the fastest I can go is a DDR2 1200. That sounds good to me, but others have been saying to go with a DDR2 800 at faster timing such as 4-4-4-12 oppose to a DDR2 1200 at 5-5-5-18. This doesn't make sense to me. Please let me know what I should go with and would get me the best performance for editing somewhat professional videos. Thanks.

EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V Power Supply - Retail
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9450 - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
REID 2 Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Windows XP 64 Bit

So what Ram should I go with?

 

[shadowduck]

Faster RAM does not mean improvement in speeds just by itself.

Get rid of the 680i motherboard altogether. Loaded with problems and does not properly support 45nm CPUs.

Look at the MSI Neo-F or Asus P5Q Pro isntead. P45 is much better chipset then anything nVidia offers.

Video card is fine, if you don't want to play games.

Others are right. DDR2-800 at 4-4-4-12 is better than DDR2-1200 at 5-5-5-18. Remember Intel systems use a front side bus. All requests to memory move through this. For 1:1 performance (the best) your RAM will be 1/2 the number of your FSB. FSB1600= 1:1 with DDR2-800 RAM.

DDR2-1200 RAM is for extreme overclocking and offers no performance boost at stock speeds. However tighter timings WILL offer a speed boost.

Look at G.Skill 4GB 4-4-4-12 RAM and get 2 sets of it. 8GB of RAM is good for video editing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231148

Nice price on the PSU. 700W is more than you need, but its hard to argue at 95.00.

Don't buy 1 1TB hard drive. For your uses RAID 0 will provide a speed benefit. Get 2x 500GB with 32MB cache Seagate drives and put them in RAID 0. If you are concerned about data loss- pick up 3 and stick them in RAID 5.

 

[shadowthor]

+1 for P45 chipset.

 

[Spitfire7]

Faster RAM does not mean improvement in speeds just by itself.

Get rid of the 680i motherboard altogether. Loaded with problems and does not properly support 45nm CPUs.

Look at the MSI Neo-F or Asus P5Q Pro isntead. P45 is much better chipset then anything nVidia offers.

Video card is fine, if you don't want to play games.

Others are right. DDR2-800 at 4-4-4-12 is better than DDR2-1200 at 5-5-5-18. Remember Intel systems use a front side bus. All requests to memory move through this. For 1:1 performance (the best) your RAM will be 1/2 the number of your FSB. FSB1600= 1:1 with DDR2-800 RAM.

DDR2-1200 RAM is for extreme overclocking and offers no performance boost at stock speeds. However tighter timings WILL offer a speed boost.

Look at G.Skill 4GB 4-4-4-12 RAM and get 2 sets of it. 8GB of RAM is good for video editing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231148

Nice price on the PSU. 700W is more than you need, but its hard to argue at 95.00.

Don't buy 1 1TB hard drive. For your uses RAID 0 will provide a speed benefit. Get 2x 500GB with 32MB cache Seagate drives and put them in RAID 0. If you are concerned about data loss- pick up 3 and stick them in RAID 5.

Hey I really appreciate your help and I think I will go with that RAM. Hey I currently have the Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 in my gaming computer. Would you still recommend your G.Skill over Corsair?

 

[Spitfire7]

Faster RAM does not mean improvement in speeds just by itself.

Get rid of the 680i motherboard altogether. Loaded with problems and does not properly support 45nm CPUs.

Look at the MSI Neo-F or Asus P5Q Pro isntead. P45 is much better chipset then anything nVidia offers.

Video card is fine, if you don't want to play games.

Others are right. DDR2-800 at 4-4-4-12 is better than DDR2-1200 at 5-5-5-18. Remember Intel systems use a front side bus. All requests to memory move through this. For 1:1 performance (the best) your RAM will be 1/2 the number of your FSB. FSB1600= 1:1 with DDR2-800 RAM.

DDR2-1200 RAM is for extreme overclocking and offers no performance boost at stock speeds. However tighter timings WILL offer a speed boost.

Look at G.Skill 4GB 4-4-4-12 RAM and get 2 sets of it. 8GB of RAM is good for video editing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231148

Nice price on the PSU. 700W is more than you need, but its hard to argue at 95.00.

Don't buy 1 1TB hard drive. For your uses RAID 0 will provide a speed benefit. Get 2x 500GB with 32MB cache Seagate drives and put them in RAID 0. If you are concerned about data loss- pick up 3 and stick them in RAID 5.

I also understand what you were saying about the RAID and yes I am going to do that. The idea is to have two 250GB HD's in RAID setup to equal a total of 500GB HD. We are happy with that and then the 1 TB HD would only be for the big video file storage. We were also going with the 250GB because it was in our budget. I am somewhat new to RAID so please now that I have explained a little more, let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[Spitfire7]

Faster RAM does not mean improvement in speeds just by itself.

Get rid of the 680i motherboard altogether. Loaded with problems and does not properly support 45nm CPUs.

Look at the MSI Neo-F or Asus P5Q Pro isntead. P45 is much better chipset then anything nVidia offers.

So out of all the Asus PQ5 boards which one should I go with to get my maximum editing potential and for future upgrades? I know you said the PRO, but that one is a cheaper price then the others and I am curious why.

 

[Spitfire7]

Hey Shadow Duck, whats the difference between the Seagate ES. 2 and the 7200.11. They are both 32MB cache and 500GBs. Whats the diff? Anyone can answer if they know. THanks

 

[shadowduck]

7200.11 is the better drive. That is Seagate's flagship product line.

P5Q Pro is the best one because it includes RAID options.

I have had better experiences with G.Skill than Corsair for overclocking. Corsair is by no means a bad brand. I would go with whichever of the two is currently less expensive for the same type/speed (DDR2-800 4-4-4-12)