What are the differences between these RAM?

[blamuk]

I'm totally noob at this and.
What are the differences between for example, these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146731

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146692

and there are so many others with seemingly same specs from the same brand and different prices.

I want to build a new system:

q6600/E8400 and OC to 3.4/4.0
Asus P5Qpro
ATI 8450

which particular ram should I be looking at?

 

[kyeana]

the only difference is price and ram timings. Realistically you wont see very many difference at all between the two except for in benchmarks. Personally i would go for the cheaper one and or the one that overclocks better, if thats what your looking for. (you could probably get a general idea of overclockability by looking at the reviews)

 

[SpinachEater]

8450? Shoooooooot. I would be careful if you are going to attempt to OC your CPU to 3.4 GHz. You will more than likely have to play with voltages. Make sure to get a really good heatsink and thermal paste and research the bageebus out of it before you do so because when you start to change voltages you are getting into the CPU burn out zone.

If you look into the specs, the RAM timings are different. The cheaper one has 5-5-5-12, and the more expensive one has 5-4-4-12. The lower the timings the quicker the RAM is supposed to be but it doesn't make too much of a difference. I would google an explanation of RAM clocks and timings to better understand them.

I would save the money and get the cheaper set. Good choice though. I bought Crucial and wished I would have gotten Mushkin instead.

 

[blamuk]

TYPO!!!!!!!!!

I meant 4850 >.<

And from what I have been reading I understand that I'll only try to OC to 3.0 first by simply changing the FSB, once I have more time to play around then I'd try go higher. 3.4 would be my goal eventually and if i get there I'll be happy.

Do u think my CPU/MOBO/RAM(the cheaper one that u suggest)/GPU combo is suitable for such overclocking?

 

[blamuk]

obviously I'm getting a much better cooler than stock for the OC (XIGMATEK HDT-S1283)

 

[SpinachEater]

I am a huge fan of Xigmatek...good choice.

The E8400 will be easier to OC to your targets than what the Q6600 will be. Don't be discouraged if you can't make it to 3.4 GHz, it varies with each CPU.

The Q6600 is a great CPU though. For just a small price jump over the E8400 I would say go with the quad core. Down the road, quad cores should start to pay off in games...especially if you have it when DX11 comes around.

Your MOBO is a good board too. The P45 chipset is pretty good. Just note however if you want to xfire sometime down the road, it will only do it in PCIe x8 mode, not x16. So if you go with that board plan on sticking with one video card.

 

[blamuk]

what better choices mobos are there for xfire?

And is it actually worth xfiring if i only play games on 1680 x 1050? (22" wide lcd)

or infact, would you simply recommend any other mobo over this one?

 

[SpinachEater]

A mobo with the X48 chipset would allow you to xfire in PCIex16 mode. The X48 chipset is also supposed to allow better overclocking for the CPU but from what I have seen, the P45 boards do just as well.


Here is a good article to get an idea on how your performance changes between P45 and X48 xfire.
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1472/intel_p45_vs_x48_crossfire_performance/index.html


If you crank up the AA and AF settings, xfire will for sure do you good. Some games benefit with xfire, some don't though. Here is a cherry picked example close to your resolution showing that it can do wonders.

The X48 mobo will be a lot more expensive than the P45 so I wouldn't get one unless you have strong inclinations to xfire.