DDR2 800 or faster?

jordan_ellipsis

jordan_ellipsis

New Member
Im in the planning stages of building a PC - i want it to be pretty high-end. To be used for music and video editing.

For memory, its been suggested to go for ddr2 800, but would i benefit more going for ddr2 900 or 1000 etc ?
 
DDR2 goes in this form :

The usual 400 etc..
533
667
800
1066
1111

Most motherboards only allow up to DDR2-800, so I recommend getting the highest speed your motherboard allows; ) Some allow 1066, which is great - but expensive ;P
 
leetkyle said:
DDR2 goes in this form :

The usual 400 etc..
533
667
800
1066
1111

Most motherboards only allow up to DDR2-800, so I recommend getting the highest speed your motherboard allows; ) Some allow 1066, which is great - but expensive ;P
Click to expand...

He is right, but DDR400 isnt DDR2.
 
Yeah, to my knowledge the minimum DDR2 speed is 400MHz as that is the highest most motherboards allow.. In case you don't know the PC2 speeds, they are :

PC2-3200 (400MHz)
PC2-4200 (533MHz)
PC2-5300/5400 (667MHz)
PC2-6400 (800MHz)
PC2-8000/8500 (1066MHz)
PC2-8888 (1111MHz)
 
leetkyle said:
Yeah, to my knowledge the minimum DDR2 speed is 400MHz as that is the highest most motherboards allow.. In case you don't know the PC2 speeds, they are :

PC2-3200 (400MHz)
PC2-4200 (533MHz)
PC2-5300/5400 (667MHz)
PC2-6400 (800MHz)
PC2-8000/8500 (1066MHz)
PC2-8888 (1111MHz)
Click to expand...

Very close, but thats not the correct speed that they run at. Divide it in half, and there ya go :)

To answer your question, DDR2-800 is plenty fast enough. If you feel comfortable adjusting memory voltages and timings, you could just buy DDR2-667 and make it into DDR2-800, or even higher.
 
i duno i just bought ddr2 667, its fast enough and it definitely won't bottleneck.... know wut i mean
processor speed matters a LOT more.
 
Last edited:
K, thanks everyone :D


[-0MEGA-];442002 said:
If you feel comfortable adjusting memory voltages and timings, you could just buy DDR2-667 and make it into DDR2-800, or even higher.
Click to expand...


Hmm, how easy is this to do, and would it be cheaper?
 
jordan_ellipsis said:
Hmm, how easy is this to do, and would it be cheaper?
Click to expand...

Much cheaper.

If you look at identical sticks of DDR2-800 and DDR2-667, the only difference is that the DDR2-800 sticks are around 0.1-0.3V higher, and have higher timings.

All you need to do is go into the BIOS, raise the memory voltage to 2.0-2.2v (depending which works), raise the timings, and there ya go. :)
 
[-0MEGA-];442590 said:
All you need to do is go into the BIOS, raise the memory voltage to 2.0-2.2v (depending which works), raise the timings, and there ya go. :)
Click to expand...

You can do this!!!? :eek:

To what extent? Like could i change the timings to 1-1-1-1-1?
 
Ok, so i could also buy ddr2 800 and tweak it to be as good as the next level up?

Also, how does the voltage affect performance?

There are some DDR2 667's with Cas Latency of 5 already - would i hace to tweak these?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! Sorry, i just know so little about memory :confused:
 
You could try upping the speed, but it doesn't always work! To get DDR2 800 speeds, look for DDR2 667 memory with at least 4-4-4-12 timings, preferably lower like 3-4-4-8.
 
it depends on the kit that you buy. g.skill sells some ddr2 800 packs that'll overclock past ddr2 1000, but they still cost more than their lower priced ddr2 800 kits... why? because they know how fast they can go. by the way, they sell them like that to be extra stable. like server memory is supposed to be.
 
jordan_ellipsis said:
Ok, so i could also buy ddr2 800 and tweak it to be as good as the next level up?

Also, how does the voltage affect performance?

There are some DDR2 667's with Cas Latency of 5 already - would i hace to tweak these?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! Sorry, i just know so little about memory :confused:
Click to expand...
I would recommend buying DDR2-667, and raise it to DDR2-800 or 1066.
 
[-0MEGA-];443248 said:
I would recommend buying DDR2-667, and raise it to DDR2-800 or 1066.
Click to expand...

Can this DEFFINITELY be done and will it be as good as, if not better than 800, or 1066? Are there any system/hardware requirements for doing this - ie. does my mobo need certain specifications?
 
If you buy quality DDR2 667 then it can almost certainly be done. As said, buy some 667 that runs at 1.8 or 1.9V and has timings of 4 or so, that should easily do 800Mhz, if not more. 1000Mhz might be going too far, unless you're using 667 that uses certain chips that are known overclockers like Micron D9's.

I was considering Gskill GBHZ ram, but with how its jumped like 50 dollars in price, no more. I discovered last night 1GB A Data Vitesta CL5 1.8V DDR2 800Mhz. A-data has a great rep in Asia, just not really over here. But still, looking at that, that memory is good enough to run 800Mhz on the stock specified volts with CL5. This memory in all likely hood could run CL4 or better at 2.0-2.1 volts, or I'm sure it could run up to 900+mhz with a bit of a voltage bump. And this is all for 125 bucks for the 1gig stick. Nice :)
 
jordan_ellipsis said:
Can this DEFFINITELY be done and will it be as good as, if not better than 800, or 1066? Are there any system/hardware requirements for doing this - ie. does my mobo need certain specifications?
Click to expand...

As long as you get good quality RAM and your motherboard supports RAM voltages of 2.0-2.2V, you should be good.
 
If you don't feel comfortable overclocking your components, then just buy ram at the rated speed you want. 667, 800Mhz. CL4, CL5. ANY of it will feel blazing to you.
 
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