C2D E6700 @ 3.66GHz & PC2-8500 with ASUS P5WDH

tidyboy21

Member
A few of you might be interested in this, http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=570&p=1

I have never come accross anything like this before, I never new that you could use any other speed ram than the max specified by the motherboard, in this case it is DDR2 800 (PC2-6400) but in the above link they are using PC2-8500 with the P5W DH??? Can anyone confirm that this works.
 
Yes, that works without issues, and is often a good idea when overclocking. If run at stock speeds, the faster RAM will still run at DDR2-800, so there's no real benefit. When overclocking, however, you're increasing the speed of the FSB and correspondingly the speed of the RAM. If you were using DDR2-800 in that case, you'd likely need to implement a memory divider to reduce the speed of the RAM (which will reduce performance), but the faster PC2-8500 will run at the higher speeds without needing to do this.
 
Thanks for the info ceewi1. Yea, def be overclocking so PC2-8500 would be more beneficial to me. Noticed you have the E6600, overclocked or no? I still dont know which one to get, the E6600 or the E6700. Alot of people are saying get the E6700 because of the x10, but the majority of people are saying they overclock about the same anyway so I have been leaning more towards the E6600. What do you think?
 
Yes, my E6600 is overclocked. A little short of 3.4Ghz at the moment, and that's not really pushing it too hard.

Personally, I don't think that the E6700 is worth the extra money. You're right in that they overclock to similar speeds.

As for whether PC2-8500 is a good idea, it really depends on the cost, and of course whether the money could be better spent elsewhere. I'm using DDR2-800 at the moment, and a decent DDR2-800 kit should work at speeds well above what they're rated for.
 
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