DDR2-800 - heres a note to remember

[Geoff]

Many users on here have been asking if they should spend more money on expensive DDR2-800 RAM. Most companies have one actual type of memory, and what they do is raise the timings and raise the voltage to get a faster speed.

I knew this when I purchased my system, so I bought a 2GB set (2x1GB), or Patriot DDR2-667 RAM for $207. The stock timings and voltage was 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v @ DDR2-667.

So I went ahead and raised the voltage to 2.1v, and I got my DDR2-667 RAM up to DDR2-900 speeds, and i was also able to lower the timings to 5-4-4-9.

So just a note to everyone, you can buy DDR2-667 (or even 533), and you should be able to easily overclock it to DDR2-800 speeds or above, saving you some money.

 

[Jet]

Many users on here have been asking if they should spend more money on expensive DDR2-800 RAM. Most companies have one actual type of memory, and what they do is raise the timings and raise the voltage to get a faster speed.

I knew this when I purchased my system, so I bought a 2GB set (2x1GB), or Patriot DDR2-667 RAM for $207. The stock timings and voltage was 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v @ DDR2-667.

So I went ahead and raised the voltage to 2.1v, and I got my DDR2-667 RAM up to DDR2-900 speeds, and i was also able to lower the timings to 5-4-4-9.

So just a note to everyone, you can buy DDR2-667 (or even 533), and you should be able to easily overclock it to DDR2-800 speeds or above, saving you some money.

Remember, though, that DDR2-800 can reach DDR2-1000 if you get the right modules.

 

[Geoff]

Remember, though, that DDR2-800 can reach DDR2-1000 if you get the right modules.

There almost all identical, the only difference is that the DDR2-1000 modules are picked selectively because they can run at high speeds without a huge increase in voltage. Usually however you can get any stick of RAM which is the same model, to the same speeds.

 

[Jet]

They still on average can overclock higher, usually around DDR2-1067 instead of DDR2-950 or so. I'm not saying that DDR2-667 is bad, it is just that the extra Mhz makes a world of difference when running a 1:1 ratio with Core 2 Duo.