Best speed of RAM for my mobo cpu combo?

[coremortality]

Can I run DDR2 800 with the E6600 or should I be running ram at the same FSB of 1066? I thought I read a post here on Anandtech where people were recommending slower ram to save money.

I'm building a new system that will be primarily a work system but will also be used for mild gaming (HL2, TF2, WoW). I'm going to be using the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 with the E6600. I wont be doing any overclocking so I'm looking for the most solid performance possible out of the box. I plan on starting with only 2 gb but I may add another 2 if i decided to take the plunge with Vista.

Thanks.

-Eric

-edited to add additional information.

 

[o1die]

Newegg has 2 gigs of wintec ddr2 5300 for $58 shipped. It's the best price for 2 gigs I've seen so far. It should work fine with your gigabyte board.

 

[cify1964]

If your just looking to save money, get the RAM suggested above. However, for about $140.00 you can get some OCZ SLI PC2-8500 with EPP that will run 1066. Believe me it does make a different in your gaming experience. I have your same setup, but with the E6400.

Some of the better brands of pc2-6400 can do 1066 too, but without the EPP. I have tried most pc2-5300, pc2-6400, pc2-1066, and now pc2-9200. All I can tell you is the RAM purchase will play the biggest role in how much you will enjoy your gaming experience.

I bought a 8800GTX and oc'ed it and my cpu@3.6, but I was still one of the slower players in the games I played (BF1942, CoD, and others) even though I was getting a score of 19,000 in 3dmark05.

Then I bought ocz sli pc2-8500 and became one of the fastest player in the games even though my 3dmark05 score came down to 15,500. Don't be fooled by bench marks, they are no subsitute for real gaming experience.

Good RAM is just like anything else of quality, the quality remains long after the price is forgotten Good luck

 

[cify1964]

 

[cify1964]

 

[tastyratz]

good ram will not make very much of a difference on a c2d system. spend your money elsewhere. Good ram is good because it will allot for more flexible overclocking... in turn resulting in better gaming/performance. Check out legionhardware.com for a review showing many games and benchmarks with ddr1200 to ddr667.... often with less than a 4-5% difference in performance from one extreme to the next

 

[cify1964]

Originally posted by: tastyratz
good ram will not make very much of a difference on a c2d system. spend your money elsewhere. Good ram is good because it will allot for more flexible overclocking... in turn resulting in better gaming/performance. Check out legionhardware.com for a review showing many games and benchmarks with ddr1200 to ddr667.... often with less than a 4-5% difference in performance from one extreme to the next

All I can say is people still gaming running their ram at 800mhz have no idea of the performance they are missing out on. I'm not talking about bench marks, I'm talking about the raw speed of running your ram at 1066, especially if it supports EPP.

If he is not going to oc, then he needs to be running his ram at the highest mhz possible for maximun performance(i.e., in game speed). PC2-8500 and above will out perform and OC higher then any pc2-6400 memory period, at both 800 mhz and especially in 1066 mhz speeds. One of the main benefits of the DS3 is its ability to run ram mhz 1066 mhz and higher because you don't need to oc the cpu to oc the RAM just by changing the fbs from 200 to 266. Think about it and do the math, you don't thing a high performance chip like the E6600 will perform better running in 1066 because of the higher fbs speed? He should have bought an E4300 if 800mhz is the highest he is going to run his chip at.

If you listen the budget 800mhz crowd you will be sorry once you have experienced your system running at 1066mhz.