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Buying new RAM (2 x 2gb DDR2) for my P5N-D board

B

Brisos

Member
It seems like all the guides/reviews I find are dated from 2006 (which is when DDR2 took off I guess).

I want to buy new RAM. My ram just died on me so I cannot add to whatever I had. If you could advise I would appreciate it:


My current PC:
E8500
4870 X2
Raptor 75gb HD
2x1gb XMS2 - 6400 (corsair)

What I do know:

1)I'm going for 2x2gb
2)I am not going to overclock
3)It seems like going from PC2-8500 to PC2-9600 is an extra $20 (for Patriot/Gskill ram, on newegg). This is what I was looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/..._-20-231-283-_-Product
vs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/..._-20-220-426-_-Product

In the games I play I can often feel stutter when the Virtual memory is being used on my drive, and the lag pissed me off. going for 4gb on Win7 should help but... Would the 9600 be an upgrade in this case? I assume the bandwidth or whatever the term is for the rate at which the data is transmitted by the RAM is better?

Or should I save my $20 for halloween candy?
 
Bandwidth matter in terms of max clock speed of the RAM. If you are not overclocking, you are not running the RAM at higher frequencies, so all RAM will perform approximately equally. Also, RAM speed is generally a low priority on overall system speed effects (it has less effect than other components) so it's usually not worth it to spend too much more than you need to.

So yeah, go the cheaper option. no need to go nuts on RAM.

Keep in mind that the DDR2-1066 is not going to run at that speed if you just plug them in and go. You have to fiddle with BIOS to get them to do that (which could be construed as overclocking, but technically you'd be running everything within their specifications). Also, watch the voltage listed in the specs. Higher voltages mean you have to go into BIOS and set those voltages higher in order for them to run the listed speed. They'll all run fine at whatever the stock memory speed and voltage is for an E8500, which I think is DDR2-667 or DDR2-800. If you are not going to mess with the BIOS, you gain nothing (really, absolutely zero) over even cheaper DDR2-800 instead.
 
Ok that explains a lot.

Any guide that would make sense to a moron? I am not going to do it, probably. But I am curious as to how complex it is.
 
Went for http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ...G/ref=ox_ya_oh_product (Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5C 4GB XMS2 PC2-6400 800Mhz)

Seemed to be the best CAS for the lowest voltage (1.8v which is the default on my board right now). I actually was decided for the G.skill (4/4/4/12 I think it was at 1.8v) but it was not available on Amazon. I kinda stumbled on the corsair 6400C5C and did not find any reviews. Seems to only be a small variant of the 6400C5 though which has been reviewed plenty.

Anyway - thanks for the tips.
 
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