DDR 667 vs DDR 800

[Noobtastic]

I've been hearing everywhere that the E6320 is incredibly easy to overclock. However, some people say it's hard to overclock with DDR667 memory (which is the cheapest dell offers.)


I've never overclocked before, so this would be a new thing to me. Hopefully I don't have to go into the bios or anything..right?

 

[Trevante]

You've got quite a long way to go buddy...go read some overclocking guides before you buy anything

1. I hope you're not planning to overclock a Dell PC, because that'll be very difficult and not worth the purchase if you're actually interested in overclocking.

2. Technically, there are a few programs that can overclock from within Windows, but real overclocking is done in the bios. More than likely your Dell PC will have all the overclocking options removed from the bios so this wouldn't even be an option for you. Don't be scared to go into the bios, there's very little you can do in there that could fry your system.

Now if you're just trying to buy the RAM from Dell, I'd start off looking elsewhere because you'll probably find cheaper, higher quality RAM than what Dell has to offer.

And go with DDR2-800. DDR2-667 won't give you much more room for overclocking than what what you're already running (probably DDR2-533)

I don't know if you'll understand any of this, but a simple equation for determining your overclock is to take the multiplier of your chip and multiply it by the FSB (Front Side Bus) of the processor.

In the case of the 6320, it has a 1066 FSB (4 x 266) and a 7x multiplier.

With DDR (Double Data Rate) memory, the rated speed is actually twice that of the front side bus. For example, DDR2-533 would be 2 x 266mhz, DDR2-667 is 2 x 333mhz, and DDR2-800 is 2 x 400mhz.

With DDR2-667, assuming it won't overclock any higher than DDR2-667 speeds, your maxium overclock would be 2.3GHZ (7 x 333). This would only be a 500mhz increase from stock speeds, which IMO isn't worth the savings between DDR2-667 and DDR2-800.

With DDR2-800, assuming it won't overclock any higher than DDR2-800 speeds, your maxium overclock would be 2.8GHZ (7 x 400). This would be a 1GHZ overclock from stock speeds, which is a more worthwhile overclock IMO.

 

[dds14u]

I also want to add that you must pay attention to what MEMORY:FSB ratios your motherboard supports.

The bottom line is that getting faster memory allows for more overclocking, and DDR2-800 is around that sweet spot.

 

[Noobtastic]

If I don't overclock, will the DDR2-800 contribute (good) to my computer more than DDR2-677?

 

[Trevante]

If you don't overclock then no, it wont' matter which one you get. If you don't overclock, you should be fine with DDR2-533 RAM, because that's what your RAM is going to run at by default. It's when you overclock it that it starts reaching 667 and 800 speeds.