DDR2 RAM for Core Duo

[Mango1970]

Hi all,
I am totally lost here -- I have finally understood all the dif types of DDR for my AMD X2 and how their latenices and settings and speeds work and now I am thinking of moving over to Conroe. However I keep reading about how this insane CPU can OC but then I see all these different types of DDR2 RAM. Quite simply to get these incredible OC speeds folks are getting what type of RAM do I need? Does it matter? DDR2 whatever is budget and on sale at my local vendor and just OC the CPU? That's what I did with my AMD 64 X2... I simply bought 2 X 1024 of OCZ PC3200 RAM that just runs with a divider to always be close to 200Mhz as it's crap and wont do anything much over that. WOuld I need insane DDR1066 or whatever for the Conroe? I mean it becomes pretty cost prohibitive if I have to buy that RAM to get those insane OC speeds on say a 6300 if it's mainly going to be memory that gets me to those speeds or gives my that massive boost in performance. WIth my AMD 64 X2 really getting my RAM to try and run at say 240Mhz rather than 200 yielded almost no diff in performance. Anyhow getting off topic -- my concern is that will I still be able to OC my new 6300 like mad to say 3Ghz with cheap no name DDR2 standard RAM or will this just kill the performance or will the CPU simply not work since there might not be dividers with these new boards? Maybe the Conroe does not work like that? Anyhow?

thanks


EDIT: OK since I am an idiot - I should have linked what I can get and afford.. .would this do? http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph...wProduct&cmd=pd&pid=009702&cid=RAM.475


M<a

 

[phile]

If you're going with a E6300 and plan to significantly overclock, I would suggest getting a kit of PC2-6400 (800MHz), which would run at 1:1 (no memory divider) at FSB 400 - 7 X 400 = 2.8GHz. A very nice, and very possible, overclock with the right hardware and cooling.

A few suggestions:

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?s...BD7505&vpn=OCZ2G8002GK&manufacture=OCZ

http://www.directcanada.com/products/?s...Z2P8002GK&manufacture=OCZ%20TECHNOLOGY

-phil

Note: Pairing OCZ Gold DDR2 with any P965 based board may be problematic. The mem needs more volts than boards provide by default, and may therefore inhibit POST. It may be the case that BIOS revisions have resolved the issue in some cases. Just buy the Platinums if you plan to go OCZ. I have a kit of Platinum PC2-6400 and they've been great.

 

[DerComissar]

Originally posted by: Mango1970
Hi all,
I am totally lost here -- I have finally understood all the dif types of DDR for my AMD X2 and how their latenices and settings and speeds work and now I am thinking of moving over to Conroe. However I keep reading about how this insane CPU can OC but then I see all these different types of DDR2 RAM. Quite simply to get these incredible OC speeds folks are getting what type of RAM do I need? Does it matter? DDR2 whatever is budget and on sale at my local vendor and just OC the CPU? That's what I did with my AMD 64 X2... I simply bought 2 X 1024 of OCZ PC3200 RAM that just runs with a divider to always be close to 200Mhz as it's crap and wont do anything much over that. WOuld I need insane DDR1066 or whatever for the Conroe? I mean it becomes pretty cost prohibitive if I have to buy that RAM to get those insane OC speeds on say a 6300 if it's mainly going to be memory that gets me to those speeds or gives my that massive boost in performance. WIth my AMD 64 X2 really getting my RAM to try and run at say 240Mhz rather than 200 yielded almost no diff in performance. Anyhow getting off topic -- my concern is that will I still be able to OC my new 6300 like mad to say 3Ghz with cheap no name DDR2 standard RAM or will this just kill the performance or will the CPU simply not work since there might not be dividers with these new boards? Maybe the Conroe does not work like that? Anyhow?

thanks


EDIT: OK since I am an idiot - I should have linked what I can get and afford.. .would this do? http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph...wProduct&cmd=pd&pid=009702&cid=RAM.475


M<a

I recommend this memory. I first was going to go with the OCZ DDR2-800 Platinum kit but after seeing so may issues with OCZ (which I have used in AMD systems for years) I am glad I chose these:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17699&vpn=991512&manufacture=MUSHKIN

After installing these, they booted up right away, no issues and they run at 1:1 beyond 400fsb. I read some good reviews on this Mushkin before I bought the kit.
Highly recommended

 

[Baked]

OCZ Platinum AFAIK doesn't have problem. It's the OCZ Gold that's having problem.

 

[phile]

To add even more clarity, the issues with OCZ Gold sticks are occurring with P965 chipset based boards.

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: DerComissar

Originally posted by: Mango1970
Hi all,
I am totally lost here -- I have finally understood all the dif types of DDR for my AMD X2 and how their latenices and settings and speeds work and now I am thinking of moving over to Conroe. However I keep reading about how this insane CPU can OC but then I see all these different types of DDR2 RAM. Quite simply to get these incredible OC speeds folks are getting what type of RAM do I need? Does it matter? DDR2 whatever is budget and on sale at my local vendor and just OC the CPU? That's what I did with my AMD 64 X2... I simply bought 2 X 1024 of OCZ PC3200 RAM that just runs with a divider to always be close to 200Mhz as it's crap and wont do anything much over that. WOuld I need insane DDR1066 or whatever for the Conroe? I mean it becomes pretty cost prohibitive if I have to buy that RAM to get those insane OC speeds on say a 6300 if it's mainly going to be memory that gets me to those speeds or gives my that massive boost in performance. WIth my AMD 64 X2 really getting my RAM to try and run at say 240Mhz rather than 200 yielded almost no diff in performance. Anyhow getting off topic -- my concern is that will I still be able to OC my new 6300 like mad to say 3Ghz with cheap no name DDR2 standard RAM or will this just kill the performance or will the CPU simply not work since there might not be dividers with these new boards? Maybe the Conroe does not work like that? Anyhow?

thanks


EDIT: OK since I am an idiot - I should have linked what I can get and afford.. .would this do? http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.ph...wProduct&cmd=pd&pid=009702&cid=RAM.475


M<a

I recommend this memory. I first was going to go with the OCZ DDR2-800 Platinum kit but after seeing so may issues with OCZ (which I have used in AMD systems for years) I am glad I chose these:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17699&vpn=991512&manufacture=MUSHKIN

After installing these, they booted up right away, no issues and they run at 1:1 beyond 400fsb. I read some good reviews on this Mushkin before I bought the kit.
Highly recommended

By all accounts, the mushkin mem is superb. But, quite expensive. I think the OCZ Plats deliver what is possibly the best performance/price value of the PC2-6400 kits out there. The Rev.1 version, anyway. The Rev.2 kit price seems more in line with the mushkin and corsair offerings.

-phil

 

[DerComissar]

I do agree with Baked and phile that the OCZ Platinum kit would be a great set of ram, especially now as the issues seem to have been resolved with the P965 chipset, at least with the DS3 with the latest bios. I bought my Mushkin kit a month ago when there were some issues with OCZ although that mainly affected the Gold kits. Also worth noting is that the Mushkin kit was $230 when I bought it, (at NCIX) now it has gone up in cost to the same level as the OCZ Platinum. The OCZ has the advantage of being PC2-6400 DDR2-800 as well.

 

[darkhorror]

You might want to look at cas 4 5300 instead. From what I have been reading it seems at it's basicly the same as C5 6400.

My patriot 5300 C4 ram is doing very well, can run it at C3 at stock speeds. Didn't test it for a real long time, but it was running at 6400 speed at C4 also. Plus it's stock of 1.8v, so it works well with DS3. I guess it really depends on how far you want to go.

 

[markymoo]

theres little point getting 1066 memory unless you have extreme cooling. to overclock the cpu you have to oc the memory so once you get to 500fsb your memory running at 1000mhz and so by this stage your voltages will be very high. which will just cope if you have great air cooling but you struggle to take it much higher on air. it run too hot 60-70c. the sane thing to do is get quality ddr2-800 memory which will overclock like silly to 1100-1200 which will cover you if you get better cooling or the bios improves in the future.

If i had to recommend 1 memory i say get this without a doubt. good price too considering
G.Skill 2GB DDR2 800 HZ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ)

this memory is amazing with most boards including p5b. its ddr2 800 and has been clocked upto 1200. so many overclockers rate this with c2d

other great memory is the corsair has reached 1300mhz but pricy
Corsair 2GB DDR2 1066XMS2-8500C5 TwinX

if money is not the problem
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 3-4-3-9, EPP

or get this
Corsair 2GB DDR2 800 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) for a safe bet it will do a 1000

all of the memorys above are stable and quality. there are other good ones from ocz and mushkin but havent heard as many good reports as the ones above. good thing about corsair is it works at 1.9v so plenty of room to oc.

if you going to get watercooling in the future get the 1100 memory otherwise get the ddr2 800. the performance gains are marginal for games, general stuff unless you plan to overclock.

forget about ram timings go for the highest mhz you can afford. so many peeps has wasted there money buying lower timing mem for conroe. you get like 4% increase in speed lmao

ocz had some problems with early bioses on asus boards but ok now it seems

 

[lopri]

There is a new RAM named "Dominator" from Corsair and it's advertised as PC8888 CL4. It'd be the best memory per manufacturer specs but you might need to consider financing to buy those. (Expected retail price $600~650 for 2GB kit)

 

[Addikt]

Originally posted by: phile
To add even more clarity, the issues with OCZ Gold sticks are occurring with P965 chipset based boards.

-phil

What about 975X? The reason I ask is that I can get a good deal on an OCZ Gold XTC 2GB kit. Should I just go with platinum to be safe? The problem is that platinum is expensive, or do I just go the Value Ram route?

 

[gobucks]

FYI OCZ Platinum modules wouldn't work with my P965 board either, and i know from the forums that i'm not the only one who had this problem.

to fix the problem I bought a pair of Corsair XMS modules - these ones here: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe...ductCode=85025-5&prodlist=pricegrabber
unfortunately apparently the price has gone up from the $175 US i paid, but they are still badass modules. They are rated at DDR2-800 5-5-5-12, but they run just fine at 4-4-4-10, and they work fine at DDR2-1000 @ 5-5-5-12, maybe higher but i'm waiting for a new CPU cooler to push the FSB higher than 400MHz. I consider that to be pretty awesome results and I'd say they are worth it even at $210 US.

anyways, definitely go for DDR2-800. it isn't that much more expensive and it will allow much more flexibility in your overclocking. I know i'd hate to have my overclock limited because my memory couldn't keep up. unfortunately, unlike with socket 939, neither the P965 nor the 975X support memory dividers lower than the 2x the FSB of 266MHz. that means in order to hit 3.6GHz on your e6600 (entirely possible btw) you need RAM that will definitely hit 800MHz.

 

[River Side]

why not get DDR2-667 that overclocks to get the best bang for your buck.. even if you fail to overclock higher, you'd get good timings at DDR2-667 speeds and it won't take u to the cleaners..