DDR2 Value Ram.

[MBrown]

Is it really nessessary to buy expensive ram for a C2D system? Sorry for asking a bunch of questions lately, but I have about $600 of bucks to spend on a system and Im tring to figure out what im going to do.

 

[Effect]

Depends on what you're looking to do. For a stock Core 2 Duo system, you'll need 533Mhz DDR2 (266Mhz FSB 1:1 with RAM). If you're looking to overclock, you'll need RAM which runs at whatever FSB you're looking for, in which case more expensive memory is necessary (though a lot of value RAM will clock to around 800Mhz with a little extra voltage and relaxed timings). From what i've seen, spending extra for RAM that will run higher than 1:1 (ie. DDR2-800Mhz with a C2D @ stock 266Mhz FSB) will give you a slight (generally negligible) performance increase, but isn't generally worth the extra money you spend (someone correct me if i'm wrong on this).

 

[niji1875]

1G 677Mhz enough

 

[Kwint Sommer]

As Effect said Core 2 Duo doesn't need RAM that runs faster than 1:1. It has a very minor impact on peformance and when you start overclocking many motherboards have issues running the RAM above 1:1. Fast timings also have a very small impact on performance. The question is, how far do you plan to overclock the system? The stock FSB is 266 which means DDR2 533mhz but if you plan to seriously overclock to a FSB of 400 then you need DDR2 800mhz RAM.
Go to newegg and such and read the reviews on slower RAM, you will find that a lot of it can run at close to 800mhz. I have some rated for 800mhz that does 1000mhz. Don't worry about timings, just look for something that will go as fast as you plan to OC.