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Do I need 1066Mhz RAM or can I stick with 800?

JAWE

Member
I would have an e8500 (originally 3.16Ghz) and want to OC it to 3.6. Someone posted that 1066 is not worth it unless I am planning a major Overclock.
1)My motherboard will be the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128358
however, it has memory problems with 1066Mhz RAM, so I would have to get the ram that is listed as supported on their homepage, which is not always cheap. (~$60)
I can get 4GB of DDR2800Mhz RAM from OCZ for about $15-20. If you recommend that I stick with 800Mhz RAM, should I get 8GB of it because it is so cheap?

Relevant Info:
Video Card GTX 285 (OCE edition (from dell?))
Main use: gaming
I would also like to be able to edit videos with Premiere Pro and not have it run really slow (i know that I would need a quad core if that was my main use)
Would I notice an overall preformance increase if I switched to 1066Mhz RAM?
My OS would probably be Vista Ultimate 64-bit

thanks for your help

Edit: Also, my mobo doesnt have eSATA. I plan on getting an external HDD eventually to back things up. Is it worth it to switch mobos to have an eSATA port? (is it that much better than USB2.0?)
 
At 3.6Ghz you only need DDR2-800.

I would recommend 8GB if you can get it so cheap.

The performance difference between 1066 and 800 is minimal or usually non-existent.

On the E-Sata issue, you can get an e-sata to sata bracket. This has a sata cable which connect to an e-sata port on the outside.
 
Lower timings will offset higher bandwidth.

Say theoretically:

800 at timing 4
1066 at timing 6

800 would be just as fast, if not slightly faster than the 1066 RAM.
 
but 1066 at timing 4 will be faster... making your system about 1% faster overall, which isn't much actually and is not worth the money.
 
i upgraded from 4 to 8GB because I was sick of having to close FF and chrome before playing a game. They take ~2GB each thanks to the "save session" feature, meaning that every time i open them they open the dozens of tabs i had open last time.

Are you running out of ram with 4gb? if so then upgrading will benefit you, otherwise it will not.
 
its a computer i would build very very soon. I dont know if I would run out, but I doubt it. I don't use any "save session" feature
 
Originally posted by: JAWE
its a computer i would build very very soon. I dont know if I would run out, but I doubt it. I don't use any "save session" feature

if you DO run out, just buy another 2x2GB module then, they are only 30$ and your mobo will have 4 slots anyways.
 
Originally posted by: taltamir
i upgraded from 4 to 8GB because I was sick of having to close FF and chrome before playing a game. They take ~2GB each thanks to the "save session" feature, meaning that every time i open them they open the dozens of tabs i had open last time.

Are you running out of ram with 4gb? if so then upgrading will benefit you, otherwise it will not.

O_O

I've never had firefox go over 1GB and that was with a ton of youtube videos up in tabs.
 
Originally posted by: Pelu
if going for 8gb... remember to pick up a 64bit os...

otherwise is a waste...

the 64bit should be used ANYWAYS, the "ram only" is a strawman argument... I bechmarked 7z for example to compress 27% faster using the 64bit executable compared to the 32bit one... while ssh1 calculation has been benchmarked as 300% faster in 64bit by some websites...

that is becuase the 64bit includes more ALU/FPU units as well as registrars.
 
I would suggest some high end 800 or 1066 so you have the flexibility to OC the RAM later. Performance measurement programs show improvement with higher RAM speeds (about 10% difference in my case). Real world differences depend upon your applications.
 
Originally posted by: zagood
FYI: the UD3P doesn't have onboard eSATA but comes with an eSATA backplate.

I'm using the UD3P for my WHS right now. That backplate is awesome as you get the 4 pin power connector + the eSATA ports.

As to 800 v. 1066, to be honest, you are better off spending more money on more ram or more of something else. Unlike a CPU/GPU your $/performance increase is going to be very low from an entire system perspective. What you really want your ram to do is to serve as a place where everything that is open can run out of. That way you lower your HD access time. HD access is what kills performance to the point where you can feel the change. And yes, my applications/OS disk is comprised of 8x 15k SAS 2.5" drives with a 1.2ghz dual core controller... so it is not an issue of me having a "slow" storage subsystem. It is just the fact that bandwidth and latency wise you are orders of magnitude better on RAM versus hard drives.

I tested running the 12GB DDR3 1600 at 1333 and lower and couldn't discern any noticeable performance decrease outside of benchmarks/ synthetic applications. Media encoding did suffer a bit, but not like moving from 30 to 27 fps in a game did, or how much faster a core i7 is versus a Core 2 Quad for x264 encodes. This is to the point where I am seriously thinking of running lower speeds/timings for the RAM just to ensure lifespan/error free operation. Then again, I have two sets of backup drives in my PC with a Raid 6 WHS providing network backup... so I am one of those stable at all costs people versus trying to get every ounce of performance from hardware until it dies.
 
Originally posted by: 18 Is Number 1
I would suggest some high end 800 or 1066 so you have the flexibility to OC the RAM later. Performance measurement programs show improvement with higher RAM speeds (about 10% difference in my case). Real world differences depend upon your applications.

due to the ability to set the ram multiplier, you only need to oc the ram if you overclock your CPU by more than 66 core FSB. (so for a 3ghz C2D for example that would be ocing it beyond 3.6ghz)
 
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