Okay here's the deal, I work at a certain major retail chain as a computer technician, and Intel is offering a package deal (the specifics of which I won't bore you with) in which I can get an Intel D915PBL mobo, P4 550 3.4 GHz Processor, and full copy of WinXP Pro for $199. I already ordered the package and it arrived in the mail today.
The board uses DDR2, and according to what Intel says, the board is designed for DDR2 400 and 533. My first instinct was to sell the board on eBay and buy an Asus board that could use DDR1 and DDR2, but I started thinking about the price of the board plus the price of a GB of good DDR1 (as well as noticing a flood of those boards already on eBay), and decided that I might as well go ahead and buy DDR2 and keep the Intel board. I'm not really thrilled about having an Intel motherboard (especially one that lacks gigabit LAN), but I suppose I can live with it.
My main concern right now is this -- I have been considering buying a matched pair of 2x512MB of Corsair PC5400 667MHz TwinX DDR2 XMS2 PRO (which I can get for about $300 including shipping), and I don't know whether such high-end RAM will be wasted on this motherboard. The board does not say it supports DDR2-667, which would not be as much of a concern with a more enthusiast savvy company like Asus or Gigabyte, as I would expect this to be included with future BIOS updates, but with Intel I can see the board never supporting higher-speed memory.
And also from what I've read, one of the main advantages of DDR667 over 533 is it's overclocking potential, as most DDR533 seems to be able to operate at 667 pretty easily even with default timings. And since Intel is know for trying to limit overclocking on their boards, is this RAM going to be a total waste? Should I save $60-70 and just some cheap ass DDR2-533? I suppose I might upgrade my motherboard in the future, but there may be even faster memory by then. I just wanted to see if anyone had an opinion on this. Thanks in advance.
jbrownos
jbrownos@earthlink.net
The board uses DDR2, and according to what Intel says, the board is designed for DDR2 400 and 533. My first instinct was to sell the board on eBay and buy an Asus board that could use DDR1 and DDR2, but I started thinking about the price of the board plus the price of a GB of good DDR1 (as well as noticing a flood of those boards already on eBay), and decided that I might as well go ahead and buy DDR2 and keep the Intel board. I'm not really thrilled about having an Intel motherboard (especially one that lacks gigabit LAN), but I suppose I can live with it.
My main concern right now is this -- I have been considering buying a matched pair of 2x512MB of Corsair PC5400 667MHz TwinX DDR2 XMS2 PRO (which I can get for about $300 including shipping), and I don't know whether such high-end RAM will be wasted on this motherboard. The board does not say it supports DDR2-667, which would not be as much of a concern with a more enthusiast savvy company like Asus or Gigabyte, as I would expect this to be included with future BIOS updates, but with Intel I can see the board never supporting higher-speed memory.
And also from what I've read, one of the main advantages of DDR667 over 533 is it's overclocking potential, as most DDR533 seems to be able to operate at 667 pretty easily even with default timings. And since Intel is know for trying to limit overclocking on their boards, is this RAM going to be a total waste? Should I save $60-70 and just some cheap ass DDR2-533? I suppose I might upgrade my motherboard in the future, but there may be even faster memory by then. I just wanted to see if anyone had an opinion on this. Thanks in advance.
jbrownos
jbrownos@earthlink.net
