memory advice please!

[touc]

I'm putting together the parts for a new gaming orientated pc. planning on going with:

E6400
GIGABYTE 965P-DS3
Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT
etc

As you all know ddr2 ram prices have rocketed of late, and it's even more expensive for those of us from the UK. I am not planning to overclock this system at all (to start with at least) and with that in mind was wondering whether this system would benefit from more ram or faster ram?

Would you take:

1gb corsair 6400 800mhz at £100

or

2gb corsair 4200 533mhz at £164?

2gb of 800mhz is £235 ($450ish) which I'd find really hard to justify.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[pkme2]

RAM prices are really too high at the moment.

Recommend waiting till after Dec 25th; by that time supplies should be up and prices should be down.

With the frenzy to go C2D, RAM prices have escalated to ridiculous levels. Patience is a necessary quality to follow, or are you that rich, you wanna pay thru the nose!

 

[touc]

not that rich but the impending death of my current pc is forcing my hand! I'd be keen to know what people think because even when prices have dropped there'll still be the proportionate price differences in place which will influence my decision

 

[acegazda]

zzf has some good deals on geil RAM, OOS on the $90 1gb stick but hopefully be back in stock by next friday when I order my rig. Other than that, newegg has a deal on mushkin enhanced ddr2-667 2gb kit. $170 AR. I might go with some $110 gskill ddr2-667 (1gb stick) if the geil is still OOS. All these are technically "ocing RAM" but it will still perform as well as the more expensive corsair valueselect.

 

[John]

I've used Patriot Signature 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD22G667KH - Retail in builds using the E6300 w/ an Asus P5NSLI & Intel 965RYCK mainboards and they work like a champ.

 

[touc]

Thanks for the replies guys. Unfortunately i'm in the UK so have to pay more for my memory here rather than ordering from the cheaper US sites

From what I gather (please correct me if I'm wrong), if I plan to leave the DS3 mobo's FSB at the default of 266mhz it's not worth me investing large sums of money in top quality ram.

With that in mind i've been looking at these two products:

PC5300 (667mhz), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=291364

and

PC4200 (533mhz), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=121626

The price of both is very similar, with one slightly faster and the other with lower latency. Do these look ok for the system I have planned and any advice on which would be preferable (latency or speed)? Thanks in advance, once again, for any help.

 

[touc]

bump, anyone?

 

[touc]

one last bump!

 

[AnObfuscator]

Either of those would work fine in your system. If I were you, I would spring for the DDR2-667. Performance should be fairly similar between the 2 sets, but the 667 would slightly edge it out, I believe.

In general, it seems the rule of thumb is 1 speed grade increase compensates 1 cas latency increase.

Also, the C2D FSB likes lots of memory bandwidth.

The 667 is probably a better choice for your system.