New build

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm thinking about upgrading my platform and that means I need to look into DDR2 or other. I don't know what the sweet spot for gaming performance memory speeds are these days. First of all I'm looking at AMD's new 9850 quad. I'm into UT3 these days and the game runs better on quad cores so that's where I'm headed. I'm not too sure of the intel chipsets for an intel build. If I went the Intel route, i'd first be interested in knowing the phase power design but that could lead to more money for a higher end board ...but will consider. But as of right now I was thinking since the 9850 isn't that great of an overclocker, the phase power design isn't that important and a relatively inexpensive MB like http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131289 with just a phase 4 + power design would be fine. If I go with the AMD setup, it looks like the MB's standard memory is DDR3 PC8500 1066. I'm not sure if I have to use particularly DDR3 or not, but that's another question I have. In the case I can use DDR2, I was actually thinking of PC8500 but I'm not sure of what is the fastest and most reliable/stable of them all. I've seen 2Gb for 28$ with timings of 5-5-5-15 So considering I can use the DDR2, what is the most stable and fastest memory to look for?

Thanks for your time 🙂

529th

 

[ZtyX]

Off topic.. Btw how are you doing with those Raptors? What is the difference performance wise in using those as opposed to a normal hdd? Do you feel any difference when playing or whatever? 🙂

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'd be better if they were using dedicated hardware like a card with an onboard processor; but that's big money.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Just my opinion, but I would go intel. You could get a Quad Q6600 for ~$200 and OC pretty easily to at least 3.2GHz, if not 3.5-3.6GHz. Going over 3.6GHz won't happen for most people, but anything over 3GHz, you will be video card limited anyway, so it doesn't make a big deal.

There are many good OC'ing motherboards based on the P35 chipset for ~$100 as well, that will easily OC a Q6600. Add a ~$40 heatsink to help with the overclock, and you are set.

The Q6600 has a 9X multiplier, so if you OC to 400FSBx9=3.6GHz, you can still buy DDR2-800 RAM for it, and run it within spec. This is good since DDR2-800 RAM is really cheap right now, a 2x2Gig kit is ~$70-80 now. I would go with a 4Gig kit since it is cheap, and memory can almost always help.

SO you could get the CPU, HS, MB, and 4Gig RAM for ~$450.

DDR3 is used in some X38 and X48 boards, but it's really expensive compared to DDR2, and doesn't give any speed increase in games and other apps.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Thanks for the reply : )