newbish question about ram

[darkxknight]

is there really a point to get PC6400 if you aren't using the full 400 FSB on it?

take the E2160 for instance(im getting), it has a multi of 9 and fsb of 200. wouldn't 200mhz of my ram be going to waste unless i overclock?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: darkxknight
is there really a point to get PC6400 if you aren't using the full 400 FSB on it?

take the E2160 for instance(im getting), it has a multi of 9 and fsb of 200. wouldn't 200mhz of my ram be going to waste unless i overclock?

fsb 200mhz. That would give you 1.8ghz.

If you overclock and you take that up to 400fsb at 9x multi that is 3.6

You take a conservative route and go 400x8 to give you 3.2 you gave yourself a boost in memory bandwith, as well as gave yourself a hugh overclock bonus.


So yea 800mhz ram should be what your looking at if your overclocking. If not, then 667 should be great. 533 v 667 price difference is almost nothing, but i recomend the 667 as the min.

 

[darkxknight]

for ppl who are not overclocking, wouldn't it just be a waste then? unless you set the divider to 1:2 or something would there be a performance increase?

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: darkxknight
for ppl who are not overclocking, wouldn't it just be a waste then?

No, because it's possible to run the RAM faster than the FSB. It doesn't provide huge gains, but it does provide gains, along with providing the ability to either overclock later, or use that same RAM with a higher stock FSB'd processor in the future. PC6400 is the "sweet spot" right now in price/performance.

 

[brencat]

And to elaborate further on what myocardia is saying, my E2180 is currently running @ 325 FSB x 10 multi. I'm also using the 1:1.25 divider for RAM so it runs @ 406 FSB (812 DDR). Further, the performance difference between running 1:1 (325 FSB: 325 RAM) @ 3-3-3-9 2T timings versus my current 1:1.25 @ 4-4-4-8 2T timings results in a nearly 1.5 sec reduction in SP1M calculation time (i.e. 20.52 sec versus 19.03 sec) and even more for the SP32M calculation.

My RAM will also run with looser timings using the 1:1.5 divider on my board (488 FSB (976 DDR)).

So, it is definitely worth OCing your RAM once you get the CPU at the clock you want it. To even have that option however, you should definitely have PC2-6400. Pricing is the best on this category of RAM as well.