PC2 5300 vs. 6400 for me

[Rebel7254]

I'm building a new pc with a GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 motherboard and an Intel Core Duo E6400 CPU. I want 2GB of RAM for it. I have found a good deal on a Geil kit, 2x1GB PC2 6400, for $200, but unfortunately it is out of stock and I'd rather not have to wait on it because my current PC seems to slip further into uselessness every day. It just needs to be formatted really bad, but since I have decided to upgrade I don't want to bother with that.

I'd like to overclock some, but only to the degree that the stock cooling on the CPU/case will allow. So my question is, do I really even need PC6400? Is it likely that I will be able to reach that speed on stock cooling?

If not, then I can just find some PC2 5300 and get it now.

Thanks....

reb

 

[Lonyo]

You could probably get by with some PC5300, but don't expect great things.
Rated speed for 5300 is 333MHz I believe, which means your max overclock (running RAM at that speed) would be maybe 2.7GHz. PC6400 would give you 3.2GHz, but that's not necessarily attainable with stock HS/F.

But you can always run a divider on your memory anyway (something like 5:4), which would allow you to reach a little higher if you needed to and the RAM wouldn't overclock.

Obviously though, YMMV. But if you're not going to try anything serious, then PC5300 would be alright I would say.

 

[Rebel7254]

thx Lonyo

Anybody else have anything to add?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
But you can always run a divider on your memory anyway (something like 5:4), which would allow you to reach a little higher if you needed to and the RAM wouldn't overclock.

The S3 and other 965 chipset board don't have a divider to let the ram run at less than 1:1..but with looser timings, the mem can likely be overclocked a bit.

 

[Rebel7254]

The rest of the parts will be here by the weekend, and it'll drive me crazy to be helpless without RAM. So I went ahead and got these. I'll just spend $30 more and get it now vs. having to wait at least another week to build this thing. I only have time to do stuff like this on the weekends....

 

[Roguestar]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
You could probably get by with some PC5300, but don't expect great things.
Rated speed for 5300 is 333MHz I believe, which means your max overclock (running RAM at that speed) would be maybe 2.7GHz. PC6400 would give you 3.2GHz, but that's not necessarily attainable with stock HS/F.

But you can always run a divider on your memory anyway (something like 5:4), which would allow you to reach a little higher if you needed to and the RAM wouldn't overclock.

Obviously though, YMMV. But if you're not going to try anything serious, then PC5300 would be alright I would say.

The 533 DDR2 is rated for speeds of 266Mhz so without overclocking it, they'll not allow for any FSB overclocking. 6400 means it'd run at 333Mhz which would put him at 2.7Ghz.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Roguestar

Originally posted by: Lonyo
You could probably get by with some PC5300, but don't expect great things.
Rated speed for 5300 is 333MHz I believe, which means your max overclock (running RAM at that speed) would be maybe 2.7GHz. PC6400 would give you 3.2GHz, but that's not necessarily attainable with stock HS/F.

But you can always run a divider on your memory anyway (something like 5:4), which would allow you to reach a little higher if you needed to and the RAM wouldn't overclock.

Obviously though, YMMV. But if you're not going to try anything serious, then PC5300 would be alright I would say.

The 533 DDR2 is rated for speeds of 266Mhz so without overclocking it, they'll not allow for any FSB overclocking. 6400 means it'd run at 333Mhz which would put him at 2.7Ghz.

Actualy, 4200 is 533mhz(266), 5300 is 667mhz(333), and 6400 is 800mhz(400).