q9450 ram - 2x2GB ddr2-800 or 1066?

[secretanchitman]

title says it all, im buying some parts over the weekend and would love to know if 2x2GB ddr2-800 will be fine for overclocking a q9450 to 3.2Ghz and above (3.4ish), or would ddr2-1066 be needed?

here are the kits im looking at:

ddr2-800:

g.skill 2x2GB 4-4-4-12 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231148

geil 2x2GB 4-4-4-12 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820144118

ddr2-1066:

g.skil 2x2GB 5-5-5-15 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231166

geil 2x2GB 5-5-5-15 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820144224

TIA!

 

[bryanW1995]

I'm currently using a 4-4-4-12 ddr2 800 kit on my Q9450. It's running at 8x425, 1:1 memory ratio, 4-4-4-12, 1.95v.

by that I mean, don't waste the money on the 1066, you won't need that on a quad. if you had a dual core and were shooting for 4ghz + I'd say get the 1066, but I have literally seen a bare handful of q9450's that will do over 470 fsb 24/7. At a 425 fsb you should be able to keep the ram at 4-4-4-12 like mine and you might even be able to undervolt them slightly (mine are rated at 2.1v, too)

 

[secretanchitman]

thanks a bunch! ddr2-800 it is!

now between that g.skill and geil...hmm...

 

[bryanW1995]

sorry, meant to comment on that. I've heard much better things about gskill, but that's a pretty big price delta. I'd lean towards the geil if you can handle the mir. aren't there any other 2x2 gb kits available?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

G. Skill ddr2-1000 $85

This one is the best deal right now, don't ask me why it's $15 cheaper than the DDR2-800

And guaranteed to be all you will ever need for a Q9450

 

[bryanW1995]

nice, plus no mir! good catch!

 

[secretanchitman]

ddr2-1000? hmm those against 4-4-4-12 ddr2-800...

 

[bryanW1995]

realistically they're about the same, but if the ddr2 1000 is cheaper...

 

[imported_Woody]

Just to add my 2 cents.

bryanW1995 gave you good advice. There is no real need to waste money on anything faster than DDR2-800 these days. The performance gain for faster RAM is nearly negligible and your money is better spent on other parts of the system.

My philosophy on shopping for RAM is to buy the cheapest brand name low latency (4-4-4-12) sticks you can find and go with it. Most retailers advertise different sales every week so what's on sale will change constantly. Just shop around at the major retailers online and order what looks like a good deal keeping a fairly open mind about brands. Most of the memory comes from the same place anyway and at current prices I wouldn't get overly concerned about long term warranties.

You'll see some brands advertising their sticks will handle up to 2.5 Volts which is just crazy. Most DDR2 will overclock as far as it will go at 2.1 Volts and this should be considered a max voltage with sufficient airflow for cooling. You can expect to get advertised timings (4-4-4-12) up to maybe 825-900 MHz and relaxed timings (5-5-5-15) up to 1000 to 1100 MHz depending on the sticks. Realistically 1.9-2.0 Volts is probably enough for overclocked DDR2. You have to experiment to find the lowest stable voltage for your system.

Once you go over 400-235 MHz on the FSB you will probably want to set your divider to 1:1 to keep the memory speed under control. At a 1:1 ratio you will likely never be limited by the speed of your RAM but you may need to relax the timings and increase the voltage. There may also a very slight performance advantage to running your RAM at a 1:1 divider but I've never really been able to test this personally.

As far as buying 2x2GB or 4x1GB I would consider the prices first keeping in mind that most manufacturers rebates only allow you to claim one rebate per rebate period. It's likely that you'll get better overclocking potential from 1GB sticks rather than 2GB sticks just due to temperature issues but I'm not sure because I've never tried 2GB sticks myself.

 

[DarkRogue]

I'd just get whatever is cheaper, CAS 4 and 5 shows barely any real world difference, and only benchmarking apps will be able to tell.
As far as overclocking potential, I believe I've heard that 2x2GB is better than 4x1GB because of less strain on the northbridge, where users normally have to bump up the voltage on the northbridge to handle 4 sticks.

 

[secretanchitman]

thanks for that guys...i have a pair of g.skill 2x1GB DDR2-800 (the infamous HZ kit which costs like wayyyyy more than their other 2x1GB kits), and they overclock like mad. maybe i got spoiled by those sticks and am hoping for the same overclock for my q9450. ive read the q9450/x3350 overclocking thread and i see that most people get around 3.2-3.4Ghz, with a few pushing past 3.6Ghz. i always thought that ddr2-800 would be enough for any c2d/c2q overclock anyway.

im still confused on how/why the ddr2-1000 kit is $15 cheaper than the ddr2-800 kit...timings/neweggs randomness of daily prices probably? im still deciding between that kit in the link guitardaddy posted or the g.skill 2x2GB ddr2-800 i first posted. i read on newegg on how some people cant get their kits overclocked, stable, the timings arent right, and so on and so forth. i could care less about all that - im concerned with if the sticks are good enough for overclocking.

sorry im asking so many questions guys...believe me, i searched ocforums, hardocp, xtremesystems, and like whirlpool.au (whatever site that is), as well as the entirety of google, but i couldnt just find my simple answer...thank you all once again!

 

[n7]

There are a number of threads in Memory asking basically this same thing

Anyway, i'd certainly be suggesting 2x2 GB.

You can add that to your existing 2x1 GB for 6 GB.

That G.Skill DDR2-1000 is a very good deal.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145

Here's what i have...it's very nice stuff as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146726

Heard very good things regarding this kit, but it does have very tall heatspreaders.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820144120

As for why sometimes DDR2-1000 5-5-5 is cheaper than DDR2-800 4-4-4, it's likely because sometimes the DDR2-800 4-4-4 kits are actually higher end than the DDR2-1000 kits.

That's right.

All the kits you're looking at use PowerChips, which acts very differently than Micron like people are used to.

You won't gain much if anything from using more than 2.1v, & CAS 4 doesn't get very far.

Some DDR2-1000 kits may not even do CAS 4 @ DDR2-800.

Most will though, & most DDR2-800 4-4-4 kits will definitely do DDR2-1000 5-5-5.

I've done quite a bit of OCing with various different PSC 2x2 GB kits, as well as followed others' results, & here's the basics on how the majority of them do starting at DDR2-800.
(This isn't exact by any means, just a very rough guide based on what i've observed.)

800-850 4-4-3
800-925 5-4-3
800-925 5-4-4
800-1050 5-5-3
800-1050 5-5-4
800-1100 5-5-5

And then you have select very high binned stuff that can do up to 1200 5-5-5, though these are usually in kits specced that way.

As for why you have so many users on newegg & n00b forums, etc, claiming the RAM is crap, doesn't work, etc, these days?

It's because it's actually becoming pretty much required that you know how to alter timings, voltages, ratios, & even subtimings like tRFC just to run many 2x2 GB kits at stock speeds these days.

Though not every single time, issues with RAM is usually due to PEBKAC errors these days.

 

[bryanW1995]

wow...all I can say is +1 to n7!

btw, my dominators with the crazy-tall heatsinks work great. I did have to remove them to install a hard drive the other day, but otherwise they're gtg.

 

[n7]

secretanchitman, some stuff you'll want to know once you get your setup up & running:

1:1 is going to be easiest for you to run with a Q9450 due to the low multi (& consequently high FSB needed).

However, 5:6 or 4:5 would be ever so slightly better.

Especially if you end up wanting to run DDR2-1000 speeds:

tRFC MUST be set loose, 50-55+ ideally (you can tighten later if possible).
tRD affects performance more than any other subtiming.
Loosening = higher speeds, but poorer performance.

Take note of the scaling order i mentioned.
If you are mixing your 2x1 GB + 2x2 GB, things will be a lot more interesting (though doable).
If not, for 2x2 GB, at around say a 425 MHz FSB 1:1, you'll be able to do either 4-4-3 or 5-4-3 or 5-4-4 most likely.

8x425 = 3400 MHz
1:1 = DDR2-850
5:6 = DDR2-1020
4:5 = DDR2-1063

If you have more questions once you get it running, PM me

 

[AkumaX]

i actually picked up that gskill 2x2gb pc8000 ram. it's doing pretty good right now @ its rated speed (5-5-5-15 @ 1000mhz), but i think my mobo's limiting my cpufsb since i can't get it anywhere stable 370+ (p35-ds3l/q6600)

 

[secretanchitman]

thanks for that n7!

so i should just stick with g.skill ddr2-1000 at $85?

 

[secretanchitman]

i bought the ddr2-1000 for $84.99 shipped!

should have it running by this weekend...q9450, asus p5q deluxe (got it early! hehe...p45 ftw), 2x2GB ddr2-1000, thermalright extreme 120 with a noctua nf-s12 fan.

 

[Goi]

I'm about to build a Q9450, thanks for the q&a. I'm thinking of getting either 2x2GB Corsair DHX PC2-6400 CL4, or the CL5 version. I know there probably isn't any difference in performance, but I'm wondering if there are any differences in overclockability. The price difference is only about 7bucks. I will be using a Tuniq Tower and the motherboard will probably be a DFI P35 or X48 board.

 

[WT]

Good thread ... answered my question(s) as well. I'm still going with the 1066 sticks, as it might not benefit the 9450 chip, but I may carry the RAM over to a newer build/chip in a year and the 1066 RAM would then be a better choice for, say, a 9750 or whatever Intel has available on a newer 1666 FSB board.