What memory speed for Q6600?

[MrCoyote]

I am building a new workstation for video editing and rendering. I'm going with dual Q6600 CPU's. This CPU has a 1066mhz FSB. What speed DDR2 should I combine with this CPU for optimal performance? Do I need 1066mhz DDR2, or will 667mhz suffice? Does the memory run asynchronous to the bus? I won't be overclocking.

 

[n7]

1066 / 4 = 266 MHz

DDR2-533 / 2 = 266 MHz

To run 1:1, DDR2-533 would suffice.

Obviously, you can run higher ratios like 4:5 (DDR2-667), 2:3 (DDR2-800), etc. if you so desire.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

for default clock speeds: ddr2 533, to overclock, anything above ddr2 533, IE: ddr2 667, ddr2 800...

 

[nefariouscaine]

I'd also look heavy into your selection of motherboards - as this could be a non issue. If you're shooting for dual processors I didn't know there was a board that supported dual 775's as the Q6600 is.

the "closest" option would be to pick up a LGA 771 dual socket board and 2 - E5410 (1333mhz fsb) - processors

that selection for dual quad cores also would limit your memory selection to FB-DIMM memory (fully buffered) and IIRC you'd be limited to either 533 or 667 DDR2 speeds

check out if that is the route you need to go as the memory is about double price of the standard DDR2 & the boards are about $300 on average & IIRC each processor is still $275ish

*you will not be able to overclock on that rig*

message edited for spacing purposes

 

[QuixoticOne]

The first post is correct in that you could run 533 MHz DDR2 ram on a non overclocked q6600 at 1:1.

However basically all modern chipsets have the ability (and this is the common situation) to run the processor at the processor's native non-overclocked speed, but to run the RAM at a higher speed asynchronously to the CPU (running the RAM at its maximum stock speed).

Looking at prices, I'd say the best value in RAM today will be had at the DDR2-800/PC2-6400 RAM which will be able to run at its full speed as above. Often this speed of ram doesn't cost much more than DDR2-667 memory, and it is a fair bit faster.

That being said, it wouldn't be horrible to use DDR2-667 memory if you find some that is a lot less expensive than the DDR2-800 stuff.

Video editing uses a lot of RAM so the more the better, I'd put in 8GB at today's prices, if running a 64 bit OS is reasonable for you (Vista 64, XP 64, LINUX, Solaris, Mac, Windows Server 2008, whatever).