What RAM goes with which Motherboard?

[recurve7]

I realize this is a bit of a dumb question, but I dutifully read through a bunch of the FAQs and haven't found an answer.

It's been about 10 years since I built a PC. As I prepared to do it again, I was embarrassed to find that I'm completely out of touch with the world of hardware. In the old days, I think remember matching the speed of the CPU to the speed of the RAM. But now the RAM is classified by "bandwidth" like PC3500 DDR. However, even though it's classified by bandwidth, doesn't the speed of the RAM still have to match the clock speed of the motherboard?

After finding this (amazing) site, I've been reading some hardware reviews here. But in the motherboard and chipset reviews I can never see what clock speed each runs at. How do I know what speed of CPU or RAM I can put in the motherboard? Hopefully there's a simple page (or a missing piece of information) that will map these two things together for me. Thanks in advance!

 

[Electric Amish]

DDR for a DDR motherboard

SDR for an SDR motherboard

RDRam for an RDRam motherboard

The bandwidth numbers don't mean a whole lot except for those looking for overclocks.

amish

 

[recurve7]

OK, if I understand this explanation, it wouldn't matter if put PC1600 DDR RAM in an ASUSP4T533 motherboard, or PC3500 DDR in an AI61 Slot A Thunderbird 751 Motherboard?

 

[Viper96720]

It would matter the P4T533 uses rdram not ddr ram. Most newer cpu's still have a fsb 133mhz or a 100mhz while the memory runs faster.
You can run the faster memory slower but may not be able to run the slower memory faster. If your not going to overclock you can use pc2100 for a ddr board and run a 1:1 ratio with a 133mhz fsb cpu . A 3:4 ratio if you have a 100mhz fsb cpu so the memory will still run at 266mhz.
PC2100 ddr memory=266mhz(133x2)
PC2700=333mhz(166x2)
PC3200=400mhz(200x2)

RDRAM is like quad pumped ddr. PC800 is 100mhz x 4 x 2
PC1066 is 133mhz x 4 x 2

 

[Zebo]

Recurve,

I recommend deciding what you want in a computer. Gaming? Digital editing? Office work? The reading one of Anands buyers guides applicable to the system you desire. This will set you straight with the best-bang-for-the-buck system without much homework.