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Just checking to make sure I understand what to look for when matching an Intel Core Duo with RAM. As an example, if the CPU is rated at 1066 MHz, its effective clock speed would be 266 (quad-pumped), right? And if that's the case, then the optimum match for RAM would be DDR2 533 MHz, right? (Or, you could get faster RAM and underclock it.)
Exactly right...finally, someone gets it! lol.
One of the benefits of underclocking higher rated RAM (for instance, running DDR2-800 at DDR2-533 speed) is that you can usually tighten up on the timings & that will provide even better performance.
See response #8 in this thread:
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You're right. DDR2 533mhz ram would be the correct setting to run a Core 2 Duo that has a FSB 1066mhz at 1:1. 4 x 266 = 1064
To add on to what Jam mentioned you can take your current DDR2 533 and tighten up your settings as well. If you could get your timings 3-3-3-8 stable on DDR2 533 you'd be set. If you can't and that becomes unstable then if your DDR2 533 isn't alreayd this setting then set it to 4-4-4-12 which would be the stable enough for most DDR2 533.
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Thanks, guys! I haven't built a PC since my current P4, which I built about 3 yrs ago. My daughter is getting ready to build her first one (makes a dad so proud!), and I'm helping her pick out components. Looks like we'll be visiting newegg very soon.
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Sweet. What's even better then building a pc together is having your daughter work on a car with you. Man now that's what I call father duaghter bonding. :)
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Amen, Cobra_R! My daughter is currently doing an IT Helpdesk internship for a local company, so this will be a good experience for her.
BTW, I have another question (since I've been a little out of the loop with newer hardware for a while). My daughter has selected an ASUS P5K-E, whose specs include the statement: Memory Standard DDR2 1066. Does this mean that the board can take memory up to DDR 1066 (which I would assume), or that it must run DDR 1066? She has picked out DDR 800 RAM (which we should be able to underclock to 533 MHz). Thanks again for your input.
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Yes that means that your motherboard can support up to DDR2 1066 memory, but there is no Intel prcocessor even close out there that can support 2133mhz FSB or 1:1 ratio and prob never will be considering Intels next generation processors will have an intergrated memory controller which will eliminate the FSB altogether. DDR2 1066 is used for overclocking at this time.
Where DDR2 1066 may come into play is with AMD processors, because while Intel is moving on with DDR3, AMD is holding on to DDR2 for another year and you will see AMD's next generation processors on the AM2+ platform take adavantage of the memory bandwidth of DDR2 1066. Intel's next generation processors with the intergrated memory controller will prob end up taking advantage of DDR3 1066 memory bandwidth instead.
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While the (P35 based) P5K-E from ASUS may be a modest board since it can be had new for about $130-$150 despite offering almost comparable benefits to the average X38 based motherboard.
I personally don't see a compelling reason for the average enthusiast to still want to pay that much for a performance motherboard when there are still many decent P965 boards out there going for a lot less without hardly any tangible nor practical disadvantages at stake here .... do correct me if I am wrong about your main intentions for the build.
Yeah .... the P35 officially touts a 1333Mhz external bus, but big whooptie do da! My 956P DS3 has been set to 1360MHz (E4300 @ 3.06GHz) pretty much from day one, although Gigabyte suggest it should go up to 1,066MHz without problems .... go figure .... LOL. The other thing might be the DDR3 promise on the P35, but the P5K-E only sports DDR2 slots anyhow & that pretty much eliminates the purported advantage of that. And the ICH9 vs ICH8 benefit isn't even as tangible either.
Although, it really would have been nice if the chipset supported PCI-e 2.0 like the X38, but as we all know that isn't the case with the P35.
Finally, since your daughter is also hoping to get some hands-on experience under her belt with the building exercise, something like the less expensive Gigabyte's 965P-DS3 or even the P5B from ASUS should be okay for her & the system should still offer great performance at the same time.
Good luck!
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Thanks for the recommendation, Sabertooth. Looks like we should check this out as an option. I do know that my daughter is trying to keep future upgrading in mind. I'm open to further suggestions from those of you who have used these boards ... any comparisons?
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The standards change every 3 to 3 1/2 years. DDR2, PCI-e 1.0, and SATA II standards are getting phased out. DDR3 PCI-E 2.0, and SATA III, will become the new standard. So you want a board that can support these standards, but the problem is DDR3 is a lot of money right now and the first generation DDR3's don't hold hardly any advantage over DDR2's 3rd generation. Plus the DDR3 motherboards that are out now don't support anything higher that will give you a noticeable diff over the 3rd generation DDR2 right now.
IMO it's a bad time to build a pc for those reasons. I would wait another 6 months for the prices of DDR3 to come down a little and the speed diff of DDR3 to start pulling away from the 3rd generation DDR2 standards.
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Wrong, DDR2 is double pumped, That is why they call DDR2 1067, 1067. You will only have decreased performance from running DDR2533 instead of 1067 with the Core2 running at 1067fsb (4x266).
This was all explained in the xbit labs article I posted awhile ago.
Other than that, I agree it is a real bad time to build a PC, any kind of PC. Prices seems to be going up and up. I dont understand why either. An Nvidia 8500gt would run you close to 60.00USD, now they are closer to 100.00USD. Cpu's are the same story. a core 2 2180 was 89.00USD a few weeks ago, now it's almost 120.00USD. It makes no sense! It's the holiday season things should be cheaper, not more expensive.
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Ok. Heres what i'm not getting. It seems everyones got a different idea of ram speeds and what they do. I've read information on the web stating that ddr333 runs at 333Mhz. Now i know that not true because i have a pc running ddr333(166Mhz). What nobody really seems to be able to get straight is wheter or not running in dual channel mode actually doubles the fsb of your ram. So if i have ddr333 running in dual channel mode i would expect to get 334Mhz out of it. However i only get 166Mhz. The same thing with my dell. I'm running 400Mhz RD ram dual channel but it still runs at 400Mhz. So what is it that i'm missing here?
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Outlander, I think you may have misread my initial post. I said that the Core 2 Duo CPU was quad-pumped, not the RAM. DDR2 indicates dual, not quad. My point again is that the actual clock speed of a 1066 MHz is 266, and 266 x 4 = ~1066. By the same token, the actual clock speed of DDR2 533 would also be 266, and 266 x 2 = ~533. BTW, I have no reason to doubt the research findings that a 1:1 ratio between actual CPU and RAM clock speeds is optimal.
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