4 or 8 gb RAM DDR2 kit please

[chavo]

hi folks, I have a ASUSP5K-E Wifi motherboard with a Q6600 chip, water cooled. and a 1 gig graphcs card.

I currently overclock the chip to 3.16 which sets my ram to 1123 @ 5.5.5.15. OCZ Reaper, PC2-8500.

I am no overclocking genius but i know the basics. I am after some new Ram, something in a 4 or 8 gig kit, i would like to keep my overclocks.

What is currently the best ram to go for?

Ram can be a minefield!! considering the following


Kingston Hyper X 8500 5..5.5.15
corsair dominator 8500cs 5.5.5.15
Kingston Hyper X 9600C5

[nibbler]

I assume you have 64 bit windows?

[mac124]

What exactly would you be doing that would NEED 8gb? As far as i am aware 99% of users only really need 4gb occasionally so 8gb is pretty much unnecessary unless you do a lot of photoshopping etc that could see benefits from it.

Also as nibbler said unless using a 64bit os you couldn't use 8gb anyway.

[chavo]

i am not using 64 bit at the moment but i will be when i chang my ram, otherwise i would only see 3gig

i think with prices of DDR2 wt the level they are at it is my last upgrade to this pc before it is time for a new board / chip and ddr 3 maybe in the summer.

[Ulti]

As you have 4x 1GB right now why do you need to upgrade? Chances are you won't be able to get RAM that can reach those high speeds easily.

[WhiteGiant]

I have 8gb of RAM, at the time it was so cheap, no getting it was pointless.

Check the price, and consider the value.

[chavo]

Ahh yes the signature, the second set of 2 gb i bought was faulty and has gone back so i am back to 2x1 gb ram now. and i have just sold that on ebay.

i appreciate the comments but i am looking for an answer to some specific questions and not really interested in keeping my current ram, i have money to spend and i intend to!! haha.

Right i have read a review that said the absolute best DDR2 ram on the market was (apart from the corsair 10000) crucial Ballistix, it could overclock to 10250, which is amazing.

the question i have is this ram is not listed on crucials website as being compatible with my board. does anyone know if this is true? will it work?

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143844
with this board
http://asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=dFAMIWrZWGgB1GuJ

Thanks for any help or info.

[Ulti]

Well my crucial ballistix couldn't even get to 1000mhz with the 2.0V that it's stated to do. I tried voltages up to 2.2V and timings up to CL7 but it's not stable at all.

[chavo]

looks like i may take on the kingson hyper x, 4 gig for 80 quid seems like a good price. will be purchasing this weekend. i wish asus had a util where i could put my mobo in and it would show me all major branded ram that would bleeding well work.

[chavo]

Question....

Low latency, 4.4.4.xx

or

high bus speeds, 8500+

in a gamin environment.

[Ulti]

Higher bus speeds for gaming but the difference will be VERY minimal, I'd advise you to choose the higher speeds so you can overclock the processor easier as your RAM won't hold you back like it did with my E8200.

[arthurleung]

Not sure about your P5K-E, but with my P5E, the max I could go is DDR2-800 with extremely loose timing, as the 400FSB with quad core put quite a heavy stress on the northbridge.

I'm currently stuck at DDR2-846 as the next multiplier is like DDR2-960 which the northbridge can't handle, at 424FSB. The ram is rated for DDR2-1000.

With a Q6600 you might be able to get high ram speed as the FSB is much lower.
The benefit of going from 4GB to 8GB is minimal, unless you have program that actually make use of it. And a SSD will likely be as fast, if there the program make use of cache file. A few programs that I used are only lightly limited by HDD speed, certainly upgrading to SSD and you'll run into CPU limit rather than ram limit.

The same money can almost buy you another machine that you can offload work to.

[Pob255]

On socket 775 ram speed and latencies have very little effect on overall performance apart from maximum overclock.

PC2-6800 is all you should need, running the memory ratio at 1:1 means you can get the cpu to 3.6ghz before you even start to overclock the ram, 400mhz fsb

EDIT: I'd also go for 4x1gb as it may well be cheaper, esp if you go for 2nd hand ram.
I picked up 4x1gb pc2-6400 OCZ reaper back in the summer 2nd hand for £35