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Thread: 8500 RAM or Core 2 Duo E6700?

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    8500 RAM or Core 2 Duo E6700?

    Hi,

    The current spec in my basket is the following:

    C2D E6600
    GA-P35C-DS3R
    BFG 768MB 8800GTX
    620W Corsair HX
    2GB Crucial Ballistix 6400 (?)
    + some other misc items (cables, surge protector, case, floppy etc.)

    I just wondered, would it be better to go for the higher 8500 RAM or the higher E6700 CPU? The different between upgrading either is similar.

    To upgrade from 6400->8500 RAM or from E6600->E6700 CPU would cost about £50... is it worth it?

    Thanks,
    Craig.

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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    E6700 isnt a great bargain really, compared to the E6600.

    As far as the RAM goes, unless you are into tweaking and overclocking it, I would stick to the 6400 stuff, unless of course its the same price.

    Misco have the ballistix 8500 for around 85 quid.
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    Fried Chip Extremist alsenior's Avatar
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    you could get a decent overclock with the e6600 with the pc6400 ram as is and it would beet out the e6700.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clunk View Post
    E6700 isnt a great bargain really, compared to the E6600.

    As far as the RAM goes, unless you are into tweaking and overclocking it, I would stick to the 6400 stuff, unless of course its the same price.

    Misco have the ballistix 8500 for around 85 quid.
    This ram here: http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...1078&CatId=284 is actually the same price I was going to pay for the 6400 directly from Crucial.

    I think I shall go with the above, may as well as it's the same price

    It's a shame Misco don't stock the 8500 with LEDs... but speed before looks!

    [EDIT]

    Would the 8500 actually be faster than the 6400? Or do the timing differences change that?

    Thanks you,
    Craig.
    Last edited by Craig321; 29-06-2007 at 01:29 AM.

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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    If its the same price, then go for it, you might actually enjoy the RAM tweaking side of things

    By default, they will run at PC2-6400 anyway.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clunk View Post
    If its the same price, then go for it, you might actually enjoy the RAM tweaking side of things

    By default, they will run at PC2-6400 anyway.
    How come they run at 6400 speeds

    I would enjoy tweaking and overclocking very much, but I don't know if I can bring myself to doing it

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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    There is no JEDEC spec for PC2-8500, so the manufacturers use a PC2-6400 SPD rating.

    In other words, your RAM is rated to run at 1066Mhz, but because there is no official standard, your board sees it as the fastest RAM that there is a standard for i.e. PC2-6400.

    You either need to set a memory divider in your bios, and/or up the FSB.
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    So could I quite safely up the RAM to 8500 speeds in the BIOS?

    Thanks,
    Craig.

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    Flat cap, Whippets, Cave. Clunk's Avatar
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    Yes, as long as your board has stable dividers. I cant see why it shouldnt though.

    Dont forget that if you plan on overclocking the CPU, the RAM speed rises automatically anyway.
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    I wouldn't worry about clock speeds/timings, they don't cause damage when altered. Worry more about temperature and voltages, once they go high enough, damage can start settling in.

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    Add another 2GB of ram and go 64bit would be my bet. Or wait 3 weeks and get a Q6600.

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    C2Ds prefer bandwidth over tighter timings, timings make little difference to performance.

    This article is also worth reading.

    Crucial ballistix RAM over clocks really well (according to the people @ ocuk forums). However it does run at 2.2V instead of 1.8, so it gets quite hot.

    You will get more performance by spending the extra cash on memory, although personally, i am buying 5400RAM, therefore i would probably save the money for a future upgrade.

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    I don't know if you'd noticed, but you've chosen a combo DDR2/DDR3 motherboard. Are you sure you need that? It has 2 pairs of DDR2 ports and one pair of DDR3, so having DDR3 later would be pretty useless (you can't have both DDR2 and DDR3 at the same time). I think it would be better if you got a simple DS3R, maybe DS4. Or something from P5K series.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Queelis View Post
    I don't know if you'd noticed, but you've chosen a combo DDR2/DDR3 motherboard. Are you sure you need that? It has 2 pairs of DDR2 ports and one pair of DDR3, so having DDR3 later would be pretty useless (you can't have both DDR2 and DDR3 at the same time). I think it would be better if you got a simple DS3R, maybe DS4. Or something from P5K series.
    Yeah. I chose it to have a more future-proof board. When DDR3 gets cheaper I can upgrade the RAM to 2x1GB DDR3 or even 2x2GB quite easily

    [EDIT]

    I was just checking out the P35-DS4 & I looks pretty good. I guess as it's DS4 rather than DS3 it'd be the better board?

    I'm a bit worried that the chipset coolers will get in the way of my Scythe Ninja on the DS4?

    I also noticed the graphic card slot and the RAM slot are very close... won't they clash?

    [EDIT]

    Just looked at some closer pictures of the 8800GTX and the P35-DS4 and it looks like it'll fit easily.


    I'm still wondering about the Scythe Ninja + though
    Last edited by Craig321; 29-06-2007 at 04:07 PM.

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    lazy student nvening's Avatar
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    BY the time you would feel the need to upgrade to ddr3 for whatever reason there will be new cpu sockets out so you will want to change the motherboard also - also combo boards are often worse than plain old ones in the general area - not worth it imho
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    I've decided on the DS4, thanks guys

    Just need to find out if the Scythe Ninja will be alright on it.

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