6400 or 8500?

[Craig321]

Hi,

Basically I ordered some Crucial Ballistix 8500 for £85. The retailer I bought from was out of stock at the time, it said 5 days. That was delayed, they now only expect stock on the 17th.

I really want to build my new PC on my birthday (17th) but if I wait for this RAM to arrive I might only be building on the 20th or even later.

Right now I'm stuck with a 8800GTX, E6600, 500GB hard drive etc. which I can't use because I don't have the RAM!

So, if I ordered some 6400 RAM I could then cancel my 8500 order.

What kind if speed/performance difference is there between 6400 and 8500 RAM? Anyone got any comparison charts or anything?

Thanks,
Craig.

[BUFF]

if it's Ballistix 6400 you can probably still overclock it to give similar results to the Ballistix 8500.

[Craig321]

Sorry, forgot to put I probably won't overclock much, if at all. Might give it a go at putting the CPU to 3.0GHZ+, but no voltage changing or anything.

Craig.

[this_is_gav]

6400 will be more than enough for such a simple overclock.

[twoblacklines]

even 5300 would aswell

[NightshadowUK]

Why the heck would you order PC8500 memory if you're not overclocking?!

PC5400 will get you to 3GHz with a E6600, cancel your order and save some money.

[EarlGrey]

Yup, I agree with the others, you are wasting your money if you don't want to overclock. You'll see no benefit from 'faster' RAM unless you are pushing the FSB on the motherboard to take advantage of it. Stick with low latency 6400:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=402849

Should do you fine.

A quick question, was the 8500 RAM a 2GB kit? If so it was good value... where did you order it from? (I am interested in overclocking )

If you had ordered 1GB, then you will notice upgrading to 2GB much more than a fast 1GB...

[NightshadowUK]

That Corsair's a bit expensive for what it is:

- 2GB Geil Ultra DDR2 PC6400 4-4-4-12 ~ £61.09 + delivery

[twoblacklines]

save yourself even more money and just buy this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=291363

[NightshadowUK]

^ Was gonna be my second suggestion ^

Hell if you're running Vista get 4GB of it.

[Craig321]

Why the heck would you order PC8500 memory if you're not overclocking?!

PC5400 will get you to 3GHz with a E6600, cancel your order and save some money.

Because it was the same price as the same Ballistix 6400

I guess I should go for Ballistix 6400 or that Geil 6400 I was pointed to then, saves me £20

Another quick question:
Some motherboards have the option to run the memory at full 8500 speeds (1066) without having to change the CPU speed. Surely 1066mhz would give more performance than 800mhz?

Thanks,
Craig.

[Craig321]

Basically what I'm trying to ask is this:

Lets forget about overclocking for a minute. Would there be a speed difference between 6400 and 8500, bearing in mind that I can most likely set 1066mhz speeds on my motherboard.

Thanks,
Craig.

[Blitzen]

6400 will be more than enough for such a simple overclock.

Definitely.
The OCZ Platinum 6400 is going atm for under £70 on MicroDirect and its seriously swift

[NightshadowUK]

Would there be a speed difference between 6400 and 8500, bearing in mind that I can most likely set 1066mhz speeds on my motherboard.

Only in benchmarks, otherwise it makes no difference at all.

[Freelance]

As discussed in other thread both DDRs will automatically set at different speed in Mhz. However, in your case they will both set themsleves as 6400 (800Mhz). MOROEOVER, they will adjust the timings as well - and those timings also influence the "speed" or rather the response time. Thus, difference at stock speed between 6400 or 8500 will depend on their timings as well (see the specifications on manufacturer website - most propbably 5-5-5-15?), but as mentioned above you won't actually feel it with naked eye. The notorious differences in benchmarks are a bit overpriced for real performance in my opinion. If I may suggest, I think you will not lose anything, not at stock, not at future overclock - 6400 is enough and quick, and will go over 800Mhz whenever you will decide to OC in the future.

[Craig321]

Thanks everyone for the help, I just ordered the Geil suggested above

Now I get to build my PC sooner!

Now I shall hand some thanks out