What is the deal with RAM?

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saywhat5959

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:freak:

When I posted about building a ridiculous computer most everyone put DDR2 800mhz (pc6400).

What is the deal with DDR2 900 (PC 7200) - DDR2 1300 (PC2 10400)?
What the heck is DDR3?

What applications do these have? Is it worth going this route?
 
Anything over DDR2 800 right now is really overkill. DDR2 900 just means it can run at 900 mhz without being overclocked. Most good DDR2 800 will run upwards of 1100 if its a good brand. DDR3 is just overpriced and doesnt give that much of an improvement for the extra cost currently.
 
Theres DDR2 8000 1066mhz as well, which seems to find a nice equilibrium with the new 1333Mhz FSB processors (when not overclocked of course)

DDR3 is going to be the new standard in years to come, and the two are not compatible. The current technology is roughly on par with DDR2 but much more expensive. You can get Mobos which support either one or the other, or sometimes both. Given the expense and the immaturity of the DDR3 technology, the general agreement is that it will take years to become mainstream, hence for those buying a computer now, people will generally tell you to ignore DDR3
 
The deal with DDR2-900 and up, is for very serious overclockers. I don't find them necessary though, because a good set of DDR2-800 will easily get to those higher speeds. My DDR2-800 Ballistix, can easily go to DDR2-1200, and I only paid $70 for them. Where as the higher speed RAM, cost much more.

DDR3 is the successor to DDR2. It uses lower voltage at higher speeds than DDR2. But it's so much more expensive. Making them not worth, looking into....for now. Plus their timings are too loose. And when I say loose, I mean like 7-7-7 or 8-8-8...the lower the better.
 
I'm guessing when nehelam comes out and i have to buy yet another board to house the 32nm cpu's ddr3 should be worth buying.
 
You dont really need anything over DDR800 RAM until 1600FSB CPU's are available and becomes mainstream.

with a 1600FSB CPU, you can use a DDR800 RAM but if the CPU FSB is higher than 1600 at stock, you cant use DDR800 RAM, it wont even let you access the BIOS cuz you cant just OC the RAM so it meets the CPU FSB Requirements.

So say..... a 2000FSB CPU will need a DDR1000 RAM PC2-8000 for it to allow access to the bios.
 
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