What should one look for when shopping for quality gaming RAM?

[mr_wizard]

Is DDR2 really worth it? How much better is it than normal DDR? What other things should I consider? Thanks.

 

[mr_wizard]

I noticed theres PC 2 or PC6400 800mhz? What do you need on a motherboard to run that? Is it alot better than PC3200 400mhz?

 

[Apokalipse]

well, Athlon 64's are not bottlenecked by DDR1. they have an onboard memory controller, so they still get high memory bandwith against Intel's with DDR2.

DDR2 is currently only used on Intel socket 775 systems, however AMD are making a new socket called M2 which will support DDR2.

DDR2 Intel systems do not really have much against Athlon 64's with DDR1. the RAM itself has high speeds, but it has to go through a motherboard memory controller to get to the CPU. Athlon 64's communicate to RAM directly, so the difference is so far negligible.
although it will be a different story when AMD does bring out M2. their onboard memory controller will make much more use of DDR2 than Intel socket 775 systems.

 

[Elbatrop1]

Apokalipse covered everything pretty good for you there. If you want even more info have a look at my guide to RAM

 

[woot7800GT]

I'm running DDR1 with my P4 775. I thought this didn't work?

 

[Elbatrop1]

I'm running DDR1 with my P4 775. I thought this didn't work?

He didnt say that skt775 only used DDR2. He said that DDR2 is only on skt775.