Ram choice

[saltynay]

**** the market for being so close together in price its really hard to decide! I am planning to do some insane overcloking of a Q9550 via watercooling. So here are the choices:

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GE24GB1066C5DC)<-rubbish stock timings but good overall speed
OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel (OCZ2RPR800C44GK) < bit slow but good timings
4GB G.Skill PI Black DDR2 PC2-7200 900MHz Dual Channel Memory Upgrade < happy medium?

As I will be going water cooling (these are possbilities but not in the original plan for the loop)
4GB OCZ DDR2 Flex II PC2-9200 1150MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit <--- voltage protection only upto 2.15V
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-9200C5 1150MHz Passive/WaterCooled Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2FX11502GK) < voltage protection upto 2.4V but as 4 sticks it will put more pressure on the memory control also twice as expensive

 

[H4x3r]

i would probably go with either
4GB OCZ DDR2 Flex II PC2-9200 1150MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit
for the water cooling

or
4GB G.Skill PI Black DDR2 PC2-7200 900MHz Dual Channel Memory Upgrade
for it being a happy medium that has some pretty nice timings, but heat will be more of a factor

 

[TheOtis]

I really don't see any reason to watercool memory unless you're going to push really high voltage through it. I've ran Ballistix up to 1100mhz and Dom's a bit higher than that w/ 5-5-5-15 and never needed anything more than active cooling for them.

Theirs no reason to go with 900mhz over 800mhz. That's only 100mhz more and it's not going to net you 1fps more in a game. 800mhz @ 4-4-4-12 1T is going to do you just fine. As we've seen in multiple benchmarks DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 is going to perform just as well as DDR2-1066 5-5-5-15. But if you're going for as much bandwidth as possible, I'd pick up some DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 PI-Blacks and OC the heck out of em. They only take 1.8v-1.9v, so you should be able to get a nice OC out of them. But this is just one mans opinion.

I'm not sure how the current Dominators are, but when I had the 4GB DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 I was able to run them down to something like 4-3-4-9-ish @ 800 and on the other end of the spectrum somewhere around 1150-1200. I'm sure I posted this somewhere on the board about a year ago. If they're still this good, it may be worth checking out. They are $80 so they're a bit more than other good OC'ing DDR2.

 

[saltynay]

The difference between the 800mhz pi blacks and the 900mhz is only £4 from the shop I will actually be purchasing from....

 

[Baez]

For 4 pounds might as well go for it salty.

 

[hikaricloud]

What's the difference between the 800 and 1066 cost-wise? If it's not that much more, I would get those. Though the 900's with the same timings as the 800's is a pretty sweet deal.

 

[thirdshiftdj]

4GB Transcend aXeRam DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 1066MHz Memory Upgrade

Alittle more but Transcends AxeRam are top notch. I had mine doing 1260mhz 5-5-5-15 2.2v granted they were d9gmh. But the timings and voltage on those 2x2gb sticks are good (5-5-5-15 2.0v 1066mhz) Most sticks will top out around 1140-1170mhz that is unless you decide to push 2.3v through them

edit: OCZ flex's are also a good choice

 

[saltynay]

I will need to email to check prices so going to send one now to see what I can get on the g-skills

 

[Albo23]

I overclock my RAM like crazy and temps are not high, no need to watercool.

 

[saltynay]

But do you have a watercooled cpu I have overclocked aswell. Anyway pretty much decided on the g-skill pi blacks depending on the speed I can get and respective price. If I need that little extra cooling I can stick a fan to blow on it....