Which RAM?

[peter7]

will the pc4000 be compatible with my asus a8nsli tho? i know ddr500 doesnt *Really* exist but my mobo supporst pc3200/ddr400 so will i actually be able to achieve ddr500 speeds that the ram is capable of? cheers

 

[magouster]

Your motherboard, and CPU, will run with a "FSB" of 200MHz (400MHz effective) at stock. The only reason people tell you to by the DDR500, is because if you try to overclock your CPU (past 200MHz), the RAM will increase its speed to keep up. With DDR400, this means that you overclock the RAM as you overclock the CPU, something that not all RAM will like (and would sometimes force you to run a divider on it). But if you bought DDR500, it means you'd be able to overclock to a 250MHz FSB before the RAM even starts to be pushed past its design limits. So if you bought DDR500, and ran the CPU at stock speeds, the RAM would effectively be underclocked back to DDR400. DDR500 will run fine in your mobo, to answer your question. Sorry, I'm tired, so I apologise if my explanation was a bit erratic and confusing.

 

[peter7]

OK, so basically the G.Skill HZ will run fine in my mobo, offer me speeds of 250Mhz and out perform the G.Skill ZX? Its only £3/$6 more expensive, so if its worth it, i'll definately get it.

about the timings tho, they are noticeably not as tight. the DDR500 is 3-4-4-8 whereas the DDR400 is 2-3-2-5. But I'll be able to run the DDR500 RAM at 250Mhz without having to mess with the CPU multipliers etc etc?

Thanks for clearing things up sorta


EDIT* So if I used the RAM with my current OC, it would be running at 242Mhz with 3-4-4-8 timings?

How can I keep the CPU at say 2.2Ghz (i want to lower it from 2.42!) so the multiplier for the cpu is 220 but the RAM still runs at 250Mhz? Would this require a divider? :amazed:

 

[mizo]

I use the Corsair XMS memory and love it. I have 2 x 1gb sticks and they are fantastic.