What type of ram should i be using?

[easystreet]

480W psu
abit IC7, 800fsb
pentium 4 sck 478 prescott 3.0e/ 800/ 1mb
n vidia a310 / 256MB graphics
dvd rw, cd rw
2xhard drives.

this is my proposed system and i was wondering what ram i should be using, ie. DDR xxx / PC xxxx?
I am looking for around a gig.

thanks

 

[rr5678]

Which IC7 motherboard is it? IC7-G or IC7-MAX3?

 

[KingCody]

i was wondering what ram i should be using, ie. DDR xxx / PC xxxx?

for your motherboard and CPU you should use DDR400 / PC3200. if you want 1GB then you should get two matched sticks of 512MB to enable the system to run in dual channel mode.

cheers :wave:

 

[wolfram]

I'll second what KingCody said. Those Intel P4 systems, really need dual-channel RAM. And if possible, avoid value RAM, especially if you want to overclock. If not, Value RAM should be fine.

 

[easystreet]

I am using the IC7 original, i could not get a hold of the board i wanted. (p4c800-e deluxe).

cheers kingcody & wolfram, especially about the dual channel. I am planning to seriously overclock this witch of a cpu so your advice will be followed. I have my eye on some high spec stuff.

many thanks, easy street

 

[KingCody]

Hi easystreet,

I didn't know that you were planning to overclock.

for best performance you should get RAM that is capable of running at the same speed as your FSB. for example, if you plan to raise your FSB to 250, then you should get DDR500/PC4000. if you really plan on pushing it then go for some DDR600/PC4800 or DDR625/PC5000, but memory that can run that fast is not cheap

if you don't want to spend alot of money on RAM then you can buy slower RAM like PC3200 and set a memory divider in your BIOS to bring the RAM speed down to stable operating speeds.. this will allow you to overclock your CPU without the RAM holding you back, although it will hurt overall performance when compared to running the RAM:FSB 1:1

good luck, and happy overclocking :wave:

 

[easystreet]

cheers king; magic stuff

that was the info i was worried about when it came to overclocking, didnt want to do a lot of work and then kill it when i bought the wrong ram. i would definately run a 1:1 ratio so i will save a bit before i buy. (prob around £180 per gig) for the moment i will run my current memory stick and take a hit in performance. might post in the future when it comes to the latency and stuff like that

 

[easystreet]

actually for the time being could i possibly use ddr 333 pc2700 ram as i have that lying around?