Which Type Of Memory For This MB/CPU

[RussellS]

Hi, I'm a bit confused and would like someone to un-confuse me please.

My system specs are currently these:

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 (rev 2.0)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+
2GB DDR2-800
nVidia GTS 250 1GB
Corsair TX850W PSU

I am gradually upgrading my system as funds allow and have now got to the point where I need to select the CPU and am planning on getting the AMD Dual Core Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition.

What I want to know is what memory should I be using with this motherboard/CPU combination. I know that the M/B will only take DDR2 memory but should I use 1333, 1066 or 800. Will any of them work but obviously at slower speeds.

As you can probably tell from my system specs, this is not a hard core gaming rig. The only games I play on it are Formula 1 racing games (mainly rFactor) and Call Of Duty 4 & World At War (plus Modern Warefare 2 when it is released). Other than this it is used for a bit of music & video editting and other general PC stuff.

Thanks for any advice

Russell

 

[Frick]

Keep the memory you have now. You wont notice anything if you upgrade to say 1066mhz modules. Your CPU is the weakest spot in the system actually.

 

[Mussels]

video card aside, thats about hte same as my media PC.


You should note that those early athlon64 CPU's dont actually support 1066MHz ram, so 800Mhz is as fast as you can go. (and 1333Mhz is only available in DDR3)

 

[RussellS]

Thanks for that. That's good news as I can save a bit more money.

Just as a matter of interest, under what circumstances would I want to use the faster memory. Also, what if I was to attempt overclocking/unlocking the CPU when I have it.



EDIT: As I said in the original post, I am going to upgrade the CPU to an AMD Dual Core Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition.

 

[Mussels]

Thanks for that. That's good news as I can save a bit more money.

Just as a matter of interest, under what circumstances would I want to use the faster memory. Also, what if I was to attempt overclocking/unlocking the CPU when I have it.

while many disagree with me, i see no need for faster memory on most systems.

you need enough memory bandwidth to feed your CPU and video cards, and theres no easy way to measure that - but if 800Mhz dual channel can feed my 4GHz CPU and two high end video cards, i'd say the average user has plenty of room to spare.

The only valid reason is for OCing really - on AMD you can just turn the divider down, and it becomes irrelevant (on intel socket 775, 1066 is reccomended for the higher FSBs you can OC to)


if/when you get a black edition chip, ram means nothing - you dont need to raise the FSB (and thus, the ram) to OC the CPU.
1066Mhz ram may give you a performance boost there (with a high clocked phenom) but its not going to be anything worth noting in real world usage (and from what you've stated, you arent a hardcore gamer, so paying more for a few FPS doesnt seem worth it)

 

[RussellS]

So basically, get the AMD Dual Core Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition and just keep my existing DDR2-800 memory.


Many thanks, consider me un-confused now.


Russell

 

[Mussels]

So basically, get the AMD Dual Core Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition and just keep my existing DDR2-800 memory.


Many thanks, consider me un-confused now.


Russell

yup.


you got the PSU, ram, mobo, and video card sorted out - now you just need to get a decent CPU cooler to go with the BE chip, and away you go.

 

[RussellS]

video card aside, thats about hte same as my media PC.

That's what my Athlon 64 X2 will be used for, to upgrade my media PC which currently has a 2Ghz Pentium 4 and an old Radeon 7000 graphics card.

So my original motherboard (Gigabyte GA-M61SME-S2), graphics (ATI X1950PRO) and obviously the old Athlon X2 will be upgrading the media PC.

Where possible, everything gets re-used somewhere. New stuff goes on my PC and then components get moved down to my son's PC then mediaPC 1 and then mediaPC 2. It's bypassing my son's PC this time though as he already has the Athlon 64 X2 and the same motherboard.


Thanks once again for your help

Russell