buying the right memory for the motherboard

Easy Rhino · Dec 4, 2006

now just about everyone on this site has some part of their PC overclocked. im currently working on overclocking my CPU and i while ive done well so far (2.0ghz-2.55ghz) i believe my RAM is holding me back (2x1 gig gskill ddr400 2.5-3-3-6). my board says it supports ddr400 but can i put ram of say ddr500 in it and use that speed by underclocking to 400? cause now ive got ddr400 and i have to clock it at 233 to get my cpu up to 2.55. get my drift?

p-jack · Dec 4, 2006

you got DDR400 mem modules, that means the manufacturer guarantees stable operation up to 200MHz (=DDR400) @ given timings. if you clock ´em higher (e.g. 233MHz=DDR466) they won´t slow your comp down (the opposite is the case

), but if you give ´em too much they simply won´t run...

someone correct me if i´m wrong.... :ohwell:

Easy Rhino · Dec 4, 2006

p-jack said:
you got DDR400 mem modules, that means the manufacturer guarantees stable operation up to 200MHz (=DDR400) @ given timings. if you clock ´em higher (e.g. 233MHz=DDR466) they won´t slow your comp down (the opposite is the case ), but if you give ´em too much they simply won´t run...

someone correct me if i´m wrong....

hrm, well i guess my question is if my board says it supports ddr400 can i put ddr500 in it?

Tatty_Two · Dec 4, 2006

In answer to your particular question, yes DDR500 will work in principle and would be no different to any other memory compatibility issues you have with your motherboard, what I mean by that is if you take say DFi for example, some of their socket 939 boards have issues with Corsair memory, not the speed tho.

I have run DDR500 with no problems, just make sure that you have the VDimm voltage adjustments in your BIOS because most DDR500 sticks require a stock of 2.8V or higher. If your board does not allow you to go upto at least 2.9V I would go for Kingston HyperX as it stocks at 2.6V and will run DDR500 comfortably at 2.7V.

Tatty_Two · Dec 4, 2006

p-jack said:
you got DDR400 mem modules, that means the manufacturer guarantees stable operation up to 200MHz (=DDR400) @ given timings. if you clock ´em higher (e.g. 233MHz=DDR466) they won´t slow your comp down (the opposite is the case ), but if you give ´em too much they simply won´t run...

someone correct me if i´m wrong....

No you are right.....more or less.

oily_17 · Dec 5, 2006

Tatty_One said:
In answer to your particular question, yes DDR500 will work in principle and would be no different to any other memory compatibility issues you have with your motherboard, what I mean by that is if you take say DFi for example, some of their socket 939 boards have issues with Corsair memory, not the speed tho.

Im not disagreeing (because I dont know) but why do manufacturer's not say they will run faster memory then?
It would save messing with CPU/RAM speed ratio's.

Also could you run,or have you tried even faster memory than DDR500?

Wile E · Dec 5, 2006

The DDR500 rating just means that's guaranteed to run at that speed at the advertised latencies and voltage. It usually defaults to ddr400. The reason most boards don't automatically run high speed modules at their rated speed is because they're not industry standard RAM speeds, they're intended to be reached via overclocking.. Some DDR2 manufacturers are getting around this by using a new standard: EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) Your board must support the specification for it to auto detect the higher settings, however.

Tatty_Two · Dec 5, 2006

oily_17 said:
Im not disagreeing (because I dont know) but why do manufacturer's not say they will run faster memory then?
It would save messing with CPU/RAM speed ratio's.

Also could you run,or have you tried even faster memory than DDR500?

Simple....because if you do the math with dividers you will see that the standards are PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333), PC3200 (DDR400) and then the DDR2 speeds etc etc. DDR500 is not a speed standard, what it actually is, is High quality DDR400 memory capable and guarenteed to 500Mhz speeds hence why most DDR500+ memory requires higher voltages than DDR400 etc.....make sense? It's just damn good quality stuff that overclocks well!

Note: lol, as I posted my replt saw Wile had replied in a similar vein!....great minds think alike! ohhhh and rarely with high performance memory however would you want it to auto detect the settings, far better to manually input IMO.

Sasqui · Dec 5, 2006

Easy Rhino said:
hrm, well i guess my question is if my board says it supports ddr400 can i put ddr500 in it?

100% absolutely, yes, affirmative. One word of caution though, there is probably even DDR400 that won't be compatible.

My Abit AG8 rig is equipeed with DDR500 2.5 ram from GEIL... at stock speed of 200FSB, it's happy, and at the boards max of 247FSB (DDR494), the memory is still within range of DDR500 rated max speed. Those GEIL sticks will supposedly do DDR600 with more voltage, but that ^%@!* motherboard has a PCI divider limit at 247.

oily_17 · Dec 5, 2006

Tatty_One said:
Simple....because if you do the math with dividers you will see that the standards are PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333), PC3200 (DDR400) and then the DDR2 speeds etc etc. DDR500 is not a speed standard, what it actually is, is High quality DDR400 memory capable and guarenteed to 500Mhz speeds hence why most DDR500+ memory requires higher voltages than DDR400 etc.....make sense? It's just damn good quality stuff that overclocks well!

Yes I understand but I mean will it run PC3500 or PC3700 etc
My board says it supports 400/333 MHz DDR and just wondered could it run these instead of higher rated DDR400.

Sorry if silly question but I know little about memory.

wtf8269 · Dec 5, 2006

oily_17 said:
Yes I understand but I mean will it run PC3500 or PC3700 etc
My board says it supports 400/333 MHz DDR and just wondered could it run these instead of higher rated DDR400.

Sorry if silly question but I know little about memory.

If you were to put in PC3500 (roughly 217mhz) it would be the same as plugging in ddr500 (PC4000). It would default at 200mhz and then you would need to manually plug in the voltages/latencies and stated by the manufacturer that it can run PC3500 at. Once these are set, your RAM will not yet be running 217mhz. It will just be running 200mhz at a higher voltage and looser timings. To get it to run 217mhz you either need to set your FSB to 217 or set it to something higher and run a divider on the memory. Lets say you need to run your FSB at 260mhz to get your CPU to run 2.6ghz. To get your RAM to run at 217mhz you'd need to set a divider of 5:6. It's just like cross multiplying:

5 x
6 260

Solving for x gets you your RAM clock speed of 217mhz.

A lot of this is just stuff has already been stated, but I thought perhaps adding a little could help.

Wile E · Dec 6, 2006

To make a long story short, yes you can run DDR500. It will run at ddr400 until you set the timings, voltages, and then overclock the bus speed.

lemonadesoda · Dec 6, 2006

To make a short story shorter, YES.

oily_17 · Dec 6, 2006

lemonadesoda said:
To make a short story shorter, YES.

THANKS!!

System Name	Desktop
Processor	i5 13600KF
Motherboard	AsRock B760M Steel Legend Wifi
Cooling	Noctua NH-U9S
Memory	4x 16 Gb Gskill S5 DDR5 @6000
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte Gaming OC 6750 XT 12GB
Storage	WD_BLACK 4TB SN850x
Display(s)	Gigabye M32U
Case	Corsair Carbide 400C
Audio Device(s)	On Board
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova 650 P2
Mouse	MX Master 3s
Keyboard	Logitech G915 Wireless Clicky
Software	The Matrix

System Name	Ironjack
Processor	AMD Opteron 165 @ 2,4GHz, stock voltage
Motherboard	Asus A8N-E (nForce4 Ultra)
Cooling	Scythe Infinity, Thermalright HR-05SLI, AC AcceleroX1Rev.2
Memory	2x1024MB Patriot PC3200 @ 2,5-4-4-8
Video Card(s)	Powercolor X1900XT 512MB @ stock clocks
Storage	320GB Seagate ST3320620AS, 160GB Samsung HD160JJ
Display(s)	BenQ FP91GX 19" TFT
Case	Coolermaster Centurion 534
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC850 (onboard)
Power Supply	Coolermaster iGreen 430W
Software	Ubuntu 6.10 + Windoofs XP

System Name	Desktop
Processor	i5 13600KF
Motherboard	AsRock B760M Steel Legend Wifi
Cooling	Noctua NH-U9S
Memory	4x 16 Gb Gskill S5 DDR5 @6000
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte Gaming OC 6750 XT 12GB
Storage	WD_BLACK 4TB SN850x
Display(s)	Gigabye M32U
Case	Corsair Carbide 400C
Audio Device(s)	On Board
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova 650 P2
Mouse	MX Master 3s
Keyboard	Logitech G915 Wireless Clicky
Software	The Matrix

Processor	Rocket Lake Core i5 11600K @ 5 Ghz with PL tweaks
Motherboard	MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE + 4 Phanteks 140mm case fans
Memory	32GB (4 x 8GB SR) Patriot Viper Steel 4133Mhz DDR4 @ 3600Mhz CL14@1.45v Gear 1
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual RTX 4070 OC
Storage	WD Blue SN550 1TB M.2 NVME//Crucial MX500 500GB SSD (OS)
Display(s)	AOC Q2781PQ 27 inch Ultra Slim 2560 x 1440 IPS
Case	Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Windowed - Gunmetal
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtek ALC1200/SPDIF to Sony AVR @ 5.1
Power Supply	Seasonic CORE GM650w Gold Semi modular
Mouse	Coolermaster Storm Octane wired
Keyboard	Element Gaming Carbon Mk2 Tournament Mech
Software	Win 10 Home x64

Processor	Rocket Lake Core i5 11600K @ 5 Ghz with PL tweaks
Motherboard	MSI MAG Z490 TOMAHAWK
Cooling	Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120SE + 4 Phanteks 140mm case fans
Memory	32GB (4 x 8GB SR) Patriot Viper Steel 4133Mhz DDR4 @ 3600Mhz CL14@1.45v Gear 1
Video Card(s)	Asus Dual RTX 4070 OC
Storage	WD Blue SN550 1TB M.2 NVME//Crucial MX500 500GB SSD (OS)
Display(s)	AOC Q2781PQ 27 inch Ultra Slim 2560 x 1440 IPS
Case	Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Windowed - Gunmetal
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtek ALC1200/SPDIF to Sony AVR @ 5.1
Power Supply	Seasonic CORE GM650w Gold Semi modular
Mouse	Coolermaster Storm Octane wired
Keyboard	Element Gaming Carbon Mk2 Tournament Mech
Software	Win 10 Home x64

buying the right memory for the motherboard

Easy Rhino

Linux Advocate

p-jack

New Member

Easy Rhino

Linux Advocate

Tatty_Two

Gone Fishing

Tatty_Two

Gone Fishing

oily_17

Wile E

Power User

Tatty_Two

Gone Fishing

Sasqui

oily_17

wtf8269

Wile E

Power User

lemonadesoda

oily_17

Processor	Q9550 @3.8
Motherboard	Asus Maximus Extreme
Cooling	Custom water cooling
Memory	4GB Patriot Viper DDR3 1600MHz
Video Card(s)	2x HD4870 512MB
Storage	2x 500GB
Display(s)	3x LG L226WTQ 22" Widescreen LCD
Case	Modded TJ07
Audio Device(s)	On board
Power Supply	PC P&C Silencer 750
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate

System Name	The ClusterF**k
Processor	980X @ 4Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 BIOS F12
Cooling	MCR-320, DDC-1 pump w/Bitspower res top (1/2" fittings), Koolance CPU-360
Memory	3x2GB Mushkin Redlines 1600Mhz 6-8-6-24 1T
Video Card(s)	Evga GTX 580
Storage	Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB, 2xSeagate 320GB RAID0; 2xSeagate 3TB; 2xSamsung 2TB; Samsung 1.5TB
Display(s)	HP LP2475w 24" 1920x1200 IPS
Case	Technofront Bench Station
Audio Device(s)	Auzentech X-Fi Forte into Onkyo SR606 and Polk TSi200's + RM6750
Power Supply	ENERMAX Galaxy EVO EGX1250EWT 1250W
Software	Win7 Ultimate N x64, OSX 10.8.4

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	Onus
Processor	E8500 @ 3.95ghz ~1.25v
Motherboard	ASUS P5E Deluxe
Cooling	Scythe Orochi cpu, 5x 120mm Zalman red LED case fans, stock GPU coolers
Memory	8gb (4x2gb) G.Skill PC8000 5-5-5-15
Video Card(s)	2x ASUS 3870x2s
Storage	4x160gb RAID 0 Main, 2x 500gb RAID 0 media storage.
Display(s)	LG W2600H
Case	Lian Li PC-A70B, painted black and other modded aspects :)
Audio Device(s)	HT Omega Striker. Klipsch RF-3II fronts, Yamaha NS-A222 rears, Klipsch RC-3II center, Klipsch SUB12
Power Supply	Corsair CMPSU-750TX
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate x64, lots of games, photoshop n stuff.

System Name	ICE-QUAD // ICE-CRUNCH
Processor	Q6600 // 2x Xeon 5472
Memory	2GB DDR // 8GB FB-DIMM
Video Card(s)	HD3850-AGP // FireGL 3400
Display(s)	2 x Samsung 204Ts = 3200x1200
Audio Device(s)	Audigy 2
Software	Windows Server 2003 R2 as a Workstation now migrated to W10 with regrets.