533, 667, 0r 800?

[christinab]

I'm planning on building a budget gaming rig soon (On a very tight budget implemented by the boss....aka the very pregnant Wife) and I would like to know if I'm truly going to be seeing a major difference in performance between the 3 different speeds. The mb I plan on getting will accept all three and I'm just trying to get the best bang for my buck. From what I've read, I can see that the 800's are more tuned for the overclocking crowd, which I'm not really one of..

Also would it be recommended to build with 4 512MB sticks in dual channel as opposed to a 2 Stick 1 Gig set up?

 

[mikeny]

Hiya. LoL, the boss has spoken :lol: My fiance didnt say a word about me building my system. She actually bought me a few things, hehe. maybe because Im not at your level (prego)....yet.

What kind of system are you building? Gaming?

If you don't overclock then 667 or 675 are priced the same (almost). 2GB kits for ddr2-675 is fairly cheap now with mail in rebates. Corsair's XMS series are pretty good. I have a 2GB kit and I just ordered another 2GB kit. 2 months ago it was $230, now I got a kit for $179 (not including the $30 mail-in-rebates for both of them). Oh the 2nd kit that I bought the other day...my fiance doesnt know

 

[christinab]

Yeah...she's giving me the "You just bought that PC 2 years ago...what do we need a new one for?" speech repeatedly. Of course the whole idea started when playing the beta for Vanguard... First it was just a video card upgrade, but then realized the price difference between AGP and PCI-E cards, and that I was on an older Athlon 64 and I really needed a new MB to keep me from upgrading again for a while(I hope she bought that line) got me a $600 budget.... Luckily I have a liberated copy of an OS from where I work... :twisted: So I didn't need to fork out cash for an OS.

So to also answer your question....a lot of gaming, but ton's of school work too, as well as photo editing and multi media apps.

 

[mikeny]

Hmm your choice.....675 or 800. Go with which you can afford. Stick with these specs or lower....4-4-4-12 timings. I dont think there will be a noticable speed change between 675 and 800. I originally had 533 and was scolded at lol for not getting faster so I went with 675 which was same price as 667 and Im not an overclocker as well.

I was checking out Vanguard also but I might go to WoW. If you dont have a preference, I would go with Corsair. Stable/inexpensive and great ram.