DDR1066 - is it worth it?

[the_vorlon]

Just putting a new rig together.

My motherboard supports DDR 1066 (NVidia 680 based) and I am planning on a Q6600 in about a month when they are $300 or so.

Question..

Would running 1066 Memory (Quite sanely priced right now about $60 a gig) to match the Q6600's 1066 FSB (ie 533 mhz memory speed matched to 266 mhz bus speed) be worth it performance wise versus DDR800..? - Higher speed, syncronized ratios, and all that...

This would also give me an overclock option, where if I set the RAM to DDR800 and took the bus speed up to 1333 (which the board officially supports) I could still have ram at Stock (actually at DDR-1000 which is below "stock")

I don't play with RAM a lot, so your input is welcomed

PS - I already have 4 gigs of DDR800 I could use, so the DDR1066 would be an extra expense.. so to justify it I would have to see a pretty decent performance quan...

 

[Track]

You're going to have to syncronize the ratios.

This means that if u want your FSB at 1066, then the RAM has to be 533.

If u buy RAM at the speed of 1066, ur FSB should be 2133.

The DDR2-800 modules are perfect for overclocking. I would use them and overclock the FSB to 1600.

 

[kwalker]

You're going to have to syncronize the ratios.

This means that if u want your FSB at 1066, then the RAM has to be 533.

If u buy RAM at the speed of 1066, ur FSB should be 2133.

The DDR2-800 modules are perfect for overclocking. I would use them and overclock the FSB to 1600.

You dont need to run up the FSB to 533 quad pumped and its not easily done if not imposible on the 680 boards
266 FSB @ 1:2 would be 1066 ram speed and 400 FSB 3:4 would also be 1066(providing the board will do 3:4)
I know the P5B will not do 3:4 at higher FSB.
Of course a data rate of 2133 would be incredable bandwidth 8)
To the OP
back on subject .
If your current ram is quality 800MHz rated ram you should in theory be able to overclock that ram to desirable speeds upwards toward DDR2 1000 with higher latency and a noticable increase in bandwidth.
The gain in bandwidth is not always noticable from 1000 to 1066 because of the restictions in the FSB and then again if your willing to spend the money for higher quality ram you will be less restricted by the FSB being able to clock higher than 1066 which is a great feature of the 680 boards.
If your going to utilize 4 Gig of ram Latency will suffer with all slots filled.
I would stick with your current ram if its not a value line.

 

[Spikke]

You can get 2gb(1gbx2) of DDR2 1066 for just ~$30 more than DDR2 800. To me $30 isn't much when factoring in the cost of a new pc build and worth it imo at the current price.

Edit: Just realized you said you already had DDR2 800. If it's good ram I would stick with it. If it's cheapo value ram I'd buy some DDR2 1066.

 

[the_vorlon]

You can get 2gb(1gbx2) of DDR2 1066 for just ~$30 more than DDR2 800. To me $30 isn't much when factoring in the cost of a new pc build and worth it imo at the current price.

Edit: Just realized you said you already had DDR2 800. If it's good ram I would stick with it. If it's cheapo value ram I'd buy some DDR2 1066.

Thanks for the reply.

My Ram is 2 x 2 gigs Corsair XMS2 DHX. I plan to use Vista Ultimate 64 bit, so I can actually go to 8 gigs ram with this board, although I am not sure 'why .. likely will stick to 4 gigs, at least for now.

I don't plan a massive overclock, BTW maybe 25% or so.

Sounds like keeping the RAM I have is the way to go, and save the cash for a better video card or something.

 

[Spikke]

I would stick to the ram you have. Imo you wouldn't even see any real benefit from moving to 1066 since you have good 800 ram already.

 

[Track]

You're going to have to syncronize the ratios.

This means that if u want your FSB at 1066, then the RAM has to be 533.

If u buy RAM at the speed of 1066, ur FSB should be 2133.

The DDR2-800 modules are perfect for overclocking. I would use them and overclock the FSB to 1600.

266 FSB @ 1:2 would be 1066 ram speed and 400 FSB 3:4 would also be 1066(providing the board will do 3:4)

How can u say that?
You know that if the FSB is 1066 then the maximum bandwidth that it can use is that of RAM running at 533 dual-channel. So 1:2 is only good if u have only a single stick running in single-channel. If u have 2 sticks then thats twice the bandwidth that the FSB can actually use.

Again, I reccomend either an FSB of 1600 (400) with RAM at 800 (400), or an FSB at around 2000(500) with RAM at around 1000 (500).
And dont say that the 680i cant do 2133, because thats my goal.

 

[Cyrezz]

What then if you would buy a whole new computer with q6600.
Would it be nice with ddr2-1066, or ofc it would, but would it be the price worth matched with ddr2-800 (for oc)?

 

[bfellow]

And dont say that the 680i cant do 2133, because thats my goal.

That's gonna be pretty impossible without some liquid nitro...

 

[Track]

And dont say that the 680i cant do 2133, because thats my goal.

That's gonna be pretty impossible without some liquid nitro...

Its only the CPU that needs cooling, not the FSB.