New RAM?

[cudakite]

howdy,


I have an E6600 core2 duo and a mother board that has 1066/800MHz FSB. I currently have 2 GB of 240-pin DDR2 533 (PC2 4200).

Is it worth me spending $100 to get 2 Gigs of DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) as a replacement? would the difference between the 533 and 800 with my system make it worth while?

[Angmar_nite]

Just spend 160 pickin up 4 gb and you'll be happier than ever.

[Simetrical]

Just spend 160 pickin up 4 gb and you'll be happier than ever.

Not very useful if he's not running a 64-bit system.

[Erik]

Not very useful if he's not running a 64-bit system.

32 bit systems can handle 4GB, can't they?

[Freddie]

32 bit systems can handle 4GB, can't they?

I thought XP could handle 4 Gb's but it turns out it can only run 3 Gb's for some reason.

Ontopic

The new ram won’t make any difference at all unless you’re overclocking and want to have 1:1 ratio.

[Erik]

would the difference between the 533 and 800 with my system make it worth while?

No, you won't even notice the difference.

[cudakite]

Good to know. Thanks guys.

The new ram won’t make any difference at all unless you’re overclocking and want to have 1:1 ratio.

Is it possible to overclock without 1:1 ratio. If I just raise the FSB 5MHz - 10MHz without haveing the memory locked to 1:1 would that be ok?

[Erik]

Is it possible to overclock without 1:1 ratio. If I just raise the FSB 5MHz - 10MHz without haveing the memory locked to 1:1 would that be ok?

Because both your CPU's FSB and your RAM are rated at 266MHz you need to keep the FSB:RAM ratio at 1:1 anyways.

You can try over-clocking, but with that RAM you won't get very far.
I'll expect you can get an extra 5 or 10 MHz out of that RAM, but not much more, and personally I wouldn't even bother with such small gains.

If you are really serious about over-clocking, then buying DDR2-800 would be a good way to start.
With a good cooler that should give you at least 3Ghz.

[Simetrical]

32 bit systems can handle 4GB, can't they?

No. Or rather yes, in theory they have 32 bits of address space, so they can address 2³² bytes = 4 GB, but not all of that is usable for main memory. Video memory and swap space are mapped to the same range, and so are various other tidbits (I expect certain pieces of ROM and so on, maybe even processor cache, I don't know). So actually, on any 32-bit system that doesn't use memory paging (not just Windows), you're limited to three-odd gigabytes of RAM, depending on what other things you have. It could be even less than that if you had a super high-end video card, for instance, but 3 GB is usually a safe bet, higher is dicey, four is unachievable.

At least, that's the gist of it. I'm sure I got some details wrong there. Ask me about Web technology, now . . .