most prefer ddr2-667

[basher]

if most people are prefering ddr2-667 what is the difference in the pc2-5300 and pc2-5400 ddr2-667

why no ddr2-800 shouldn't it be faster?

(i'm going to be using e6600 + DS3, no overclocking for a while, but maybe a little sometime)

 

[Chernobyl1]

I've found that recent DDR2 667 and below clock like mad.
I built a machine a couple of weeks ago with DDR2 533 and it clocked to DDR2-960 with no issues. I left it running just short of DDR2-900

Other peoples experience could be very different tho and I'd like to hear about it too.

The new Intel C2D chips dont seem as bothered by memory bandwidth and as such dont get much benefit from higher clocked ram.
You may want higher clocked ram if going for a good overclock tho if you want t match the FSB.
You can of course use slower ram and set a memory divider to slow it down and not suffer hardly anything. You wont be able to claim max performance stats tho

 

[blade52x]

I've found that recent DDR2 667 and below clock like mad.
I built a machine a couple of weeks ago with DDR2 533 and it clocked to DDR2-960 with no issues. I left it running just short of DDR2-900

Other peoples experience could be very different tho and I'd like to hear about it too.

The new Intel C2D chips dont seem as bothered by memory bandwidth and as such dont get much benefit from higher clocked ram.
You may want higher clocked ram if going for a good overclock tho if you want t match the FSB.
You can of course use slower ram and set a memory divider to slow it down and not suffer hardly anything. You wont be able to claim max performance stats tho

Um... how much voltage did you have to add and what were your timings?

I have DDR2 667 that can hit 950+, but my timings start pushing 5-5-5-15 at that point.

 

[Chernobyl1]

This was for a clients PC so I wasnt interested in using any tweaks that required more voltage or altering ram timings, everything was stock apart from the speed.

 

[MrWizard6600]

This was for a clients PC so I wasnt interested in using any tweaks that required more voltage or altering ram timings, everything was stock apart from the speed.

lol!

"everything was stock except for everything"
-- you

yeah, from what i understand, most DDR2 667 is just DDR2 800 thats been stressed at 800MHz and wanted too much voltage, so it gets re-binned. most people find a slight volt mod push's DDR2 667 quite far.

as for the differance between the two? I think its just a little mishap in marketing.

 

[Chernobyl1]

lol!

"everything was stock except for everything"
-- you

I dont recall saying that.
I stated pretty clearly what I did but can be more verbose if you require...
The voltage was stock
the timings were stock.
I pushed the memory speed until it failed and then backed off some

 

[n19htmare]

i think it's marketing ploy.
I got 2x512mb balistix sticks from newegg that were ddr2-667 at 3-3-3-12....
ZZF has DDR2-800 but at 4-4-4-12...

I can run DDR2-800 at 4-4-4-12 as well.... and even down to 4-3-3-12...

But i bet they will both OC the same.

 

[(cf)Eclipse]

yeah, from what i understand, most DDR2 667 is just DDR2 800 thats been stressed at 800MHz and wanted too much voltage, so it gets re-binned. most people find a slight volt mod push's DDR2 667 quite far.

you're.. sorta looking at it backwards

here's a lowdown of the life of say... a D9GMH chip

micron makes a batch of chips. They go through binning. the ones that can do 400mhz at 5-5-5 get put into the D9GKX bin. the ones that can do 333mhz at 5-5-5 get put in the D9GMH bin.
D9GMH is much more popular than GKX cause it's a lot cheaper. as a result, many of the chips that make it into the GKX bin get labeled as DMH to meet demand.

memory mfg (crucial, corsair, ocz, teamgroup, etc) buy the chips, and do further binning on them. the chips that make the highest bin (usually 500mhz at 4-4-4 or something) get assigned as such, then the remaining chips are tested at the next lower bin, and so forth, then as before, chips are reallocated to meet demand. if the 400mhz at 4-4-4 parts are selling a lot more than the 500mhz at 4-4-4, then a lot of parts that make the 500mhz bin get put into the 400mhz.

thus why ram is so overclockable
ontop of that, the bins usually have some leeway for "bad" conditions, like a bum mobo, hot conditions, etc, so in our well cooled and properly maintained rigs, 20-50mhz over stock is usually no problem, more with extra tweaking and voltage... so n19htmare, this is why my ballistix can do 520mhz at it's rated 2.2v and tighter than stock timings of 4-4-3. and why some teamgroup i have does 600mhz at 2.25v and 5-5-4. it's not as much a marketing ploy as a "hey, we have better chips than we need!" situation


to answer the OP's question, i actually prefer ddr2-800. ddr2-667 is good too, but the former usually hits higher mhz. at stock, the difference in performance is gonna be slight.. like 1-3% at most in real world cases

 

[blade52x]

lol!

"everything was stock except for everything"
-- you

yeah, from what i understand, most DDR2 667 is just DDR2 800 thats been stressed at 800MHz and wanted too much voltage, so it gets re-binned. most people find a slight volt mod push's DDR2 667 quite far.

as for the differance between the two? I think its just a little mishap in marketing.

My DRR2 667 runs 800Mhz 4-4-4-10 at 2.0V stable

DDR2 800 probably clocks higher in the end though. I don't think to many DDR2 667s can hit 1000Mhz