Question abou FSB

[Antonius]

I have looked and looked and only become more unsure of the correct answer so I will just ask. If I was buying a q9450 with a 1333 mhz fsb, what would be the ideal RAM speed that would utilize the full potential of the FSB? Would it be DDR3-1333 or 2666? Assuming I have no plans to OC anything, and just leave everything at stock rated settings.

 

[MaStaFLaSH]

DDR2 667, this would allow you to run your FSB and memory at 1:1 which is all you really need. You don't see any real performance increase by running your memory faster than you FSB, at least not with current gen intel chips. Of course I'd just get PC6400, honestly it doesn't make a real big difference either way.

For 1333mhz FSB the FSB is really 333mhz quad pumped, thus if you are running memory 1:1 it would be running at 333mhz (which then gets multiplied by two and you get 667).

 

[Antonius]

Ok...then I am confused as to why you would get faster than ddr2-800, if that would allow you to run 1:1 on a 400mhz fsb, assuming the fastest chips now are 1600mhz (400x4). Even if you OC, I don't see that anything MUCH faster than 800 would have ANY practical value. What am I missing?

 

[MaStaFLaSH]

I am currently running at 450mhz FSB quad pumped to 1800mhz, so yes sometimes you do OC over 400 FSB which imho is the only time you need faster than ddr2-800.

 

[Forceman]

It never hurts to get the next highest speed grade, to allow you some headroom for future overclocking - in your case DDR2-800 is all you are probably going to need. Guys with E8400s usually go with -1000 or -1066 to give more FSB room.