memory upgrade for Asus P5N-E Sli

Sniipe

I'm a bit confused as to what I can get for this motherboard;
The manual says
"Dual-Channel Memory Architecture
- 4 X 240-pin DIMM sockets support non-ECC unbuffered DDR2 800/667/553Mhz memory modules
- Supports up to 8GB system memory"

Does that mean that the most it can take is DDR2 800 which is PC2-6400??

Because on komplett the Crucial Memory Selector tells me that I can get "Crucial DDR2 BallistiX PC8500 2048MB CL5 ,Kit w/two matched BallistiX 128Megx64"

Is that the best value in terms of money if I want to get fast 4GB?

Its a bit confusing to me...

Sniipe

Apparently this is the latest Asus Qualified Vendors list...

Anti

It will take any ddr2 i would imagine. But the best value ddr2 which is highly overclockable is the geil black dragon 4gb kit:

*edit*

Whoops maybe not its 170£ now

This :

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=333974

Is probably the best value out there atm, not the best overclocker. But still good ram.

Sniipe

but that ram is 6400, can the motherboard not take more?
Would I be better splashing out on 8500 2gb then upgrading later on?

currently have 2gb of 5300

this the geil black dragon u were on about?
http://www.memoryc.com/products/description/4GB_GeIL_Black_Dragon_DDR2_PC2_6400-5_5_5_15-Dual_Channel_kit-2x2GB_/index.html

Anti

Unless you have a new 1333fsb quad core ddr 6400 will be grand.

Sniipe

cheers for the insight Anti.

I've got E6600 core to duo using this motherboard: Asus P5N-E Sli which says "Dual-channel DDR2 800/667/533"

So I guess it would be pointless going for anything more than pc6400 unless I upgraded motherboard... and upgrading my processor...??

Anti

Yep.

Nowadays ram and cpu's arnt linked as they used to be. You can actually ran a 1333fsb cpu with 533fsb ram.

Sniipe

which ones you got?
"4GB Geil black dragon ddr2 @ 1100Mhz 4-3-4-4-10 2.15v" - from your sig

I take it they are overclocked?

That is some serious machine you have there. I take it u also raided ur 2 raptors as well.

Review for that ram and my mother board "Good ram..Vista base score of 5.6 Overclocked ram to 830mhz and stable. Timings at 5-5-5-12 but doesn't boot at 4-4-4-12 as least not on a P5N32-E SLI board."
So it looks like I'll have to get a different board before I can score higher on vista ram

Anti

Yeah my ram is geil black dragnon ddr6400, just heavilly overclocked. I only bought it as i seen alot of korean and american ocers were getting great things from them. And no, i dont have the 2 hdds raided. one is for windows alone, as vista takes up like 22gb when fully patched. the second is for apps i need speed form like photoshop, wow and all my steam games. And the rest are just storage. Which is filling up a bit to quickly for my liking. 4-4-4-12 should boot no hassle, bu you will just need to give it more juice. But not too much. Ddr2 is not as happy with high volts as ddr was. Maybe even play around with a few different bios's.

Blazer

Unfortunately that board is crap for overclocking especially on the memory side..couldn't get any stable overclocks on my ram without the system hanging/crashing etc. It's especially bad with quad-cores as your FSB is limited to 350 max.
I could get my ram to 850mhz but would often crash during games.
Lowest I could get the timing to was 5-4-4-12 which isn't great for this ram as it can be got lower.