memory Q!

[yemstar]

A simple question really, does the difference between a 800mhz 1gb stick of ram and a 667mhz 1gb stick of ram increase ur pcs preformance by a lot? Or is the increase so small that it doesnt really matter?

[.Maleficus.]

Yes, there is a difference between the two.

Are you building a gaming rig? Or just a home office type rig for web surfing and email? If it is a gaming rig, the extra speed you get with the 800 might make the difference in game performance. So it's really up to you if you want that extra little bit of performance or not.

[Nagoshi]

ACtually, I dont think there won't be any difference. The memory speed will be used depending with your CPU FSB. For example, if you are running a 100MHz FSB CPU (like my P3 550), and you got 133MHz RAM, then it'll be running at 100MHz.

So if you got a 667MHz FSB CPU, then the 800MHz sticks will be useless (unless you plan on overclocking. Thats where those sticks are needed)

You should first know what is your CPU FSB is, and if you are planning to overclock. If you dont plan to OC, then buy RAM equals to your FSB (maybe higher if they're at the same price). But if you plan to OC, get better RAM (brands, like OCZ, G.SKill, Mushkin... and higher RAM speed)

[Silenced_Coyote]

Don't forget to look at the timings. The 800 MHz might also have higher latencies. Lower is better, but that doesn't mean better by a lot.

Depending on what RAM you currently have, you might be able to hit 800 MHz.

Nagoshi is right though about the performance increase being small. Then again, it depends on what this PC is for.

Here is one gaming benchmark out of a few.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/images/memory/core2duo-memory-guide/266mhz/farcry.png

Here is a link to the article. It has many more benchmarks.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/core2duo-memory-guide.html