Whats the difference between DDRII 667,DDRII 800 and DDRII 1066?

Question

Higher number=better performance?(1066 better then 800)?Is there much of a difference? And which one do you recommend?

I get a core 2 duo processor pc

Answer 1

Each of those higher numbers means a bigger front side bus. The best analogy of your motherboards front side bus would be described as a high way on your motherboard. The higher the number the more lanes you have. The more lanes you have the greater freedom you have to get to your destination without interruptions. However, there is some very important information you must know and that is the bus size of your motherboard. Even if they made RAM with a 7 digit bus it would do you no good if your motherboard had only a 3 or 4 digit bus. We will take a stab and say that your motherboard has an 800 mega hertz front side bus, then of course the DDRII 800 is the RAM you want to buy. Now you can take this 800 Ram and go back words and put it in a 677 fsb motherboard but it will only travel at the 677. The speed will only move as fast as what your motherboard can carry. Can you move the 800 RAM up to the 1066 FSB motherboard? Sometimes yes (this depends on the RAM sticks and your motherboards BIOS) but you must play tricks with your motherboards BIOS and degrade you computer to a slower FSB speed, which is kind of silly. And yes there can be a very big difference specially in the gamer world.

Last, I recommend only getting what you motherboard can handle, no more no less.

Answer 2

The last guy was on the right path, but doesn't really know enough about FSB and RAM to be talking about it. The Core 2 Duo has a 1066 FSB, but because it is quad pumped and DDR2 is only double pumped, DDR2 533 would be equal or syncronous to a 1066FSB, so you are going to be running your RAM at or faster than the FSB.

Anyway, to make it simple, yes the higher the number the better, but if you are not going to be overclocking your processor, the performance gain by going past DDR2 667 is not really worth the extra money. If you can get a fairly good price on DDR2 800, go with it, but don't pay $75+ more on it that you would on 667, not worth it. (I said $75 based on buying 2GB).

Answer 3

Speed. The faster the RAM, the better performance. There is a limit. If your computer's BUS is slow, it won't make any difference how fast the RAM is. It is like driving a Ferrari on a busy city street. You have all that capability, but nowhere to go.

Answer 4

What? Like you have a computer and you want to add memorey? I would reccomend whatever your computer accepts. If it accepts defferenk kinds I would reccomend adding on the type that is already inside.

aka if it came with PC-800 I would reccomend adding PC-800, if it came with PC-1066, I would reccomend PC-1066.

Thats what I recomend. what would I personally do? I would get the cheepest one, because I'm cheep like that.