Faster of bigger memory?

[DoctorJones]

Hi guys, new in the forum...

I'm building my new PC bassicaly for PhotoShop works and I'm in a pretty reduced budget, so I can't afford PC3700 or PC4000 OCZ mems or others like that.

Till now, I'll get the P4P800 mobo and a 2.4c M0 or 2.6c D1 CPU (please read my other post 2.4c M0 (SL6Z3) or 2.6c D1 (SL6WS): Which one best to OC? (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=1247) if you can help me with that also :) )...

But... what about the memory? Good memory (OCZ and Kingston HyperX, the only ones that I can get here) is around twice ($/Mb) than "generic" ones (so called here), but, according to this useful post Overclocking and Benchmarking: CPU, DDR or both? (http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=919&highlight=memory) the real impact is not so huge as could be a CPU OC'ing, but... what happens with the temp and the stability if I run, i.e. 265 or 290 FSB (424MHz and 464 MHz even at 5:4 ratio) on PC3200?:confused:

As the difference in the price between a "generic" one and OCZ/Kingston HyperX one is so huge, I considered using 2x512Mb regular ones or even Kingston Value Ram (PhotoShop is a nice "memory eating" program:yummy: ) instead of 2x256 OCZ for almost the same price, but, as I said above, I'm not sure about the stability and the OC'ing possibilities of this first option. What do U think?

Also, will "not paired" regular memories will work fine in a Dual Channel config? Or should I go anyway to a Kingston Kit or OCZ DCh optimized?

And last...will all the different flavours of OCZ (Performance, Premier, Basic, EL, Platinum,...) will show me any big difference between them (regardless of my pocket...:-) ) or a Premier one will be OK?

Oh, one last one.... What about cheap ones (Generic or Kingston VR) with a Vantec HS?

TIA for your help,

DoctorJones

[Tony]

For photo shop you really do need LOTS of ram, deciding what to get is a little harder due to your funds available.

The M0 CPU is supposed to be a god for overclocking, if you can find a 2.6C or 2.8C if you can stretch to it.The 2.8's are supposed to do 250fsb easy with many doing over 260fsb.Your going to need to run 5:4 on the ram so PC3200 will pretty much do you.

from the OCZ range the 3200Plat is CH5 based and should give you 2-2-3-6 timings at ddr400, some however have found cas2.5 is needed, this is a bios/spd issue with the cas2.5 on the ocz modules being as fast as cas2 on other brands.If funds won't stretch that far then look at the 3200 performance range but timings will go down a little. Failing this the 4200 premier is good for 1:1 overclocking and at 260fsb will be the match of 2-2-2-5 timings at 5:4 with your bandwidth hungry photoshop.You do need to be running 1:1 at 260+fsb to see any benifit from the slower latency though.

At the end of the day it all depends on home much you have available to spend.