DDR2.....Is 533 MHz a waste with an 800FSB?

I'm building a new computer (my first!) and I'm going to be using an Intel P4 550 3.4GHz CPU with one of Intel's new 925X Mobos.

My question is this....with an 800FSB, I've read and been told that I'd be wasting money on DDR2 533 RAM because the 800 FSB is going to "dumb it down" to 400 anyway, so just buy the cheaper DDR2 400 RAM to start with and save the extra cash.

Is this true or should I stick with my first choice, which is the DDR2 533?

Also, any feelings on Kingston, OCZ, Crucial or any of the other big manufacturers as far as the price/quality/performance ratio?

Thanks....building your "first one" is pretty unnerving, and I get a lot of help and support from this board.

Texasbobby

 

Here is one thing I can wholeheartedly recommend:

Stick with what the mobo (not CPU) supports as the best kind of RAM.
If there is any dumbing down happening that would be due to the mobo, after all the best available CPU the mobo support should compliment the best RAM type the mobo supports as well.
Check your mobo manufacturer's web site for more up-to-date and accurate info on this, because a BIOS update could make thing more compatible/suitable.

 

ok i must explain a few things to you..
as far as i know, the highest Ram "standard" is DDR400
its the fastest any motherboard supports, without overclocking
without overclocking, your DDr533 is just running at 400
BECAUSE
the pentium4 and athlon 64 and such
have a real fsb of 200, but in example of the P4, its quad pumped
also, ddr400 runs at 200 but runs at double that (double pumped) hence the name double data rate
to use the benefits of any ddr over 400, you have to overclock
hope i was some help

 

@zulu there's a new standard called DDR2 which i think he is referring to ... and i think you're referring to o'cing RAM which is different ... somehow ... now i dont know whether or not it will 'dumbed' down

 

Currently the 'PC2-5400 DDR2 675MHz' is the bad boy in the block but not sure if your mobo supports it...back to what I was saying, it all depends on what the best RAM your motherboard supports!!

 

The specs on the Intel mobo state that it will support "DDR2 533/400 SDRAM" so I know it'll take either 400 or 533. My question is, without overclocking, is anything over DDR2 400 going to make any performance difference?

Thank you.

 

Although the slowest Bus speed of the 3 (Mobo, CPU, RAM) would naturally be the weakest link, for RAM bandwidth is not the only factor for higher performance, do not overlook the latency. See this link:
http://www4.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040301/alderwood-06.html

Also consider these facts: what is the price difference between the same size DDR2 400 and 533? IMO if it's within $25 or 10% (whichever is a greater $ value) then since the mobo supports either, I'd go with the 533, this way you will not need to compromize stability as much when and if you overclock and according to the info on that link, there should be a performance boost worth the extra $$$. Again the performance gains would only be noticeable on grafic/CPU extensive processes such as gaming.

 

There is an interesting comparison here:
http://www.overclockercafe.com/Articles/DDR_vs_DDR2/

Using a Gigabyte board with both types of memory ddr vs ddr2.
Result... DDR2 is an option for overclocking.

 

I thought DDR2 had slow timings?