[Thunderer]

Hi, I am willing to buy a PC next Jan and I was going to buy a DDR2 mobo but now I have found out that DDR3 will be coming more common. So I was thinking of getting the Asus Maximus Extreme along with the CorsairTwinX XMS3, DDR3 PC3-8500 and also a Q6600 core 2 quad. Will this be a good idea to stick to or not. This PC is going to be used for photo editing, architecture programs, etc... and also it should be future proof.

Any suggestions and opinions are welcome.

[Spencer2004]

future proof yes, fast yes, but very expensive but if you have the money its ok!

if you do get all that it will be future proof for years to come!!

[Thunderer]

It is not that more expensive than the one I was going to buy (Blitz Formula, DDR2 1066MHz and Q6600). So basicaly for a few pounds more it is more worthed to buy the next generation :)

[alex]

What's the latency though?

Whilst core2 setup's are'nt really affected by ram latency due to the way the ram is controlled when you get upto CL7 or higher it's starting to get a bit silly. This is really only offset by high frequency ram (1200 and above).

If going DDR3 (and the latencies are high) you might want to think about faster ram than 1066. Of course if it's running at CL4 or CL5 then it won't matter but the info above is certainly food for thought.

[Thunderer]

10q Alex. Unfortunately I am not that very much technical about the specifications but about the ram it states "This memory has been verified to operate at 1066MHz at low latencies of 7-7-7-20".

[alex]

Any adopter of new technology is going to pay that much extra because it isn't mainstream yet.

If it was me? I'd be buying DDR2 6400 (800mhz) CL5 or DDR2 8500 (1066mhz) CL5 for now. Waiting the year of so that it'll take DDR3 to become mainstream (and for manufacturers to battle it out to offer higher frequencys and lower latencies) before buying DDR3.

[Thunderer]

So, if I buy a mobo that has DDR3, would it run DDR2 i.e. is a DDR3 mobo backward enabled?

[alex]

Some boards will, specifally the P35 and X38 chipsets. But to be honest I'm thinking about retracting the info on my last post because these boards are few and far between and of those there are even fewer decent ones.

If you do however want to go this route the Asus P5KC might well be a contender; decent overclocker, not mind blowingly expensive and the P35 chipset.

The only downside is that it has the ICH9 southbridge so it doesn't natively support raid. But you could always get an expansion card.