1066 Mhz RAM upgrade on ASUS P5E

[subodhpatil]

Here are the details of my PC which is 2 years old.

Processor: Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q9450 2.66 GHz.
PSU: Cooler Master Extreme Power Duo 600W SLI Crossfire Ready (RP-600-PCAR)
Motherboard: Asus P5E
RAM : 2GB DDR2 800 MHz
Graphics Card: GE Force 8600
HDD: SATA Raid 0 Seagate 350GB X2


I mainly use system for
1. Animation: May 3Ds MAX etc.
2. Designing: Corel DRAW, Photoshop CS5 (I design flex banner of 10 feet by 10 feet it takes 15 min to export and rendering )
3. Development: SQL server 2005/2008, Visual studio 2008/2010



Now I want to do following upgrades
1. RAM 4 GB DDR2 1066 MHz
Is it worth spending around 5K on 4 GB DDR2 1066 MHz or to go for additional 4 GB DDR2 800Mhz with my existing 2 GB and make total of 6 GB?
I have read on many forums that there are some problems with 1066MHz DDR2 RAMS. I will go for Kingston (Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR2 1066 PC2-8500 ) and will not go for OCZ or Corsair as they are too expensive.



2. ATI/AMD Radoen 2 graphics card with cross fire
I want to have 2 graphics cards under 10to 12 K budget. Please suggest good one.



Guys please suggest


Thanks,
Subodh

 

[ssb1551]

I don't think crossfiring 2 low/medium Radeons is that good an idea.Instead go for a single GPU worth 10-12k.
Think about this :
2 Radeon GPUs for 12k - the only option is 5670(5.4k) as 5750 is for 7k(so its 2k more than your budget).Is it worth crossfiring 2 5670's??

 

[Jaskanwar Singh]

Go for 6gb 800mhz ram.

Do u play games? If no get AMD FireGL V7700 otherwise Zotac GTX460 @ 11.5k.

Get rid of that cm extreme power. Get Seasonic S12II Bronze 520W @ 4k.

 

[subodhpatil]

I do play games as well!
Are you sure about 6GB 800Mhz over 4GB 1066Mhz ? I could consider updating 4 GB 1066 after some time again!

I want to have crossfire. Whats problem with cooler master ?

 

[asingh]

@OP:

1. Your X38 chipset has problems with 1066 Mhz RAM. Something about the BIOS. Most users had to update it for Quad Processor compatibility, post that 1066 support went out the window. Yours is an old board, so I doubt Asus will create new BIOS. Why risk it. Just get additional RAM at the same speed. But be careful cause these LGA775 boards are nit-picky when harnessed with greater than 4GB RAM. Of course you would need a 64BIT OS too.

2. Better get a single GPU for the price range you want. Crossfire will not benefit much with 2 low end Radeons. Or are there benefit for image rendering with Crossfire..?

3. CM PSUs are not that reliable, so people were warning you.