CONROE/DDR2 RAM guide needed as a sticky

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what ram to get with what conroe and why. Many people jumped from Intel to AMD and are jumping back again, I am one of them. In that time period we were first using SDRAM, I was using Intel Chips then- there was a movement to AMD then ddr cam into existance now everything has changed and we are in DDR2 land and seemingly a movement back to Intel. During this time period I missed a whole generation of Intel boards with DDR ram and now have to deal with all the new things about DDR2 and the Conroe chip. I do not feel I am alone and believe that all of the questions about this are coming from people like me. Not so much loyal to a company but to the price performance of the offerings. Right now that has been shifted into the Intel arena. A comprehensive guide to answer basic questions would help. Anyone up to the task?

Questions that I see that should be addressed are below, Please feel free to add to the list as a guide to the person/persons that wish to take on that task

1. Which CPU should I buy - How much speed do you need for what task
Gaming, home, business apps, scientific, financial

2. What speed memory is best (price/performance)for each CPU. Do I waste money putting PC2-8000 memory in an E6300

3. Would a x6800 suffer with a PC2-4200 memory sticks?

4. What to look for when attempting to overclock
In general is 4-4-4-12 in DDR533 better than 5-4-5-15 in DDR1000? why

A primer would assist a lot of people.

Thanks

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=g [...] rticID=472
there is some good info here....it was sugested to me by JumpingJack....

in many real world apps there is less than a 5% difference...