2GB RAM reccomendation for OCing?

[vlads stuff]

I going to be building a system soon with an Athlon X2 CPU, but I'm undecided as to the motherboard - either NF4 SLI or ATI Crossfire.
Either way, I'm considering 2 GB RAM, but I want to overclock as much as possible. Am I better of with 4x512MB or 2x1GB of RAM?
And what specific 2GB or 4x1GB kits can you recommend for excellent OCing?

Thanks!

PS: NF4 mobo I'm considering is Asus A8N-SLI Premium. Probably the DFI Crossfire board when it comes out.

 

[Hacp]

Your best going with the ram divider if you use 1gb sticks. TCCD/Hynix are bascially the only chips that will run at high fsbs with low volts if you want to keep the 1:1. Even then, the pentaly that 2t will give will kill the advantages high FSB gives. Best bet is to go with 2x 1gb sticks and use the 5:6 divider. to give you a overclock of 2.64 if your going the 2.2 GHZ route.

 

[TerryMathews]

For overclocking purposes, you never want to exceed one piece of memory per channel. Has to do with the amount of load placed on the memory controller, but the upshot is that the MC won't be as stable and thus won't be able to overclock as high, with more sticks of memory attached to it.*

As for overclocking 1GB sticks, I've had good luck with Patriot low-latency 1GB sticks. Come with red heatspreaders. NewEgg carries them. CAS on them is 2-3-2-5 at 200MHz, which is nice.

*Does not apply to registered/buffered RAM.

 

[kman79]

If you don't mind spending money, the Crucial Ballistix at DDR500 can run at 3-3-3-8 timings at 2.6V stable. It's gonna cost you a good amount though. I got my system OCed to 2.8GHz with this memory. There aren't many 1GB sticks that will run as fast, good luck in your search

 

[Heckler 5th]

the crucial sticks i have use the same 5B-D chips as those ballistix for about 60% of the price (edit: they're just not binned/guaranteed to run as high). they can run DDR500 2T at 2.9V but i settled on DDR454 1T at 2.7V. i love these sticks and highly recommend for $210 instead of the $380 ballistix. you will never notice the difference between DDR500 and DDR454 except in benchmarks (not 3dmark05, tho- score didn't change). not worth the extra $170 IMO.

 

[vlads stuff]

Thanks Everybody! - Any more Recommendations?

Hows this for OCing?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220011

 

[rise]

i got these mushkins and i love them, 2.5-3-3-8 @250 24/7.

i'm pretty sure though they use the same infineon be-5 chips as does patriot and ocz so with 1 gig sticks its very hit or miss.

that said, i've seen several people here and on other forums having the same results with this mushkin. i liked how easy it was to clock, cl2 right up to 225 and cl 2.5 to 257 before settling on my 11x250. 2.8v too.

as mentioned, the ballistix is your only guarantee of ddr500 unless ocz finally released their own as they've been planning to do.

xs 1 gig database heavily populated with ballistix.

 

[RollWave]

Originally posted by: vlads stuff
Thanks Everybody! - Any more Recommendations?

Hows this for OCing?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220011

Less good than the 2-3-2-5 Patriot ram. Dont buy them in pair packaging.

 

[jkresh]

ocz has ddr500 pc4000 2*1gb sticks that were anounced last week, not sure when they will be available but they should be at least as fast as the balistix and probably cheaper

 

[xTYBALTx]

If you are on a budget, OCZs budget sticks are said to be good OCers.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: jkresh
ocz has ddr500 pc4000 2*1gb sticks that were anounced last week, not sure when they will be available but they should be at least as fast as the balistix and probably cheaper

cheaper, from arguably the most savvy marketers of memory, i doubt it. just speculation of course but they know that 1 gig sticks are hot items right now and many if not most are looking to oc them.

not taking anything away from ocz, i love their service and products and usually buy their ram. it'll be great to have some competion for the ballistix.

edit= this is ripped from one of the guys at oc forums-

Re: the new OCZ 2gig pack, I'll have a set on Tuesday to check out. I'm told that a good sampling of the sets will do 3-3-3 or maybe even 2.5-3-3- but not 100% of the yield, so that's why the rated timings 3-4-4. I can't say yet what the chips are, but they are not what I expected. I hope they test as least as good as the balistix. pricing will be towards the ballistix pricing though.

 

[solofly]

Originally posted by: kman79
If you don't mind spending money, the Crucial Ballistix at DDR500 can run at 3-3-3-8 timings at 2.6V stable. It's gonna cost you a good amount though. I got my system OCed to 2.8GHz with this memory. There aren't many 1GB sticks that will run as fast, good luck in your search

Actually my cheap Micron/Crucial (not ballistix) (2x1GB) runs at 3-3-3-7-1T @ 2.6v fully stable. As matter of fact it's even overclocked to 440Mhz and still stable without increasing any voltage.