A dumb memory noob?

[runzwithsizorz]

Throwing a computer together for a family member out of some old parts laying about. I have never taken the time to study all there is to know about Ram, and have always relied on the opinion of others for purchase, and settings. What I have is, 2 sticks of Mushkin 512mb pc3500 2:3:3, and 2 sticks of 512mb Corsair xms pc3200 2:2:2:5 . The Corsairs are marked 400mhz, I can only assume the mushkins are as well. If it means anything, these will be going on an old Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe.
Which, do you folks feel the better memory would be?(for performance), I believe they will be using it for gaming. (bios settings???). Thankz

 

[alcoholbob]

They are both cas 2 the difference would be completely neglible.

The difference between cas 2 and cas 3 back in the day was on average, about a 3% performance boost. These two are both timed quite close so the difference is pretty neglible.

I had several sticks of DDR Corsair cas 2 RAM (some went bad, RMA'd) and all of them did not post with the specified settings. I had to set them up manually via bios. I eventually went with an OCZ platinum kit (2-3-3-6) that *did* post right off the bat with the right timings.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Thankz Astrallite, both of these memories I had been using at one time or another, extendedly, so posting isn't an issue, however, with *this*, Asus mobo you have to plug, unplug, jam, force, kick, wiggle, and pray, before the board will finally say hey, by golly, there is some memory here. It is the Corsairs that are in it now, and she's running, I have not as yet made any bios changes, and sense it is to go to a family member I may not. You may know how it is, if you build it, they will come,--- back, time after time for their maintenance. Which I wouldn't mind so much, IF I were charging money for it.
If the Mushkin's would be a better performer/overclocker, perhaps I should keep them for myself(?).

 

[Denithor]

The real difference is the Mushkin sticks are guaranteed to run at DDR-433 (PC3500) while the Corsair sticks are only guaranteed for DDR-400 (PC3200).

If your board will boot with all four installed that's your best option - XP likes 2GB better than 1GB.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Originally posted by: Denithor
If your board will boot with all four installed that's your best option - XP likes 2GB better than 1GB.

Agreed on the 2GB. Also, on this board if you have any instability you may need to back the timings off a bit to 2.5-3-3-7, 2.5-3-3-8 etc. Also, you'll probably need 2.75v or so on the memory voltage.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Originally posted by: Denithor
The real difference is the Mushkin sticks are guaranteed to run at DDR-433 (PC3500) while the Corsair sticks are only guaranteed for DDR-400 (PC3200).

If your board will boot with all four installed that's your best option - XP likes 2GB better than 1GB.

Hmm, Like I said, maybe I'll build a computer for someone else,(someone who would pay,lol), with the Mushkin's, adding 2 more sticks, total 2 gigs, lord knows I've got the parts. All of my home computers are up to date, so I really have no need of this memory, soooo, if you think the 4 sticks would play together nicely, let's give it a whirl shall we. What do you suppose I should set in the bios for the 4?
If I don't post back soon, it's cuz I'm putting out the fire.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Well, the 4 sticks posted and let me into windows, I'll report back later.

 

[alcoholbob]

I personally think you should take it easy and probably set it to cas 3 if you are mix and matching to stay on the safe side.

When I said "post" I mean when you boot up the computer, it defaults to cas 2.5, which was my experience with corsair cas 2 DDR ram that was rated to 2-2-2-5. To confuse matters even more, Corsair had a lower end "cas 2" DDR ram that was only rated Cas 2 (2-3-2-6) for Intel systems and Cas 2.5 for AMD. The former (2-2-2-5) would need to be manually set to these timings in the Bios. The latter would not even post at Cas 2 on an AMD system, so good luck with that 😛

The Corsair RAM that you have (2-2-2-5) @ 400mhz were actually from the same production line as the 450mhz RAM, except for whatever reason they couldn't hit that high but were still good enough to run very high timings.

A thing about RAM clockspeed: Cas 2 400mhz RAM will actually net you more performance than Cas 3 450MHz since relative RAM performance can be derived by clockspeed / latency.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Originally posted by: Astrallite
I personally think you should take it easy and probably set it to cas 3 if you are mix and matching to stay on the safe side.

If either of these kits have Winbond BH or CH ICs, I don't think they will run CAS3 which is why I said CAS2.5 if CAS2 is unstable. It's been quite a while but I don't think they will do CAS3.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

An update, first off, I would like to thank you guys for the input, I've so much yet to learn, and you have been helpful. Windows shows all 2gigs,(see first post^), is it using it? probably. Is it using it efficiently? doubtful. Will it ever? also doubtful, but what do I know, I'm a memory noob, but I'm learning. Never the less, here's what CPU-Z reports, under the *SPD* tab, slots 1-2,(the corsairs), 200mhz, 2:2:2:5 / slots 3-4,(the Mushkins), there are 2 columns?????, both 217mhz, 2.0:4:4:7, and 2.5:4:4:7 . Now here's the kicker, under the memory tab it reads, 158mhz,(+or-, it's jumping a bit), 2:3:3:5 I don't know what all this means, but I don't believe it's a good thing, just thought you folks would like to know. Bear in mind, I've made no changes in the bios, but I'm willing to try if you folks think it would do any good, otherwise I'll just use the Mushkins, and wrap this puppy up. If SIL whats more memory, she can buy it. BTW, why are there 2 columns for the Mushkins, and not for the Corsairs?