Any known issues with this memory?

[TheInternal]

Howdy.

I'm looking into getting some more RAM for my MSI K8NGM2 motherboard (or possibly the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe). Both are old-skool DDR RAM, 184-pin. I have 4x512 MB crucial Ballistix DDR400 in a MSI Neo 4 Platinum Plus (that I'll be replacing with the Asus), and the K8NGM2 is currently gimped at a single stick of 512 MB DDR400 OCZ stick with a heat spreader.

I don't plan on overclocking (I may eventually do a small overclock, but not anytime soon.) Anyone know if either board is unfriendly to RAM with doublesided memory on it? I'm looking at the Kingston HyperX 2GB, but if anyone knows of something better/cheaper for the motherboards, input would be welcomed. I'm currently running Windows XP 32-bit on both rigs, so I'm guessing I've little reason to go over 2 GB main system memory due to the windows XP 32-bit memory cap of 3 to 3.5 GB (though the 1 gig sticks make sense for it I get money to get windows 7 in the future).

So, is the kingston my best bet? Should I stick with 4x512 MB rather than 2x1 GB? Anyone know of any RAM to avoid like the plague on either board? Is there something better for cheaper than the kingston?

 

[tcsenter]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145579

 

[TheInternal]

CAS rating of 2 on the kingston... versus the 3 on that... then again... may be worth getting for the gimped system.... though the lack of heat spreaders is a minor concern, considering how tiny my TV box is :x

 

[Blain]

CAS rating means almost nothing these days.
The Corsair ValueSelect conforms to the JEDEC DDR standard, it's cheaper and the Corsair memory selector shows it as one of the memory options for your MSI MB.
Heatspreaders (or lack thereof), on non-OC'd DDR is a non-issue.

 

[TheInternal]

CAS ratings mean almost nothing these days? Man, I must be awfully out of the loop then... when did they become irrelevant? I thought on old DDR 1 systems that there was a difference in speed of a few nanoseconds o.o

 

[Denithor]

CAS timing and even memory speed has become almost irrelevant since the memory controller went on-chip on the S939 A64 chips (which is why AM2 got virtually no benefit from the move to DDR2). Same is true for the C2D processors although there it's more a case of a huge on-chip cache that drastically reduces the impact of system memory timings & speed.

Which makes me wonder why Intel, in their infinite wisdom, decided to force us into DDR3 for Nehalem. Bandwidth just isn't an issue so I cannot understand this move.

 

[TheInternal]

I finished replacing my old Neo motherboard with the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe. I thought, despite the memory controller going onto the CPU die, that CAS timings could make a difference in memory intensive apps (like games). When did I not get the memo?
Where is the bottleneck now, then (other than the slow arse hard drives). the system bus?

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: TheInternal
I thought, despite the memory controller going onto the CPU die, that CAS timings could make a difference in memory intensive apps (like games).
When did I not get the memo?

You must have been out for lunch.

The "Bottleneck" depends on your components and applications being run.
We need more info. to give you a better answer.

 

[TheInternal]

well, the situation has mildly changed (replaced a motherboard), so I guess I'll make a new thread since it's essentially a new topic. thanks for the replies 🙂

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: TheInternal
I finished replacing my old Neo motherboard with the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe. I thought, despite the memory controller going onto the CPU die, that CAS timings could make a difference in memory intensive apps (like games). When did I not get the memo?
Where is the bottleneck now, then (other than the slow arse hard drives). the system bus?

Right there.

Solution: Intel X25-M. Only $499 for an 80GB drive. 😀

 

[TheInternal]

lawl 😛

Yeah, SSD's are sweet. I'm broke though XD. I'd not be spending money on old DDR RAM for a socket 939 system if I wasn't XD