Building new system.. trying to decide on RAM

[imported_erc]

I'm building a new system.. and I'm not really all that interested in overclocking, although I probably will do some light overclocking.. nothing extreme.

I'm looking at the DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D, AMD64 3200+ (Winchester), and the RAM is where I'm stuck at.


OCZ Gold Rev2 Dual Channel Kit 512MBx2PC-4000 or

OCZ Performance Series Dual Channel 512MBx2 PC-4400

They're both almost the same price.. so for a system built for gaming and maybe a little overclocking in the future, which RAM would fit the system better?

 

[mwmorph]

corsair value ram at $99 for a gig.

use a memory divider to oc. you shouldnt have to use 1 until at about 215-220mhz fsb anyway.

see memory matrix at top of processor forum. premium memory is almost worthless in a amd64 system. a pc2100 stick is max 5-7% slower than a pc3200 stick in real apps, not benchmarks like sandra.

look at the game, application vbenchmarks. disregard the sandra benchmarks.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: erc
I'm building a new system.. and I'm not really all that interested in overclocking, although I probably will do some light overclocking.. nothing extreme.

I'm looking at the DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D, AMD64 3200+ (Winchester), and the RAM is where I'm stuck at.


OCZ Gold Rev2 Dual Channel Kit 512MBx2PC-4000 or

OCZ Performance Series Dual Channel 512MBx2 PC-4400

They're both almost the same price.. so for a system built for gaming and maybe a little overclocking in the future, which RAM would fit the system better?

I don't know why you would want to spend extra and get PC4000 (FSB=250MHz) if you are "not interested in overclocking" (FSB=200). Minor overclocking can be done with PC3200.

 

[imported_erc]

So.. what should I focus on when buying RAM? Stable at lower timings? Help me out, I'm not very knowledgable in this area

 

[mwmorph]

buy the corsair. ram has almost no impact on a64 performance. but if i had to choose between mhz and timings, id go timings every time.

 

[nick1985]

Text

 

[classy]

You are getting the DFI, then there is really only one choice, OCZ VX 4000. Around the same price with significant performance increases. You can get it at Atacom or the Egg.VX @ Anandtech

 

[mwmorph]

you have to be kidding me. with the $150 he saves by buying value ran, he could upgrade to a MUCH better video card that will net you MUCH more signifigant gains thanbuying this ram. $150 is the difference between a 6600gt and a 6800gt! go for a better video card and value ram. you'll thank yourself afterwards.

edit: og the gskill way posted by nick1985. that is good ram for the price

 

[imported_erc]

So you don't think it's worth it to spend a bit extra on low latency PC-3200?

Will I be able to run the G.Skill @ 1T ?

Forgive my ignorance, this is an area I'm new to, but I'm learning.

 

[mwmorph]

amd64s dont like 1t. dont run well.

 

[imported_erc]

That statement seems to conflict with the last page of the Anandtech Athlon 64 Memory article.

The very top of the memory tests are the most revealing results here. Despite the fact that several memories reached DDR600, highest performance was at the fastest speed the memory could achieve with a 1T Command Rate. This varied from DDR546 to DDR590, and it was at those 1T memory speeds that the best memory performance was consistently achieved.

We learned that the Athlon 64 quest for a 1T Command Rate is worth the search

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
amd64s dont like 1t. dont run well.

wtf are you talking about?

 

[catalysts17az]

if high overclocking is not an issue like you said and you still want a 1T command rate then read no more.
512mb --- go with PDP extreme memory for about $80 (3200) based on samsung TCCD chips
1Gb stick--- go also with PDP @ $190 a stick ( timings for this stick are 2-3-2-5)

these sticks do better than slight overclocking(PDP has value ram, the ones mentioned above are NOT value ram, they will have a red heat spreader on them at the EGG store. but for the best overclocks you will ever see on ram OCZ VX (512), you already have the board for the voltage requied by these chips. the VX chips were made for DFI boards or vice versa. have fun !

Catalysts17az

 

[fishmonger12]

i'd recommend the gskill value ram. 10$ more than the corsair and runs at cas 2. overclocks relatively well.

 

[Arcanedeath]

You could also go w/ the Twinmoss speed premium ram that has the same Winbond UTT chips as the ocz VX serries at a fraction of the price.