Looks like the mushkin ram I wanted got discontinued

zylander

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Aug 25, 2002
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n7

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Jan 4, 2004
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IMHO, the 996580 kit you're looking at is arguably one of the very best 2x2 GB DDR2-800 kits that exist, at least with OCing in mind.

(Hence why i own two of them ;))

I'm not sure if they're actually discontinued or Mushkin is just having trouble keeping up with demand.

I can find that same kit being sold in various places in Canada.
I'm sure that if you use a price search engine site (don't know US ones well sorry), you'd find somewhere selling it in the US.

Be aware that clocking it with the 680i you have might be a bit trickier than with Intel chipsets though...i've heard it mentioned a number of times on the Mushkin forums that clocking high on the 680i isn't easy with the 2 GB dimms.
I've also seen fantastic results with 2x2 GB kits on nF chipsets too though, so i suspect it might just require a bit more tweaking to sqeeze out higher speeds :)

Anyway, back on topic, assuming you cannot find that Mushkin kit anywhere, here are some alternatives that i've seen clock well (from various posts on various forums, etc.).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820211188
These are actually generally doing 500+ for all the results i've seen :Q

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146692
Lesser Mushkin that should still hit 500...though i wouldn't count on much more; luck will be involved.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231122
Popular kit pretty much everywhere, but they won't be awesome for OCing unless you get lucky.
500 sure...wouldn't count on much more though, since all those that do well are put in the DDR2-1000 kit G.Skill has IMO.
I have this kit; could do up to around DDR2-1025ish before i realized they weren't even remotely close to as good as my Mushkin & they got relegated to use in the secondary PC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231148
Better binned version of the CL 5 DDR2-800 G.Skills.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145
As long as they are on sale for $100, these take the cake i'd say.
Best value out there for around $100.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820313042
No way these won't OC well...Team is great for that.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146731
Almost as good as the kit you were looking at; should do very well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820148183
Brand new kit from Crucial that apparently uses some form of Micron.
Possibly one of the best kits out there right now from very prelimary results.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820144120
Seen some ridiculously good results with these; should be very similar or better than most DDR2-1000 kit for clocking.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820146755
The higher rated version of what you were looking at & what i have.
It does basically exactly the same kinda clocks as mine does, just is rated faster with looser timings.
(Obviously a good kit again.)

Once you get to the DDR2-1066 level, you're obviously in very good kits territory, & while most won't do a lot higher than their default 533 MHz, you will see lots of 540-580 ranges, depending on what you consider stable & what kinda vdimm you use, etc. etc.

Corsair's hair-comb heatspreader Dominator 1066 stuff is likely the cream of the crop for current 2x2 GB kits (only kit i've ever seen at DDR2-1200 :Q), but it will set you back a bit more.

Hope this gives some ideas.
 

zylander

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Aug 25, 2002
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THanks n7, your past posts that I read through are the reason I wanted the mushkin 996580 kit in the first place.

One thing though, when it comes to ram, does it really matter what speed I get? I mean, my boards max is DDR2-800, so if I get some DDR2-1000 it will just get downclocked but then Im just going to overclock it back up so it doesnt really matter correct?

I guess now Im torn between the G.skill, the crucial and the mushkin redline.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
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Well, we all know a high RAM speed doesn't improve performance drastically.

Not to say it's not a ton of fun clocking or tweaking though ;)

Your board doesn't have a "max"...or are you referring to the divider that's DDR2-800 by default?

If you clocked your Q6600 to 9x389 (3.5 GHz) with the 2:3 ratio, that'd be DDR2-1167...a lot higher than most 2x2 GB can do. Of course, it's called something different in the nForce chipset-based bioses...they have a weird way of labeling the ratios IIRC.

I also thought that most nF chipset mobos have the option to run unlinked speeds where you can basically run the RAM at any frequency you so desire.


 

zylander

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Aug 25, 2002
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I guess I was referring to the default divider.

I ended up going with the Crucial Ballistix, Ill post back with results seeing as how there are not many reviews of them.
 

n7

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Jan 4, 2004
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Excellent, i look forward to hearing how they do for you.