Memory advice needed

[CP5670]

I'm looking to buy some 2x1GB memory pack. This and this look pretty good for the price, but I don't know which is better. I am leaning towards the first one because I don't like the hassle of rebates and the price is only a little more than value memory, but those timings are quite high. Is 2-3-2 at 200mhz or 3-4-4 at 250mhz better? Also, do these work okay with DFI boards?

 

[996GT2]

Both are good and compatible with DFI boards (I think the only major RAM maker with compatibility issues to DFI is Corsair). Are you planning to OC? If you OC, you'll have to run a memory divider with the DDR400, so the DDR500 gives you more headroom before you have to run a memory divider (which hurts performance a bit), so I would get that. With the DDR500, you may not even have to run a divider at all if you keep your HTT under about 270 or so, which is already a pretty high OC on something like an Opteron 165.

 

[CP5670]

I'll have to use a divider on either one (my processor needs to be at 9x334 to get its highest speed), but I'm okay with that. I am just wondering if the extra 50mhz on the first one is enough to compensate for its high timings.

 

[996GT2]

If you take the divider issue out of the question, both are about equal. The extra latency of the DDR500 will even out its 50 mhz higher clock, and both will perform similarly in most cases. If you are going to OC that high and are going to run a divider anyway, I suggest you save some money and get valuerRAM instead. It won't be much or a performance difference.

 

[CP5670]

I was originally planning to do that but it seems most value memory packs are about $140-150 anyway, so I figured a little more for 2-3% more performance isn't too bad a deal. The Corsair pack is a bit cheaper, but those tend to have compatibility problems on DFI boards (I'm using the 512MB corsair value sticks right now and they work great, but it seems I got luckier than most people).

If the performance of those two is similar, I think I'll just get those 250mhz sticks that have a lower upfront price.

 

[5t3v0]

CP, go with the HZs. If you're lucky you may get them up to 273MHz which would allow you to use the 166 divider on that OC.

Edit:
Just spent the last 90 minutes trying to OC my ram again & cant even get 260MHz to be memtest stable at 3-5-5-10! The sticks I have are the newer 3-5-5-10 spd which dont overclock for sh1t according to many forums I've read. I would have to agree. I have wasted so many hours over the last 2 months trying to get some more bandwidth out of them. With at DFI LP board you might have better luck. There's a very useful foum on DFI Street.

Even though the spd is 3-5-5-10, they do run fine on 3-4-4-8 at 250MHz, and at my prefered frequency of 229MHz, they do 3-3-3-6 quite happily. I'd love to get CL2.5 out of them but I think that's another holy grail too. Still good ram for the price.

 

[robertk2012]

Originally posted by: 996GT2
Both are good and compatible with DFI boards (I think the only major RAM maker with compatibility issues to DFI is Corsair). Are you planning to OC? If you OC, you'll have to run a memory divider with the DDR400, so the DDR500 gives you more headroom before you have to run a memory divider (which hurts performance a bit), so I would get that. With the DDR500, you may not even have to run a divider at all if you keep your HTT under about 270 or so, which is already a pretty high OC on something like an Opteron 165.

Dividers do not hurt performance. So go with either one you like as performance will likely be very similar between the two at their respective speeds.

 

[CP5670]

Originally posted by: 5t3v0
CP, go with the HZs. If you're lucky you may get them up to 273MHz which would allow you to use the 166 divider on that OC.

Edit:
Just spent the last 90 minutes trying to OC my ram again & cant even get 260MHz to be memtest stable at 3-5-5-10! The sticks I have are the newer 3-5-5-10 spd which dont overclock for sh1t according to many forums I've read. I would have to agree. I have wasted so many hours over the last 2 months trying to get some more bandwidth out of them. With at DFI LP board you might have better luck. There's a very useful foum on DFI Street.

Even though the spd is 3-5-5-10, they do run fine on 3-4-4-8 at 250MHz, and at my prefered frequency of 229MHz, they do 3-3-3-6 quite happily. I'd love to get CL2.5 out of them but I think that's another holy grail too. Still good ram for the price.

hmm, so the current batch of these sticks is not that good? 3-5-5 seems very high. Is it worth waiting a while to see if a newer batch gets any better? Thanks for that DFI street link though, I'll take a look at that thread.

Although if it does the rated 3-4-4 250mhz without any trouble and works with the 150 divider, it's good enough for me. I don't really have the time to spend tweaking the memory to its max speed anyway.

 

[5t3v0]

They will do 3-4-4 250MHz. That's what G.Skill are selling them as so they had better. They really are fiddly ram to try to OC though. I've had more luck underclocking & lowering latencies. I just spent the last couple of nights trying to run my overclock on 8x315 instead of 9x280 (both are 2.52GHz). It runs ok with the ram on the 133 divider (210MHz) but on the 166 divider (252MHz) its unstable no matter what I do with the timings. I'm curently trying CL2.5 on my original OC of 9x280 with the 166 divider (229MHz). Got a BSOD so dropped TWTR from 1 to 2 and have been priming for an hour now trouble free. Timings are 2.5-3-3-6.

Edit: Failed Prime95 after 2 hours.

 

[CP5670]

Crap, I was about to order it today and find that Newegg bumped up the price to $190. :| I guess if it has issues with certain dividers, I might have run into trouble with it anyway.

I think I'll just get one of the 2-3-2 200mhz packs and deal with the rebate. G.skill, OCZ and Patriot seem to be have similar sticks of this type. Is any one of these better than the others? (I just need them to work at stock speeds and with the 125 and 133 dividers)