Memory questions

[joejccva]

I have to do a little RMA'ing with Newegg, but to make a long story short. I called a few ram manufacturers such as Corsair and PQI to ask a few questions regarding memory, timings and such and I have found this memory with excellent timings:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141233

Now I can only buy 1 of these right now and can't afford to buy a dual channel kit. So I'll buy 1 stick of PQI 1 gig ram running at 2-3-2-5 timings. If I buy another stick a few weeks or a month later of the same memory, will I be able to run both sticks in dual channel mode even though I didn't buy the dual channel kit?

PQI has told me that if I don't buy the dual channel kit and just buy the 2 sticks separately, then it won't run in dual channel mode and that I might get blue screens of death. He said there's a chance the ram won't be exactly the same or something.

Another user on this forum mentioned something about because of my specs that the new AMD 64's has these "steppings" that would allow me to run 2 seprately purchased sticks in dual channel mode just fine. Both sticks (even purchased seprately) should be the same I would assume.

What is your take on this?

 

[BrownTown]

he's trying to sucker you into paying more...

If you buy another stick of the same thing later it should work just fine in dual channel mode.

 

[n7]

WTF

Screw PQI.

Get this Mushkin 3-4-3 DDR500 1024 MB

 

[Pederv]

The more alike your memory is, the better the chance of having dual channel work.
It's possible to buy the same part number sticks but months apart and have dual channel not work. It's also possible to buy different part number sticks, from different manufacturers and have dual channel work.

 

[joejccva]

Originally posted by: n7
WTF

Screw PQI.

Get this Mushkin 3-4-3 DDR500 1024 MB

I have an extremely tight budget down to the penny, and this guy I work with has bought PQI memory in his rig and it works great. He overclocks his rig as well. Because of the price, the timings, and some reviews along with this guy I work with ....I went ahead and decided to take a risk and purchase PQI. I already placed the order for the 1 gig stick at $108.00

Was this a terrible move? I've heard PQI is good.

 

[Elfear]

I've bought unmatched sticks before and had them work great together. Personally, if the dual channel kit is only a little extra I'll buy it just so that I'm guaranteed compatability. But most of the people I've seen who buy separate sticks, from the same vendor, and at about the same time usually have no problems.

I bought the Patriot Ram that has similiar specs to your PQI ram and I love them. If they're based off of the same Infineon ram that the Patriot stuff is than you'll be very pleased. Mine hits 250MHz@2.5-3-3-6.

 

[joejccva]

Now I've read a bunch of other reviews about PQI memory and now I'm reconsidering. I don't want to pay too much for ram but I want something of quality.

Can anyone give me recommendations of "quality" ram that isn't too expensive?

I hate reading reviews on Newegg.com because they are so mixed. Does anyone know if PQI memory is good? I ordered 1 stick of pqi TURBO 1GB DDR400 ram with 2-3-2-5 timings, but I was looking at the G SKILL ram that got good reviews..here is link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231031


You know how it is...when you read some bad reviews on a product you have second thoughts.

What do ya think?

 

[Rottie]

I bought 4 stick PMI Turbo Memory (now PQI) dual channel DDR400 kit (1Gb total) 2.5-3-3-7 @ 400mhz. I don't know if 2.5-3-3-7 is fast enough.