New machine... what RAM would you guys recommend?

[Jmoke]

I dont know if this is in the right place... sorry if its not

But anyways,
I am interested in getting some performance RAM, but I do not know what to get... as you can tell, im a newbie.

I have an Asus SLI deluxe board, athlon 64 3500+ newcastle, Leadtek 6600 GT extreme and a 450 W power supply. I currently have some generic RAM that my bro gave me... but i noticed that my machine loads (battlefield) very slow compared to his 754 newcastle 3200+ (non-OC)... I was wondering first of all if it ss the RAM...

I have a generic 1024mb DDR400 CL2.5 single chip... can this be the problem... is it not working in "dual channel mode"?

if it is the problem, what RAM would you guys recommend for Extreme gaming performance? where can I get it (link please)?

thanks in advance,

-James

 

[stevty2889]

Memory times are not nearly as important to an A64 as they are to a P4 anyway. Your saying you have a single 1gig stick of ram? If you are, of course it isn't working in dual channel, cause you have to have 2 sticks for dual channel. Dual channel doesn't make a huge differance on an A64 either. What are you using for a hard drive compared to what your brother is using? Also if you are suspect of the ram, run memtest on it.

 

[Jmoke]

i have a 200gb WD IDE 133 HD and he is running a Maxtor 200 SATA

how do I test the RAM? sorry im a N00b

 

[Fern]

Hi James

See this THREAD. Expensive ram doesn't appear to offer tangible benefits for the AMD64. So your value ram s/b just fine. No need to blow $ unneccessarily.

Memtest86 is free proggie (google it), but is for diagnosing problems (blue screen etc, crashes etc) that may be caused by ram. Not sure if thats your problem.

I'd suggest an over-all software benchie (maybe Sisoft Sandra, again free just google) or even a harddrive benchie to make sure you have everything set up right for your rig. If the benchie reports its performance lower than average for your system, may need soem adjustments (sisoft sandra has an overall sys benchie and will provide recommendations etc). Go HERE and have a look at the free benchies for d/l (also google "utility programs" or benchmark programs" and you'll find more)


Fern

 

[Jmoke]

thanks... ur the man...


that helped me more than anything...


im going to get another gig chip and run dual channel that should allow me to smoke him.... heheh

 

[imported_X]

There's not a lot of performance advantage from having two gigs of RAM rather than one. I would spend the money on a second 6600 GT instead.

 

[Jmoke]

i see... is this good RAM to get?

http://www.buyaib.com/index.as...IEWPROD&ProdID=737


if not, im gonna get another vid card.


or how about this one?

http://www.komusa.com/51kit2pc60du.html

 

[Jmoke]

which one of those would be better to get... please someone help me...

 

[ts3433]

You don't need fast RAM, and 512MB isn't quite enough. If you already have a 1GB stick, you may as well just buy another identical stick instead of trying to sell it and then going to get 2x512MB, unless you have another use for the thing. If you go for new RAM, get 2x512MB Corsair/Mushkin/Crucial value RAM.