OCZ EL Gold VX PC-4000 (DDR500) a good choice for my new OC rig?

[ao]

Just looking for your opinions guys. Planning on throwing this in with a XFX 6800 GT, an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego, and a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI. Good choice or am I inevitably paying too much here? If so, any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[sangyup81]

from results I've seen, the 3200 version does just as well

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: ao
Just looking for your opinions guys. Planning on throwing this in with a XFX 6800 GT, an AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego, and a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI. Good choice or am I inevitably paying too much here? If so, any other suggestions? Thanks in advance.

no. The OCZ ram needs 3.3v to reach the rated speeds. The only way you can get those voltages with out a OCZ booster, or volt modding your mobo, is to buy a DFI NF4 mobo. sorry.

If you're set on that mobo, really your best option is to buy some TCCD ram. They operate decently without having to go over 2.9v or so...

 

[MobiusPizza]

The DFi nForce 4 boards have best support in terms of the voltage there.
If you are paying that much for CPU anyway I wouldn't criticise about the price of the ram.

I wouldn't recommand any of FX series CPU and high end RAM. They makes little difference on performance yet having premius cost. Value Ram and non FX CPU is better here

 

[Elfear]

If you have a high multiplier (not sure what the 3700+ has) and a decent board than it might be worth it. If you plan on mostly benching than probably yes. If you plan on gaming with it I'd say probably not.

I was going to get some of the VX until I started thinking about pumping 3.3-3.5V through it 24/7. Even with active cooling that's a little scary. You could just lower the voltage for everyday stuff and raise it again when you need the performance, but than you still have 3.3-3.5V running through your ram for long periods (I don't know about you but some of our lan parties go for 10+ hours) and with the DFI board you have to shift a jumper over to enable voltage over 3.2V. So if you switch the jumper over to get the higher voltage capabilites you can lower the voltage back down for everyday use but than the mosfets absorb the extra voltage and can heat up pretty quickly. Than you're stuck switching the jumper over everytime you want to lower the voltage. Not a huge deal but kind of a pain. I'm not sure how it works with the OCZ Booster, maybe it's less of a hassle.

Personally, I think TCCD ram is the way to go unless you are on a serious budget. You can find good ram with the brainpower pcb's for ~$225. That would save you $45 over the PC4000 VX or $85 if you have to buy the Booster with it.

I also highly recommend the Ballistix ram. Mine will do 2.5-2-2-7@250MHz. That's dang near what OCZ VX will do and at only 2.9V.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

OCZ now sells "Value VX" for just over $100 for 1gb, in recent reviews it clocks almost as well as the VX, but it also requires voltage in the 3.2-3.5 range.

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: Elfear
I was going to get some of the VX until I started thinking about pumping 3.3-3.5V through it 24/7. Even with active cooling that's a little scary. You could just lower the voltage for everyday stuff and raise it again when you need the performance, but than you still have 3.3-3.5V running through your ram for long periods (I don't know about you but some of our lan parties go for 10+ hours) and with the DFI board you have to shift a jumper over to enable voltage over 3.2V. So if you switch the jumper over to get the higher voltage capabilites you can lower the voltage back down for everyday use but than the mosfets absorb the extra voltage and can heat up pretty quickly.

OCZ recommends having a fan blow directly on the RAM when higher voltages are used. And since OCZ warrants the RAM for vdimms up to 3.5, I wouldn't be too concerned about the RAM.

However, there have been some threads on the extreme overclockers forum (sorry, don't have a link), that claim that vdimm higher than about 2.9 correlate with early CPU death. THAT would be my concern with running 3.3+ vdimm 24/7. I was all ready to set up a system with the VX memory. Now I wouldn't risk it.

 

[imported_Kensai]

The DFI board is the easiest way to go, but the OCZ memory booster works just as well, though slightly harder.

 

[Conaway]

dfi nf4 sli-dr is what you want if you are going to go with dual video...as stated above the ram you want is rated at 3.3v which is only supported by few boards...the lanparty series will take of what you need for that ram...bump

 

[DfiDude]

Will going from 2.2 ghz to 2.8 on a san diego core be possible with the msi neo4 platinum with some mushkin TCCD ram?

 

[Mucker]

Great stuff here at a great price: http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146355

TCCD on Brainpower PCB with relatively low voltage requirement, 2.85v tops. Maybe good to DDR600????? $180 is a steal on TCCD BP.

m

 

[theMan]

definately get the lanparty. not just for the voltage support, but for everything, it is, in my opinion, the best overclocking board. that is some good ram. i wish i could afford stuff like that!

 

[milkrocks]

My 3200VX is running at 3.4V 24/7 with a simply 80mm fan blowing on them. They are warm but not much warmer than some value ram i have also had in the system.

I like the 2-2-2 timings. I have a feeling the bandwidth and tight timings will be even more important when the dual cores come out (I could be wrong about this - only time will tell). I also suspect that the dual cores might not OC as well (again, just a hunch). I am hoping i can buy the cheapest DC chip (4200+ or 4400+) and get a 10-15% overclock. In this scenario the VX memory will allow for a ton of memory bandwidth without having to lower the CPU multiplier.