Quick & Simple Q concerning RAM

[Jza]

I'm planning on purchasing some new PC-2100 DDR SDRAM sticks for a new PC i'm building. Seems easy at first, but then when I come to the selection page...there are many small little differences each sick has, such as:

Registered or Unbuffered
ECC or Non-parity
Whats the CAS# & CL#

Whats all this and what is the best purchase for a high performance gaming system?

BTW: Crucial or Corsair 😀

 

[Diffusion]

Registered vs Unbuffered makes no difference (tell me if I am wrong here), check your motherboard for compatibility, but if your motherboard supports it, get registered, so it will be supported under the high end boards if you ever upgrade. You want the lowest CAS and CL numbers you can get, typically this will be CAS-2. ECC Slows the memory speeds down by about 5%, but it checks for errors in the memory constantly, it makes sense on a server, but for gaming you dont need it, it will only slow you down.

 

[LuNoTiCK]

I have no clue what registered or unbuffered means truthfully all I know is that most people get unbuffered and non-parity, unless they are running a server, than you get Registered and ECC. The lowest Cas# or CL# is the best, and it's I think 2.5 for the crucial although I hear they are going to make CL2 soon. Crucial is the better choice than corsair.

 

[HansXP]

<< ECC Slows the memory speeds down by about 5%, but it checks for errors in the memory constantly, it makes sense on a server, but for gaming you dont need it, it will only slow you down. >>



No, ECC only slows memory speeds down by 2%. You won't notice the speed difference, but you probably won't notice the error checking either.