RAM naming conventions...

[MexicanNinja]

I have been looking around for new motherboards and have decided to go with the GIGABYTE "GA-K8NF-9" motherboard. However, the next step eludes me, trying to find the right RAM for the motherboard.

It says that it is 4x DIMM Supports dual channel DDR266/333/400 Max 4GB. Now i wanted to buy ddr 400, but what is the pc#### of it? is PC-4000? Damn the funky naming conventions of it...

I have looked online for the motherboard manual but it wasn't much help.

I was going for 2 sticks of ram it so i can use the duel channel ability of the motherboard. I was thinking about 512 total to start with since i am on a budget.

Thanks

 

[joelslaw]

ddr400 = pc3200

 

[MexicanNinja]

Thanks. Now to find good 'ol cheap ram...

 

[joelslaw]

also found this:

PC1600 - 1.600GB/s bandwidth (8 x 100 x 2), runs at DDR-200

PC2100 - 2.128GB/s bandwidth (8 x 133 x 2), runs at DDR-266

PC2400 - 2.400GB/s bandwidth (8 x 150 x 2), runs at DDR-300

PC2700 - 2.656GB/s bandwidth (8 x 166 x 2), runs at DDR-333

PC3200 - 3.200GB/s bandwidth (8 x 200 x 2), runs at DDR-400

RAMBUS PC800 - 3.200GB/s bandwidth (2-bytes x 800Mhz x 2 RIMMS)

RAMBUS PC1066 - 4.26GB/s bandwidth (2-bytes x 1066MHz x 2 RIMMS)

Found it here:

http://www.hexus.co.uk/content...QmdXJsX2hpc3Rvcnk9LTI=

 

[joelslaw]

mexican ninja he he he, that's great!!! :laugh:

 

[ts3433]

Originally posted by: MexicanNinja
Thanks. Now to find good 'ol cheap ram...

Corsair Value Select and Mushkin Value do fine. I would recommend getting 2x512 for games--they really benefit from a gig of RAM, and this option is only around $140.

As said earlier, the bandwidth rating (PC____) of DDR memory is produced by multiplying the speed rating (DDR___) by eight.

 

[joelslaw]

I personally like PDP ram. for the same amount you'd pay for the bargin ram mentioned above you could get the good stuff from PDP.

 

[ts3433]

Link for stuff of theirs around $140? Their 2-3-2-{5 or 6} (this stuff isn't even the TCCD) for 2x512 was around $180, last I checked. Corsair and Mushkin are by no means low-quality RAM, either.

 

[joelslaw]

no no, you misunderstand. i'm not putting down either of those companies (in fact I personally think corsair is the best of the best) By the good stuff I meant timings. Example: yes the 23251t is $180, but any corsair with anywhere near those timings will cost over $210 (unless i'm mistaken) The ram you were refering to (value select) is mostly 2.5 and 3 (once again, unless I'm mistaken) As far as TCCD goes, I haven't researched that side of things too much. But from what I've read it doesn't seem too important. So all I am saying is for 40 more you can go with the CAS 2 instead of CAS 2.5 or 3. Fair enough?

 

[ts3433]

Point's still moot. Timings themselves make very little difference in performance (besides 1T/2T command rate, and even then, maybe only when overclocking)--in a series of various tests (including lots of gaming applications), the difference between CL3 and CL2 was usually less than 3%, which is unnoticeable, if not within a reasonably fair margin of error.

 

[joelslaw]

point taken.

you have any links to somewhere that I can read about TCCD? I've been searching and can't find anything too insiteful.

 

[ts3433]

TCCD is a type of memory chip made by Samsung. It is considered the best overclocking RAM chip at the moment, and possibly the best of all DDR chips (besides maybe BH-5, though TCCD doesn't require insane voltage as much). OCZ Platinum Revision 2 uses these chips, but you can get basically the same stuff for cheaper. G.skill PC4400 CL2.5 has these chips with a great Brainpower PCB to overclock them, and Patriot's offering is the one "with XBL," probably their fancy term for 2-2-2-5 timings. (This is very important for the overclocker to take note of, as the 2-3-2-5 does not use TCCD.)

However, in many situations, overclocking RAM isn't even necessary for a CPU overclock to have good performance, at least on a S939 A64. Read Zebo's thread in CPU/OC for more on that.

 

[aplefka]

I thought the RAM was also based on the CPU, but I could be mistaken (I didn't read all of post, someone may have mentioned this).

 

[MisterChief]

Some MoBo's have a "support matrix", which will run RAM at speeds accorinding to the FSB. As an example the 865PE Neo2-V has a matrix like this:

DDR266-400FSB
DDR333-533FSB
DDR400-800FSB

You can use DDR400 with a lower FSB, but it isn't recommended, because the RAM doesn't run at the speed it was designed for.

 

[ts3433]

The optimal RAM speed to use is based on the FSB speed of the CPU. You want to run synchronously. Match 200MHz RAM with a 200MHz FSB, for example (this would include a 400 FSB Athlon XP, since it's a DDR bus, as well as an 800 FSB P4, because that's a quad-data rate bus). You may as well buy DDR400 for all speeds, though, because it's usually the same price as slower speeds and will carry over to a new rig better.

 

[joelslaw]

thanks for the info ts

 

[MexicanNinja]

Thanks for the info......

Alittle toooo much info....everything flew over the top of my head here...TCCS, CAS, AIEEE!!!!

I was thinking of trying the Cruical Ballistix PC-3200 512 MB stick of ram. Mainly for its $120 price and its from Crucial, but i haven't really read to much into this brand of ram from Cruical. I am tempted to think that this is cruical's response to Corsair's offerings.

Anyways, i am going with the corsair's CMX512-3200C2PRO 512 MB or the Cruical ram mentioned above, pending critics from other members.

Now on a second thought, since the motherboard can either do single or dual channel ram, which mode is faster? i am just curious. For instance, if i buy 1 stick of 512 mb of ram, will it be beaten by 2 sticks of 256 mb ram in dual mode in terms of speed?

 

[ts3433]

As I mentioned before (with a link to some evidence), you don't need to get fancy Ballistix or XMS RAM even if overclocking. With a S939 you will want to run dual channel, but for $20 more than that stick of Ballistix you can have a gig of Corsair or Mushkin value RAM (CL2.5). The gig of slightly slower RAM will be much better than half a gig of slightly faster RAM.

EDIT: Oops, there never was any link. LINK

 

[joelslaw]

agreed

 

[MexicanNinja]

Go 1 gig of ram..


yummy...


Also a very interesting read. Thanks.