Ram Quality?

[Phuct]

This is a first post so if anything is not in accordance to rules written or otherwise plz be gentle...

Anyway, I'm looking to Upgrade my system soon, probably to an amd thunderbird or duron (overclocked of course) rig. What i'm wondering is how much of a difference does ram quality really make. I was doing some reading and there seemed to be four grades mentioned, low,mid,high and elite(there may be some other standard naming convention that i'm unaware of). Apart from the obvious difference in price, what benefits do the higher grades have? And What is the optimal grade to price point? Am i going to be doing myself a disservice by bying low or mid grade? Ideally i'd buy the highest grade possible but money is somewhat of an issue in the impending updgrade. Any advice, sage or otherwise would be appreciated.

 

[Ben88]

If you are going to overclock for sure, then my advice to you is to not skimp on ram. Expect to pay at least $65-70 for an acceptable 128mb stick of ram.

 

[Insomnium]

First, you have to decide what type of AMD chipset you'll be running. If it's a KT133 on which the processor will be running at 100mhz FSB by default, then you don't need ultra high quality Ram, just PC133 ram that will work with your chipset. If you plan on overclocking on an intel chipset on which you'll be reaching fsb speeds in excess of 133mhz, then you should definitely get higher quality ram based on Infineon or Mosel chips. I dont know what kind of budget you have, but a Stick of PC133 Infineon Cas2 sells for $75 from Memman and Mosel sells for $85. These are overclocker friendly so I would recommend that you look into those. Even if you are running a KT133, I'd get the $75 Infineon Cas2 stick anyway.

Mushkin also makes terrific ram, but it's more pricey.

 

[Viperoni]

The TinyBGA (Tbga) ram is also top notch stuff and is rather cheap as well.
For your overclocked system, I'd recommend something pc133, depending on how much you overclock the FSB.

 

[Technonut]

If you intend to run and overclock a KT133 board, and want good performance, get quality RAM. I run my RAM on an ABIT KT7 at 150MHz CAS2 Turbo. (FSB 112/37 + 1 = 113, RAM at Host CLK (113) + PCI CLK (37) = 150MHz)

 

[yuckck]

how good is Buffalo ram?

 

[NAC]

I'd definitely spend the extra money on good ram if you are going to overclock the bus above 133. My generic pc133 memory doesn't run much above 133mhz. I've got a PIII 550 - if I underclock the memory to fsb-33, the cpu seems to run happily at 825. But Quake 3 and other benchmarks are happier with the fsb and memory at 133, and cpu at 733; than the fsb at 150, memory at 117 and cpu at 825. So I'm losing about 12% of real performance for just a little bit of money savings.

Next time I buy, I'll get crucial memory. www.crucial.com No direct experience, but I've read good things. 128 megs cas2 memory is $73 + $5.5 shipping now.

cas 2 is faster than cas 3.

 

[Technonut]

I suggest checking out John's Thread in the For Sale forum. John is a highly respected trader that is selling Mosel Vitelic PC143 128MB sticks ( The same RAM as Mushkin's High Performance Rev2 ) for $79.95 shipped. This RAM usually has no problem reaching 150MHz + at CAS2.

 

[Phuct]

Thanx for the advice guys. Yeah, i suppose ram really is onna those things it's best not to skimp on. I really should have assumed that right from the beggining, but it's always good to hear it from those who know...I guess what i get will really depend on the mobo/cpu i get and whether i decide to take the overclock route. I probably will though seeing as to the price/performance ratio it affords. I'll just have to keep my eye's open for a deal on some good ram. I doubt i'll have trouble finding one. Thanx again.

 

[ndee]

How is elephant ram?