RAM Question/Recommendation

[Rakewell]

Greetings All,

I have a home-made rig with an a8n-sli deluxe sporting 2X512 OCZ PC3700 466 MZ
Dual Channel sticks, and I need to add another Gig.

Can anyone suggest decent and affordable ram to fill in the other Dual Channel Slot on my mobo? I do game a lot, encode movies and mp3s, but I don't OC my ram. I just want to add some better performance.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,

Rakewell

 

[theMan]

using 4 sticks will hurt performance a bit. but, you should get corsair value, or ocz value for 2x1gb.

 

[Rakewell]

thanks for the quick reply!

4 sticks will hurt performance how... I should swap out my memory and put in 2X1 GB instead, eh?

Thanks mate,

Rakewell

 

[imported_rod]

Get another two sticks of that stuff, or sell it and buy two new 1GB sticks. But don't mix types of RAM.

If you do go to four sticks, you will have to run your ram at 2T, rather than 1T, which will decrease performance by a few %. But the doubled ram will increase the performance more than enough to compensate.

Though, if you have a winchester core, rather than a venice core, you will have to run your ram at 333MHz instead of 400MHz, which will hurt performance even more. Do you know what core CPU you have? If not, you can find out using CPU-Z.

RoD

 

[Rakewell]

Damn...

I do have winchester core. I spent a pretty penny on that ram, like $300! I should have just gone for budget 2 GB.

I guess I will sell it via eBay. Any recommendations on a good, but relatively cheap dual channel set, and where to get it, Rod?

Thanks,

Rakewell

 

[Rakewell]

what do you guys think of Mushkin?

 

[imported_rod]

I have a winchester too. I was looking at getting another GB of ram, but i decided i'd wait until i upgrade to a new processor(just waiting until X2's drop in price), so i don't have to go and sell my current ram.

I've never used Mushkin, but a number of people around here do. Otherwise, Corsair and OCZ both seem to be highly reccomended.

RoD

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Yeah, so the lesson learned is "Don't waste tons of money on performance RAM". Sell that stuff and get 2x1GB Value RAM. There are lots of great RAM manufacturers that make good value RAM, including Corsair, OCZ, Mushkin, and Crucial just to name a few. There's not much of a difference in performance, so just get whatever's cheapest.

 

[Rakewell]

Hey guys,

OK, it's between to OCZ ram types from Newegg:

OCZ Value Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory
Capacity 2GB (2 x 1GB)
Speed DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Cas Latency 3
Timing 3-4-4-8
Voltage 2.6V
ECC No
Registered/Unbuffered Unbuffered
Heat Spreader No
=$203.44

-or-

OCZ Peroformance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
Capacity 2GB (2 x 1GB)
Speed DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Cas Latency 3
Timing 3-3-3-8
Voltage 2.6V
ECC No
Registered/Unbuffered Unbuffered
Heat Spreader Yes
=$224.43

I game a lot, rip/encode MP3s and movies, and multitask a great deal. Do I really need to spend the extra 20 bucks, or is the value series enough for me? Will I be able to tell enough of a difference between both models?

Also, will my a8n-sli deluxe set my timings better on one model than the other?

Thanks all,

Rakewell

 

[Rakewell]

*bump*

 

[Shenkoa]

Corsair Value Select.