RAM question

MegaCharger

Member
Apr 17, 2003
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I'll be getting the parts for my new rig from newegg next week. I'm going for 3.0Ghz, 9700 Pro, 1gig of DDR and a canterwood board. For the mobo I'll probably go with Gigabyte's since i really like the built-in lan thing, I don't have to wet myself trying to find a good ethernet card for my dsl then :) I'm unsure what RAM to get though. I know I'll need a whole gig, because I'll be going to college doing a load of 3D and video and stuff. Right now I'm thinking maybe I should get the OCZ DDR400 512x2, or the Geil DDR433 512x2. Both around the same price, the $20 isn't much to shell out if it works well. I'm looking for stability here, I value it over performance, also I don't OC. So which one should I go for????
 

EeyoreX

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2002
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Honestly, I have no personal experience with either companies RAM. I have read quite a bit about them not being all that good however. I like Corsair and find their RAM stable as all get out. Crucial also seems good (haven't used it for years). Just my $.02

\Dan
 

RyanVM

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
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Why not go with Corsair or Mushkin? Both are well established as reliable brands. OCZ has a rather shady past to put it nicely and Geil doesn't have much of a reputation at all.
 

capricorn

Senior member
May 8, 2003
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I'll just echo the others in saying that you should consider Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, and even Kingston - probably in that order. I've got those brands in computers I have running now, and they've all worked well. Corsair XMS has impressed me the most as I was able to overclock it the most and still have it work. I don't generally run overclocked though as I don't see a whole lot of difference between 200 fps and 170 fps in most games. :) Overclock-ability isn't the only factor though. I've got more Crucial memory by far in my computers (and laser printer) and I've put it in friend's computers because it just seems to work.

-cap
 

MegaCharger

Member
Apr 17, 2003
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Hmm okay. But I've heard Corsair's XMS DDR400 twin packs are not compatable with the canterwood boards, and I think I want to avoid that headache. The guy at Corsair's forum tell people to get DDR433 from them, is that a good advice for me as well? Honestly I'm not that rich, DDR433 is much more expensive and don't have that much of an improvement over DDR400. And Corsair's RAMs are usually more expensive. So I guess I'll have to check out Crucial's DDR400 twin packs. Thanks for the advice guys.

Edit: I just checked newegg(the only place I want to buy from, at this time because the person who will be lending me his credit card is very paranoid about online buying) and found of the 4 brands that you named only Corsair have twin 1gb DDR400 packs. Should I go with the one with black heat spreader or the one with platinum silver heat spreader? They are the same price. Will these RAMs work with Gigabyte's GA-8KNXP non ultra board?
 

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
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Originally posted by: MegaCharger
Hmm okay. But I've heard Corsair's XMS DDR400 twin packs are not compatable with the canterwood boards, and I think I want to avoid that headache. The guy at Corsair's forum tell people to get DDR433 from them, is that a good advice for me as well? Honestly I'm not that rich, DDR433 is much more expensive and don't have that much of an improvement over DDR400. And Corsair's RAMs are usually more expensive. So I guess I'll have to check out Crucial's DDR400 twin packs. Thanks for the advice guys.

Edit: I just checked newegg(the only place I want to buy from, at this time because the person who will be lending me his credit card is very paranoid about online buying) and found of the 4 brands that you named only Corsair have twin 1gb DDR400 packs. Should I go with the one with black heat spreader or the one with platinum silver heat spreader? They are the same price. Will these RAMs work with Gigabyte's GA-8KNXP non ultra board?

if i am correct, the problem only happens when you set the ram settings to SPD
 

Actaeon

Diamond Member
Dec 28, 2000
8,657
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Originally posted by: MegaCharger
Hmm okay. But I've heard Corsair's XMS DDR400 twin packs are not compatable with the canterwood boards, and I think I want to avoid that headache. The guy at Corsair's forum tell people to get DDR433 from them, is that a good advice for me as well? Honestly I'm not that rich, DDR433 is much more expensive and don't have that much of an improvement over DDR400. And Corsair's RAMs are usually more expensive. So I guess I'll have to check out Crucial's DDR400 twin packs. Thanks for the advice guys.

Edit: I just checked newegg(the only place I want to buy from, at this time because the person who will be lending me his credit card is very paranoid about online buying) and found of the 4 brands that you named only Corsair have twin 1gb DDR400 packs. Should I go with the one with black heat spreader or the one with platinum silver heat spreader? They are the same price. Will these RAMs work with Gigabyte's GA-8KNXP non ultra board?

Heatspreaders are just for show, no real function. Which ever you think looks better you should go with.
 

MegaCharger

Member
Apr 17, 2003
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Originally posted by: bgeh
Originally posted by: MegaCharger
Hmm okay. But I've heard Corsair's XMS DDR400 twin packs are not compatable with the canterwood boards, and I think I want to avoid that headache. The guy at Corsair's forum tell people to get DDR433 from them, is that a good advice for me as well? Honestly I'm not that rich, DDR433 is much more expensive and don't have that much of an improvement over DDR400. And Corsair's RAMs are usually more expensive. So I guess I'll have to check out Crucial's DDR400 twin packs. Thanks for the advice guys.

Edit: I just checked newegg(the only place I want to buy from, at this time because the person who will be lending me his credit card is very paranoid about online buying) and found of the 4 brands that you named only Corsair have twin 1gb DDR400 packs. Should I go with the one with black heat spreader or the one with platinum silver heat spreader? They are the same price. Will these RAMs work with Gigabyte's GA-8KNXP non ultra board?

if i am correct, the problem only happens when you set the ram settings to SPD

What is SPD? And how do you set it to not be SPD?
 

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
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you can change it in the bios.
for gigabyte i think you must press CTRL+F1