RAM

[amol]

I am currently planning a system using the amd 64 3500+. Since I have seen that memory latencies do not matter much, is it okay to get a 1GB DIMM? i was planning to get 2x512, because 1GB dimm latencies are high, but does it matter?

Thank you

 

[imported_Aelius]

Originally posted by: Amol
I am currently planning a system using the amd 64 3500+. Since I have seen that memory latencies do not matter much, is it okay to get a 1GB DIMM? i was planning to get 2x512, because 1GB dimm latencies are high, but does it matter?

Thank you

Since we are talking about faster RAM I'm assuming that you are looking to do a little overclocking.

Actually latencies do matter quite a bit even on A64. It has been documented that lower latencies do return higher bandwidth values then just simply upping the FSB as high as it goes and not caring what the timings are at.

If timings didn't matter at all then everyone would be buying PC4400 RAM and never looking back. This isn't the case.

What you want is RAM that will go as high as it can in the FSB department and have as tight a timings as you can manage and run it at 1:1 ratio with the CPU.

Not an easy feat. Some PC3200 RAM can run quite well at PC4000 speeds with some half decent timings but only if heavily overclocked by increasing the voltage.

However it's easier to just buy faster RAM that is already rated to run at PC4000ish speeds.

For A64 the OCZ EB line has been the champion in both overclocking and compatibility. On A64 compatibility is a major issue. Only a handful of certain kinds of RAM work well on A64, the others give you poor results the faster the RAM is ran and some won't even run at stock speeds regardless of what you do and even if you do manage to run them at those speeds many of them cause system instability.

Check out my thread for the best RAM for A64. If you plan to overclock then that's what you should get. If not then you can get PC3200 RAM that runs 2,2,2,6 timings.

Here's my thread.

 

[legatech]

http://www20.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040119/index.html
The link will give you info bout memory. latency

First off i'll tell you to make sure whatever memory your'e buying, is fully compatible. In your case with a 939 processor you should go with dual channel memory (512x2).
The lower the latency, the better, and the lower, the more expensive. For performance, timing like 2,3,2,6 or 2,2,2,5(eg kingston hyperx) is good but will cost under 300 bucks. If your'e over clocking it's up to you if you want to buy pc3700 and above memory. For me, I'm using Kingston hyper X 1gig pc3200 with a amd64 3400+ 2200 running @ 2475, 225 fsb memory timing at 2,3,2,6 for benchmarking and for stability (playing games and normal stuff) 2.5,3,3,7

Brands you should look at are Corsair, Kingston, Ocz, Muskin. and you can guess i like kingston.

Do as much research as possible before you make a choice

 

[amol]

right now, i was considering corsair xms twinxl