the big upgrade after 4 years

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pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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ribbon13

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Are you planning on upgrading anything else in the near future? Like to an AMD64 platform? If not, the corsair would be my choice just because I've dealt with thier RMA dept many times, and their support has always been excellent.

But that's not a dual channel board anyway right? Why not get a 1GB stick so when you upgrade later, you can reuse it?
 
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pitupepito2000

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Originally posted by: ribbon13
Are you planning on upgrading anything else in the near future? Like to an AMD64 platform? If not, the corsair would be my choice just because I've dealt with thier RMA dept many times, and their support has always been excellent.

But that's not a dual channel board anyway right? Why not get a 1GB stick so when you upgrade later, you can reuse it?
Click to expand...
Thanks for your opinion. Do you happen to know how much of a difference in performace does a heat spread make?
 
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Varun

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Aug 18, 2002
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Heat spreaders don't do very much, and I wouldn't pick RAM based on if it has it or not. If it does, bonus
 
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pitupepito2000

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I've been doing a bit of reading. But one thing that I've been having problem finding good unbiased answer to the following question:
How much of a difference in performance(if not overclocking or gaming, mostly used as desktop/server) would the higher-up types of Corsair or Patriotic ram provide?

Thanks,
pitupepito
 
Cdubneeddeal

Cdubneeddeal

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Oct 22, 2003
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Originally posted by: pitupepito2000
I've been doing a bit of reading. But one thing that I've been having problem finding good unbiased answer to the following question:
How much of a difference in performance(if not overclocking or gaming, mostly used as desktop/server) would the higher-up types of Corsair or Patriotic ram provide?

Thanks,
pitupepito
Click to expand...

To tell you the truth..I never saw a big increase in overall performance with higher "quality" brand names over say KVR or the like. However, I did notice a huge in increase in performance upgrading to 2 gigs of memory.
 
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pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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Originally posted by: ribbon13
The choice of high-performance used to be based a lot on cost, but that really isn't an issue anymore.

$100 - Gigram DDR400 1GB stick
$130 - G.Skill DDR500 1GB stick
Click to expand...
Yes, I was looking at this too. Since my motherboard is old, do you think that it would make a difference wether I put a higher peformance? I'm a college student, so $30 streches out a long way. So I am trying to analyze how much would be the different between DDR400 and DDR500? I mean is it a 10%, 30% or 50% increase in performance?

By the way this is the information about memory support provided by the manufacturer of my motherboard:

Main Memory
? Three 184-pin DDR DIMM.
? Maximum memory size up to 3GB.
? Supports 2.5v DDR 200/266/333 SDRAM DIMM.
 
Cdubneeddeal

Cdubneeddeal

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Oct 22, 2003
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Originally posted by: alimoalem
Originally posted by: Cdubneeddeal
However, I did notice a huge in increase in performance upgrading to 2 gigs of memory.
Click to expand...

kinda obvious isn't it?
Click to expand...

Bad night tonight? You sure have been crapping alot tonight. Try to stick on subject, thank you.
 
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ribbon13

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Feb 1, 2005
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If that extra $30 cuts into your food supply or the like, definately just get DDR400. If you're that tight on money, you probably aren't going to be able to upgrade to anything that will make good use of it anytime soon.
 
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pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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Originally posted by: ribbon13
If that extra $30 cuts into your food supply or the like, definately just get DDR400. If you're that tight on money, you probably aren't going to be able to upgrade to anything that will make good use of it anytime soon.
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You hit the nail on the head. Because of my motherboard, processor, and video card are all pretty outdated I would have to spend quite a bit of money to update them to newer components. I just thought that the ram would be a nice upgrade since it would put some new life into my current machine.

Right Now I only have 66MB of free physical ram out of 256MB, and I am using 220MB of swap. Since some of the apps that I use are for editing pictures, I also use this machine as a server plus desktop I almos always have around 60MB of free physical ram and I have quite a bit of swap being used :(
 
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ribbon13

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Well, you'll probably want to take out the mushkin depending on its specs, and run the DDR400 at the same FSB as your CPU (266) with the tightest timings that are stable, but the 2.5v will limit you I'd imagine. But 266 is pretty slow, so you'll probably be able to aim for 2-2-2-11
 
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pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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How can I find out the model and specs of my current mushkin ram without having to take it out of the box?
 
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ribbon13

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You can't find the model, but you can find the timings (wasn't thinking, thanks DAjello). Its likely (given the age your your mobo and you probably got it around the same time?) not going to be something you'll want to keep in there with your 1GB module. 1GB with tight timings will most definately be better than 1.25GB with loose timings.

Edit: corrected. see below.
 
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pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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Ok,

I rebooted and took a look at the BIOS. YOyoYOhowsDAjello thanks for the link, but I don't use windows, so I can't run that program. Below is the information that I gathered from the BIOS settings:
System Clock 133Mhz
SDRAM Timing SPDF
SDRAM Frequency SPDF
SDRAM CAS Latency 2.5
Row pre-charge time 3T
pulse width 6T
reas-to-cas latency 3T
SDRAM-burst length 4QW
SDRAM 1T command disabled
fast command normal

These settings are the default. I'm a little nervous about overclocking and housing my box in the process. I also think that overclocking the machine may be a little bit of a fire hazard in case the machine gets too hot. So what do you guys think of these settings? Are they too conservative? With these settings would the ram modules mentioned above work better with the current stick of ram that I have.
 
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pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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Can somebody tell me if the settings above are too conservative? and if so how could I tweak them? If I get some newer ram should I take this 256MB stick out?

Thanks,
pitupepito
 
Cdubneeddeal

Cdubneeddeal

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Oct 22, 2003
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I think the Corsair will do you just fine. As for the ram timings thus far. Those are about right for your system.
 
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ribbon13

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Feb 1, 2005
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Yeah, you'll want to take it out when you get the 1GB stick, because you can get CAS2 with just the 1GB stick vs CAS2.5 if you keep them both.
 
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pitupepito2000

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Aug 2, 2002
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Originally posted by: ribbon13
Yeah, you'll want to take it out when you get the 1GB stick, because you can get CAS2 with just the 1GB stick vs CAS2.5 if you keep them both.
Click to expand...
Just out of curiosity, how did you calculate the CAS2? These are the specs:

Tech Spec
Capacity 1GB (2 x 512MB)
Speed DDR 400 (PC 3200)
Cas Latency 2.5
Timing 2.5 8-4-4
Voltage 2.55V-2.95V
ECC No
Registered/Unbuffered Unbuffered
Heat Spreader Yes

Thanks,
pitupepito
 
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ribbon13

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Feb 1, 2005
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It's DDR400, but the fastest you should/could run it is DDR266 (No point in running at DDR333 if the CPUs FSB isn't 166). Generally, the slower you run the RAM, the tigher the timings you can get.
 
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