What memory should I get?

[Tim]

My ram crapped out tonight, and I'll be returning it to newegg as it was only 11 days old. It was mushkin ddr2-1000. I won't be getting mushkin again.

Can anyone recommend what I should replace it with? I'd like 4gb, and whatever speed is recommended

It's going into an EVGA 680i mb and the processor is the e8400 with the 1333mhz bus.

Newegg links would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[LOUISSSSS]

i feel your pain.. i've had 4/7 ballistix DIMM's that couldn't pass memtest86+ v2.01 for 24 hours. sold my only 2 working sticks and bought the GSkill ddr2 1000 kit and both passed memtest86 and all my other stability tests with a fresh install of XP

 

[DSF]

Are you planning to overclock or not?

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: DSF
Are you planning to overclock or not?

overclock CPU? with his e8400, the DDR2 800 will get him up to 3.6ghz without overclocking the ram. with the DDR2 1000 will get him up to 4.5ghz without overclocking the ram.

overclock RAM? theres no point, run it 1:1 with the FSB, or at most, run it at its rated speed if you're FSB is lower than it, for example, you have DDR2 1000 ram: FSB = 400mhz, SPD multiplier = 2.5x, RAM speed = 1000mhz

 

[Tim]

So you're saying to stay away from the crucial ballistix as well. I had crucial ballistix ddr400 back when, it was good. Unfortunate to hear that they seem to be carp now.

So ddr2-800 would be my ideal speed I'm assuming?

Any other recomendations on brands? I've used patriot ddr2 800, and it was solid... other than that, most of my ram purchases were back in the pc100 and pc133 days

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: theplaidfadSo ddr2-800 would be my ideal speed I'm assuming?

Any other recomendations on brands? I've used patriot ddr2 800, and it was solid... other than that, most of my ram purchases were back in the pc100 and pc133 days

Again, are you overclocking your CPU? If not, DDR2-667 would be fine, but DDR2-800 is just as easy to get your hands on, and about the same price, so you may as well get DDR2-800. Get RAM that's designed to work at 1.8V from a good company like Mushkin, Corsair or G.Skill.

 

[Tim]

Like louis said, I'll probably never take my e8400 over 3.6ghz, so I'm thinking I'll go with the ddr2-800.

I prefer tighter timings, so I'm only looking at 4.4.4.12 sets.

 

[Tim]

Patriot: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820220293
Corsair: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145194

Which one of these two? (Price doesn't matter)

Thanks

 

[DSF]

Of those two I'd probably take the Corsair, but honestly I wouldn't get either one of them. There's a Mushkin kit that's less expensive and has timings around 5-4-4 at 1.8V. With a slight voltage bump I imagine you could get it to 4-4-4 no problem.

To be honest though, timings make minimal real world difference.

 

[driftwood07]

for a 2x1 set i would recommend these. 4-4-4-12 timings, rock solid, and dirt cheap http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145034

for a 2x2 set cant go wrong with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145176

running your e8400 at 400*9=3.6 will work perfectly with either of these.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

MAKE SURE your ddr2 800 is 1.8v...
don't get anything over that!

and just a reminder.. timings don't really mean much the diff between 4-4-4-12 and 5-5-5-15 are very negligible.

 

[driftwood07]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
MAKE SURE your ddr2 800 is 1.8v...
don't get anything over that!

just curiously, what is the reasoning for this? many times higher clocked ram with giant heatsinks for overclocking uses 2.1V (+0.3V in bios) , is there anything wrong with this if heat isnt an issue ?

 

[Tim]

Originally posted by: driftwood07

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
MAKE SURE your ddr2 800 is 1.8v...
don't get anything over that!

just curiously, what is the reasoning for this? many times higher clocked ram with giant heatsinks for overclocking uses 2.1V (+0.3V in bios) , is there anything wrong with this if heat isnt an issue ?

I was also wondering... I ran patriot ddr2-800 at 2.2v rock solid for over a year. Stupid me trys another ram (that fails) after I sold off the patriot.

I ended up getting the corsair I linked too earlier today.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: driftwood07

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
MAKE SURE your ddr2 800 is 1.8v...
don't get anything over that!

just curiously, what is the reasoning for this? many times higher clocked ram with giant heatsinks for overclocking uses 2.1V (+0.3V in bios) , is there anything wrong with this if heat isnt an issue ?

It's mostly a matter of compatibility. If you want to go in and manually adjust the voltage, there's nothing really wrong with it.

Browsing this and other forums, the issue of people who don't know what they're doing getting memory errors due to low voltage comes up fairly often. For people who aren't willing/don't realize they need to adjust memory voltage, I recommend 1.8V. If you know what you're doing, 2.0-2.1V isn't bad. Personally, I wouldn't go above 2.1V. Just seems like you're asking for premature failure.

 

[n7]

How exactly did the Mushkin crap out?

I hate to say, but getting 2x2 GB kits stable on many motherboards requires some tweaking, especially with higher end RAM like you had.

Was the RAM stability tested from the start...or did you just notice it was causing issues recently?

Details would be nice.

 

[Tim]

Originally posted by: n7
How exactly did the Mushkin crap out?

I hate to say, but getting 2x2 GB kits stable on many motherboards requires some tweaking, especially with higher end RAM like you had.

Was the RAM stability tested from the start...or did you just notice it was causing issues recently?

Details would be nice.

The ram was fine for the first week @ 1000mhz w/ 5.5.5.15 timings @ 2.1v.
It passed memtest @ these settings.
Week 2 I started getting blue screens, The ram failed windows memory diagnostics and memtest at the above mentioned settings. I back the ram down to 800mhz, left the timings the same, and tried varios voltages between 1.8 and 2.0 with the same results.

Cliff notes:
Bought ram,
Ram died,
Already purcahsed new ram and RMA'ed the crud-ram.

 

[IronGeek]

theplaidfad, what ram did you get? How did it work out? As an aside, any 680i-owners buying the corsair ram you mentioned above,

should make note of the following commentary by a fellow eVGA 680i user:

Other Thoughts: as soon as i put this ram into my pc, everything became unstable. i set the timings to Corsair's stats of 4-4-4-12 with 2.1v. almost sent them back RMA. then did some digging on them. found with my MB, EVGA 680i, there was a fix. set memory SLI to enable with CPU0% and the voltage at 2.0v. set timings to 4-4-4-12-2t. once i did this my system became completly stable. no crashes since. if you are going to OC them then you would have to change your settings accordingly. this would be for non-OC. hope this helps some of you. great memory for a good price.

Btw, I'm shopping for 8MB for my rig, (eVGA 680i, Q6600,) & would welcome any additional tips. Thanks!