whats better memory than GSkill DDR2 PQ 8000 2x2gb

[markreflex]

G.Skill F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ 2x 2GB 1000mhz is great memory for the price and performance
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145

what other DDR2's are better for similar price or more?

 

[nerp]

Do you really need DDR2-1000? G.Skills DDR2-800 kit is much cheaper and more than enough for all but the latest high end chips with high FSB.

 

[markreflex]

that G.Skill 8000 will already do 1000. yes i can can reach 500FSB on a 6400 but i need 1.6Volts to get there.

no i was just curious lol well 550FSB which will be possible on the new boards that will need 1050. i can squeeze that out of the G.Skill but then its at its limit. i seen now 615FSB possible.

as its been proven buying faster will do you no favours as long as the memory takes you to your needed FSB thats it. as the NB is the bottleneck and perfecting the timings gets you tiny increase.

 

[n7]

Looks like newegg's sale is over...that RAM was $100 yesterday, which was a very good deal.

At $150, no thanx, not a good deal.

I have two kits of Mushkin 996580 for 8 GB, & they can do over 550 Mhz in pairs, or around 525 MHz with all four dimms.
I'd argue it's one of the best 2x2 GB DDR2-800 kits out there...only one i've seen with similar or better results is by Geil, & that new Crucial kit, which is still too new to say for sure.

 

[markreflex]

well it still cheap. i am in Uk. theres only place that sells Mushkin in the whole of the Uk amazingly.

Have you heard of cell shock memory? they have a 8 layered pcb. Micron D9GKX chips.
http://www.memoryc.com/compute...1000mhzpc28000cl4.html

I found these CL4 should be good
http://www.memoryc.com/product...Channel_kit/index.html

Those Mushkin Redline 2gb kits are a crazy price certainly not worth paying that! They 5x the price of others. Could because they only ones selling them here.

2Gb Patriot ELK DDR2 PC2-8500 use 2.6v as standard.

 

[n7]

Okay, now i'm a bit confused.

Obviously, American pricing isn't going to matter in your case, sorry.

Shoulda mentioned that in your OP

Are you looking for 2x1 GB or 2x2 GB though?

The high end 2x1 GB kits will certainly outclock the 2x2 GB kits, no quesiton on that.

But you can get 2x2 for pretty comparable pricing these days, so i tend to prefer recommending that.

 

[Big Lar]

Its back down to $100 again today. Nice stuff, just ordered some.

Larry

 

[roastin nugs]

bought some of this as well. can't beat it for 99 bucks

 

[Athlongamer]

I just bought this same ram like 4 days ago.

I get it and install it in this Asus P5N X38 mobo I just got, and it won't install windows. Pass POST just fine and then boot from CD but I get the blue screen of death after basic drivers load and it's about to boot into the Windows GUI setup.

I realized I had both sticks installed then took 1 out and tried intalling windows again and the same thing happened.

After doing this I figured there is no way I have 2 bad sticks of RAM so I'm guessing this is a mobo problem?

Can anyone shed some light on this issue? I'm thinking bad mobo or RAM/Mobo compatibility.

E6750 3.0 CPU
Asus P5N x38 mobo

PS. Also I looked on the GSkill website and they said for the Asus P5NB mobo you have to down clock the CPU FSB to 313MHz to get the ram to run at PC1000. Knowing that they're not referring to my mobo model I tried anyway and still had no luck. Then tried again after downlocking the RAM and CPU together...

 

[Big Lar]

Did you check the voltage of the new ram in bios?

Larry

 

[markreflex]

@Athlongamer
you have to first run this memory at 2.1 volts. you might have the timings too tight.

@n7

thanks, i think i go for a 2x2gb as they great price lately.

what do you think will happen to memory prices? will DDR2 keep getting cheaper and cheaper or will the price rise?

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Athlongamer
I just bought this same ram like 4 days ago.

I get it and install it in this Asus P5N X38 mobo I just got, and it won't install windows. Pass POST just fine and then boot from CD but I get the blue screen of death after basic drivers load and it's about to boot into the Windows GUI setup.

I realized I had both sticks installed then took 1 out and tried intalling windows again and the same thing happened.

After doing this I figured there is no way I have 2 bad sticks of RAM so I'm guessing this is a mobo problem?

Can anyone shed some light on this issue? I'm thinking bad mobo or RAM/Mobo compatibility.

E6750 3.0 CPU
Asus P5N x38 mobo

PS. Also I looked on the GSkill website and they said for the Asus P5NB mobo you have to down clock the CPU FSB to 313MHz to get the ram to run at PC1000. Knowing that they're not referring to my mobo model I tried anyway and still had no luck. Then tried again after downlocking the RAM and CPU together...

I'm going to recommend you read what i posted here:
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2165822&enterthread=y

The same things i mentioned there apply in your case also.

You will need to set voltage correctly, the speed you want, & the appropriate timings.
Handy tools will be Memtest86+, HCI Memtest (once in Windows), CPU-Z, & MemSet.

I'd suggest setting everything up correctly in the bios (yes, that pretty much has to be done for your kit; high end kits rarely will work well on auto settings), & then running Memtest86+.

If it passes that for a couple hours, then you can try installing Windows, & go from there.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: markreflex
@n7

thanks, i think i go for a 2x2gb as they great price lately.

what do you think will happen to memory prices? will DDR2 keep getting cheaper and cheaper or will the price rise?

I don't believe we will see them go much lower really.
Maybe somewhat, but pricing hasn't changed all that much in the last couple months really, aside from those companies that hadn't lowered their prices yet catching up.

You can track things somewhat here
http://www.dramexchange.com/

I do feel prices will go up slightly, as DDR3 becomes more mainstream.

But i'd like to hope DDR2 prices stay decent for a while still

 

[aussiestilgar]

Does the GSKILL kit do 450MHz at cas 4? I've heard Team Xtreem memory is good, their DDR2-800 2x2 kit kit memory is $99.99 too, less if on sale.

 

[n7]

CAS 4 is difficult once you get up in speed with 2x2 GB kits.

I would not count on most 2x2 GB kit hitting DDR2-900 CAS 4.

Some certainly may, but i'd say it's going to require some luck.

For 2x2 GB kits, i'd say you're better off trying for max speeds 5-5-5 vs. lower speeds 4-4-4, but you can do your own benches to determine which you prefer of course

 

[Athlongamer]

Thanks for your replys they are helping; However I don't know much about memory timings. I know how to set them and the voltage I just don't know that if my main timings are 5-5-5-15 what to change it to or what not to change it to. And the same goes for the subsequent timings or the secondary timings. I do see in BIOS where to change them all and I've been messing around with them just changing them to random settings and haven't had much luck (didn't expect to). I've never had to change any memory times in the past nor have I had the desire to OC ram so I may need a bit more help. I did notice that I think the slower I set the times I had a better chance to get the PC to boot, but I guess thats a given.

Could anyone with this same mobo and ram just post all your RAM times so that I could just match them?

n7 I did read the post that you linked, and it kinda helped I guess but I don't really know what i'm doing when it comes to RAM times. I also never saw anything about TRFC. Could you shed some light?

 

[n7]

If you wish to run your kit at it's default speed of 500 MHz (DDR2-1000), you'll need to have TRFC set to around 48-50+, or i'd actually set it even looser then tighten it later.

If you want help on specific timings, post some screenies of MemSet, CPU-Z's RAM tab, & perhaps a picture of the bios screens pertaining to RAM timings & ratios.

 

[Athlongamer]

I can't get any screenshots I cannot get windows to load, the only thing I can do is take pictures of the BIOS and post them which is what i'll do when I get home in the next couple hours.

There is a setting that has like 20 thru 42 for the ram which might be that TRFC setting you're talking about. But the highest I can set it manually is only 42?

EDIT

Pics
*Note- It still fails at these timings posted below, I also tried again with the same timings but with the voltage at 2.1V and it still failed....I have now gotten an RMA number and I'm thinking of returning the mobo unless I can get some kinda results soon

Error after trying to load Windows XP

RAM Timings

RAM Voltage

RAM Timings 2

RAM Specs

I should also probably mention that I have reflashed the BIOS to 0602 which is NOT the most current BIOS but I read somewhere that this version solved alot of ppls memory issues. The most recent version is 0605 (which is the next step up from 0602), and I have tried that version but the results are still the same.

 

[Athlongamer]

No Help?

 

[n7]

In those pictures, you have the RAM set to DDR2-1066.

The kit you have is DDR2-1000.

You need to set a lower speed in the RAM ratio options.
Even if you have to underclock it, try that to at least get things going into Windows.

It's entirely possible your RAM could run at 533 MHz, but i'd say we should work on getting it into Windows before trying to overclock it

And yes, "Row Refresh Cycle Time" is indeed TRFC. If 45 is the highest it goes, then leave it there, but if i allows higher, i'd set it even higher if possible.

 

[Athlongamer]

I've tried them all...i'm begining to think something is just flat out wrong with this board.

This is SO frustrating...should I just get different RAM or mobo or what??

If anyone can suggest some RAM that is decent quality, fast, etc... please feel free to post them.

Here is what I just tried last night (this morning)..

Timings

Voltage

I know the voltage says 1.96 but I read that this mobo "over-volts" and the post said to run the RAM at 2.0v you actually need to set it to 1.96v but i've tried them all. 1.96v 2.0v 2.06v and 2.1v

I even downclocked the CPU to 2.6. I also switched up the Row Refresh Cycle Time (TRFC) to different numbers ( 42, 50, 60 and 80) and it still won't work. Also changed HDD's just for the heck of it. I'm sick of this, I either want to get it fix quickly or just return it and buy something different. Anything else I can try?

I really appreciate the help though

 

[n7]

Okay that's definitely messed up.

Have you tried just one dimm with those low speeds (i see you mention you tried one earlier)?
Perhaps one is defective?

Something's definitely wrong if you can't even boot at those heavily underclocked settings.

I'd also suggest running Memtest86+ just to see what happens.

It certainly would seem like it's RAM, but who knows, something else could be causing the BSODs...

 

[Athlongamer]

Yes I have tried both sticks of ram that I have in different DIMM slots and it still just does the same thing.

But in that case could it be bad ram or a bad mobo?

What are the chances of me having 1 bad mobo vs. having 2 bad sticks of ram?

 

[markreflex]

you know i heard you say run TRFC over 50 on 2Gb sticks which is good advice but i managed to run the sticks at 1100 on 42 stable as it didnt have over 42

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: markreflex
you know i heard you say run TRFC over 50 on 2Gb sticks which is good advice but i managed to run the sticks at 1100 on 42 stable as it didnt have over 42

Excellent! :thumbsup:

I suggest loosening TRFC initially...then tighten it as much as can be once you've reached your desired overclock

Obviously, in your case you were very lucky.

I have enough first hand experience with TRFC being a crippling factor.
It's the whole reason i got my DFi, since my P5B-D wouldn't do over 42 unless set to SPD, which meant i couldn't even hit 500 MHz until running SPD.