Whats The Best DDR3 Ram For The ASUS P5Q3 DELUXE

[ANTEC900]

What Is The Best DDR3 Ram For The ASUS P5Q3 DELUXE
The Ram Needs To Be 2x2GB And Under $170

 

[DSF]

Does The Warranty Text Need To Have Every Word Capitalized?

Seriously though, why DDR3?

 

[jvnk]

Originally posted by: DSF
Seriously though, why DDR3?

I assume because that's what the motherboard supports.

If you're questioning that DDR3 is worth it over DDR2 currently, then you are both right and wrong. For the price, it's not worth the performance gain(however, that's changing quickly). For the performance, once DDR3 memory starts reaching clock speeds of 1600MHz and above, benchmarks have shown that it becomes more competitive and even overtakes and eclipses the performance of high-end DDR2. This being because at those clock speeds DDR3 begins to make up for its huge CAS and RAS latencies.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: jvnk

Originally posted by: DSF
Seriously though, why DDR3?

I assume because that's what the motherboard supports.

If you're questioning that DDR3 is worth it over DDR2 currently, then you are both right and wrong. For the price, it's not worth the performance gain(however, that's changing quickly). For the performance, once DDR3 memory starts reaching clock speeds of 1600MHz and above, benchmarks have shown that it becomes more competitive and even overtakes and eclipses the performance of high-end DDR2. This being because at those clock speeds DDR3 begins to make up for its huge CAS and RAS latencies.

I have yet to see a benchmark where there's any meaningful increase in performance with DDR3 on the P45 chipset. Hence, it doesn't justify the extra expense of the $200 motherboard or $150+ RAM when DDR2-800 is as low as $50 for 4GB right now.

Not to mention that capping his budget at $170 just about puts DDR3-1600 out of his price range for the time being.

 

[ANTEC900]

What If I Said I Can Go Up To $220 For DDR3 Ram
And The ASUS P5Q3 DELUXE Only Supports DDR3

 

[jvnk]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: jvnk

Originally posted by: DSF
Seriously though, why DDR3?

I assume because that's what the motherboard supports.

If you're questioning that DDR3 is worth it over DDR2 currently, then you are both right and wrong. For the price, it's not worth the performance gain(however, that's changing quickly). For the performance, once DDR3 memory starts reaching clock speeds of 1600MHz and above, benchmarks have shown that it becomes more competitive and even overtakes and eclipses the performance of high-end DDR2. This being because at those clock speeds DDR3 begins to make up for its huge CAS and RAS latencies.

I have yet to see a benchmark where there's any meaningful increase in performance with DDR3 on the P45 chipset. Hence, it doesn't justify the extra expense of the $200 motherboard or $150+ RAM when DDR2-800 is as low as $50 for 4GB right now.

Hence as I said - it's better for the price.

DSF
Not to mention that capping his budget at $170 just about puts DDR3-1600 out of his price range for the time being.

It looks like he updated his post with that budget - I didn't see that before in my original response or I would have agreed with you.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: ANTEC900
What If I Said I Can Go Up To $220 For DDR3 Ram
And The ASUS P5Q3 DELUXE Only Supports DDR3

I still don't think you've answered why you want DDR3 over DDR2. You could get a nicely equipped DDR2 motherboard for $150 or less, and RAM for $50. That's $200 total, vs. at least $350-400 for your DDR3 setup.

The performance difference between the two is on the order of 5% at the most. Spending twice the money for a performance gain of 5% or less doesn't make sense to me.

 

[jvnk]

I still don't think you've answered why you want DDR3 over DDR2.

I assume this is because he has already purchased the P5Q3.

The performance difference between the two is on the order of 5% at the most. Spending twice the money for a performance gain of 5% or less doesn't make sense to me.

I beg to differ, and I quote the following benchmarks to prove my argument:
http://www.neoseeker.com/Artic...ws/ddr2_vs_ddr3/7.html

Browsing through the other sections of the review you can see what I'm talking about. Once clock speeds ~1600MHz and above are reached in DDR3, it overcomes its high CAS/RAS latencies to overtake high end DDR2 speeds. Considering there is DDR3@2000MHz available on the market, I think it would be safe to conclude that it is quite a bit faster than high end DDR2(I don't believe those benchmarks look at DDR2@1600, however, which is also available, so I may be wrong). That benchmarking article is also over a year old, so things have undoubtedly changed since then.

Note: Those benchmarks even use the OP's motherboard.

The days of DDR2 aren't really numbered, but it's time to stop thinking that DDR3 isn't competitive with DDR2. Granted, it's a lot more expensive, but given the price constraints that the OP has provided, it is well within his budget to purchase some decent DDR3 RAM at 2000MHz.

@ANTEC900, see the following:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...202000%20(PC3%2016000)

2GB of OCZ Platinum DDR3 2000 is only $170.

 

[DSF]

Looking at the same article, let's compare the difference in gaming, rather than a synthetic benchmark:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Artic...s/ddr2_vs_ddr3/11.html

The advantage drops to about 3%, which is roughly 2 frames out of 60. Hardly impressive for a $200 premium.

What about encoding you ask?

http://www.neoseeker.com/Artic...s/ddr2_vs_ddr3/10.html

The advantage is even smaller. Benchmarks like Sandra don't dictate how fast your computer is in real-world tasks.

 

[Yellowbeard]

LOL.....why do so many DDR3 threads motivate people to start criticizing the OPs choice of equipment?

Originally posted by: ANTEC900
What If I Said I Can Go Up To $220 For DDR3 Ram
And The ASUS P5Q3 DELUXE Only Supports DDR3

There are lots of DDR3 kits in your price range now. Just find the brand you are comfortable with in your price range at your favorite vendor. If you have compatibility questions, ask the RAM manufacturer.

Example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...me=%24200%20-%20%24300

 

[jvnk]

Originally posted by: DSF
The advantage is even smaller. Benchmarks like Sandra don't dictate how fast your computer is in real-world tasks.

I didn't even quote the Sandra benchmarks, since those are usually CPU benchmarks and RAM performance would have little affect on it.

Anyways, we've derailed the kid's thread quite a bit(granted, I started it, but still). It's worth keeping your mind open about DDR3(as I keep in mind that DDR2 is still quite fast and loads cheaper, hell I'll be using it in my next build) - especially since those benchmarks are more than a year old.

What we should focus on now is what RAM the guy should buy. I posted a link that filtered desktop memory down to DDR3@2000MHz, which is a good start. From there, the OP should consider refining it to match manufacturers he prefers.