Whats up with all these DDR-RAM that don't run to Spec?

[Lyfer]

Or is it user error? The only vendor that seems to have all there sticks running its rated speed is Corsair, but they cost an arm and a leg. I thought Hyper-X was good but some of my friends have had recieved sticks that won't work at its rated (namely Hyper-X PC3500). The newegg user reviews for the Geil/OCZ ram are all over the place, either really good or really bad. What RAM should I get? I don't want to spend more than $230 for 1GB of RAM and would like it to ATLEAST run its rated specs, so far I've had my eyes on Geil PC3500 Ultra 1GB twinpack . I plan on purchasing an Asus P4B800 along with a P4 2.6C and hopefully hit its range of 3.3GHZ that most people are hitting on air. I was first thinking about a pair of Cosair 512MB PC3200C2, but from what I read it can't overclock much beyond 210mhz (Cosair PC3500 and PC3200LL is out of my range).

 

[beatle]

The problem is that PC3500 is not actually a certified specification by... whatever company/organization certifies these ratings. Thus, every chip will just be (in theory) higher quality handpicked ram that can go above and beyond its call of duty.

 

[Lonyo]

JEDEC specification I believe only goes up to PC3200 for non-ECC/registered memory, so anything above is just, as said, overclocked PC3200.

Try finding some TwinMOS PC3200, that might do something good. If it doesn't get quite as high as you want, you could send it back, but I expect TwinMOS will probably be able to get up there, they also do inexpeisive Winbond based sticks which might be worth looking into.

 

[Lyfer]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
JEDEC specification I believe only goes up to PC3200 for non-ECC/registered memory, so anything above is just, as said, overclocked PC3200.

Try finding some TwinMOS PC3200, that might do something good. If it doesn't get quite as high as you want, you could send it back, but I expect TwinMOS will probably be able to get up there, they also do inexpeisive Winbond based sticks which might be worth looking into.

From this thread, most people seem to be hitting 210-220MHZ with the new CH-5 Winbond stuff, but people have recieved bad sticks also. I might look into it, but I don't how well memoryx's RMA process it, with the Geil stuff, if it doesnt run spec, I know newegg's rma is terrific (and one of the reason's why I might give Geil a try).

 

[Tom]

The points already made by others in this thread are the main reason I've decided not to buy any pc3200 memory yet. I think some kind of technical breakthrough is required in order to have affordable dependable pc3200 available, but with the economics of the memory market being what they are I don't know how much money is being spent on development.

 

[pspada]

I've heard of numerous people with the HyperX that are having difficulties, thought I don't know if it's just that it does not overclock well, or that it's not running up to spec at all.

I personally have had no problems with the OCZ PC3200 I got from Hardcoredooling.com - runs at 2-2-2-6 1T, and I've had it boot at up to 494Mhz (though Winblows would not run, of course). I strongly recommend both OCZ and Hardcorecooling.com.

 

[Lyfer]

Hardcorecooling has some great deals, $200 for 1GB of Winbond PC3500, or $98 for 512MB PC3700 Winbond. Anyone with some hands-on test with this stuff?

 

[Sideswipe001]

Mushkin.

Never one had a problem with Mushkin running not at spec, and they have very good tech support.

 

[snowwie]

Originally posted by: Lonyo
JEDEC specification I believe only goes up to PC3200 for non-ECC/registered memory, so anything above is just, as said, overclocked PC3200.

Try finding some TwinMOS PC3200, that might do something good. If it doesn't get quite as high as you want, you could send it back, but I expect TwinMOS will probably be able to get up there, they also do inexpeisive Winbond based sticks which might be worth looking into.

I thought I remembered reading somewhere that JEDEC have official PC3200 specs

I would recommend the buffalo tech with the more reliable BH-5 chips
seem very good for the price
but it also seems you need quite a bit of voltage to get them going

 

[Duvie]

Ofcourse then there was the Corsiar PC3000 cas 2 anamoly that when it came out was outperforming many of the pc3200 cas 2.5 sticks from the same company... Mine does and has for several months ran at 450mhz ddr with cas 2.5,3,3,7 and 2.8v......Board undervolts sligtly on the vdimm to 2.77v...

 

[Amorphus]

maybe they're setting RAM timings too tight? DDR400 has 2-3-3-6 or 2-3-3-7 minimum timings. any less and the likelihood of instability increases tenfold.