Which Corsair sticks to get for 1GB DDR total ram?

[Leo V]

I'm running a single 512mb XMS PC3200cas2 stick right now (using 147fsb, 392ddr @ cas2-3-2-7 settings which are error-free thru 408-412mhz). I'm using Asus P4B533 and P4/2.26B @ 2.5ghz.

Turns out that 512MB isn't enough for running simulation software, so I have three upgrade choices:

1) Buy another XMS3200C2 stick and hope they work together (afraid I'll have to increase CAS latency)
2) Sell my stick and shell out for two XMS3500C2's instead (hoping to keep the aggressive CAS timings)
3) Give up because it's just too damn expensive and I'll lose too much performance from compromised memory timings.

What do you guys think?

 

[mechBgon]

My thought is that the slight impact of dropping from CAS 2.0 to CAS 2.5 is nothing like the impact of running out of RAM and having to hit your hard drive, no matter how fast the HDD may be. Been there, done that, I've run out of RAM with 896Mb before!

 

[Leo V]

That's true, the simulation basically isn't usable now with 512MB. So choice #3 isn't very appealing, but I still need to choose between #1 and #2.

A good question might be whether XMS3500c2 is any better than XMS3200c2 in a two-stick configuration running at 392mhz or so. (In terms of usable cas settings.)

 

[mechBgon]

Can you do a reduced simulation that fits 512Mb of RAM, so you can test what the actual impact of 2.0 versus 2.5 amounts to? That might help you decide whether it's worth spending the money to increase your chances of keeping the CAS 2.0.

 

[JSSheridan]

Here's some info on those DDR sticks that might be useful. The XMS3200C2 DDR Memory's timings are 2-3-3-6-T1, while the timings on the XMS3500C2 DDR Memory are 2-4-4-8-T1. These came straight from the Corsair XMS Memory Modules page. I can't say for sure what timings you will be able to get at the FSB you're running now with two sticks, but it doesn't look to me that spending an extra $200 would be worthwhile. Hope this has been helpful. Peace.

 

[Leo V]

I've just gotten in touch w/ Thugsrook and his results suggest that 2 sticks don't work in 3:4 ratio on P4B533... if I get the 2 sticks, i'll also have to upgrade to a Granite Bay motherboard, and until then I'd have to run them at 300mhz.... I guess I could do that until I can get a Granite Bay...

 

[RalfHutter]

I've been running 2 x 512MB sticks of XMS3200c2 using the dsw6 3:4 trick in my P4B533E for about 7 weeks now.

I'm also running a 2.26B. See my rig for specs.

When I first put this together I thought I'd be able to run the 2 sticks at DDR400, CAS2 like it's rated for, but I quickley found out (through Memtest86) that it wouldn't working. After many trials and tribulations I got it to work at 387DDR (145FSB), CL2.5-3-3-7, 2.7V. Everyone kept telling me that I was lucky to get 2 sticks to run at all so I figured I'd settle for 387DDR in order to be able to run 1gig of RAM. BTW - Either of these sticks will run at DDR426, Cas 2-3-3-6 by themselves.

I left it this way for about 4 weeks until I got an Overclocker's hair up my ass and decided to see if could get anything more out of it. Raised my FSB up to 150 again, left all my timings and Vdimm the same and fired up Memtest86 agian. Lo and Behold, 18 hours later Memtest86 was still churning away (all eleven tests)with zero errors! I guess burning it in for a month must have helped becuase originally it wouldn't run Memtest at DDR400 at any settings.

So, maybe I just got lucky to get these 2 sticks to run together but I've also seen other people successfully running 2 Corsair XMS sticks on 845E boards during the time I've been playing with mine.

Before this I had 2 x 512 sticks of XMS2700 running at CAS2 on my P4B266/1.8A rig. This ran at DDR340 for over 3 months. I sold it to my friend and it's still working fine. It's ran Memtest86 successfully many times.

 

[Leo V]

Wow... very interesting. Your experience encourages me to go with dual xms3500c2, because you pretty much proved that memory (not motherboard) is the bottleneck in this situation. I'm gonna think long and hard today whether to splurge on this $240 upgrade