Choosing your Ram

[imported_daneel]

What is your opinion about two of this PC3500 memory for Athalon 64 on a msi neo platinum board

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Daneel

 

[trexpesto]

No idea about that board, but for me, at $20 more a stick and DC kit this is a no-brainer: OCZ PC 3500 DC kit C2.5 It has no bad reviews. Even cheaper than simpletech, and OCZ is a good brand, although I hear not the spectacular service of Corsair, but hey you are getting from newegg.

 

[Manzelle]

Originally posted by: trexpesto
No idea about that board, but for me, at $20 more a stick and DC kit this is a no-brainer: OCZ PC 3500 DC kit C2.5 It has no bad reviews. Even cheaper than simpletech, and OCZ is a good brand, although I hear not the spectacular service of Corsair, but hey you are getting from newegg.

Actually OCZ has outstanding service in my opinion...I had to RMA a stick of PC3200 and I received the new stick in 3 days and it was a better quality stick than what I sent them...

 

[Zinn2b]

First off you are so far off base saying memory is not importent on AMD in game perfoprmance but I well stop there.... After reading the review on lastest fast 2-5-2-2 memory i went ahead and bought some . I have corsair bh5 that well run -2-5-2-2 but i wanted to run a little O/C 210 and it was not stable in games at that speed SO I bought Corsair PC 32000XMS 2-5-2-2 because I wanted the lights.I have Intel 3.2C Well your reviews were based on 2.4 engineering . Use Cpu that are the fastest availiable and ones all consumers can obtain please.This new corsair well run@2-5-2-2 With PAT set @Auto only Turbo crashes the system right away my BH5 @210 RUNS PAT @ Formula but does crash if pushed it is perfectlly stable @ 200 So when you do a review of use a product that we can all buy and test with the Fastest CPU AVAILABLE NOT YOUR SPECIAL LILLE o/c cpu'S iT SEEMS TO ME THAT aNANDTECH IS SELLING OUT THE CONSUMERS LATELY i DON'T CARE IF A 2.4 can be O/C to 3.4 and it is really misleading and u know it thats the sickening part . so forum geeks take note this ram is not good @ 3.2ghz at least mine is not . power to the consumer man what a sell out that review was. and Corsair makes great memory but these sticks are not great not even good .I RMD them with no problems But it cost me $50. I HAVE THE NEW CRUCIAL MEMORY COMING AND SHOULD HAVE TOMORROW i WELL POST TOMORROW ON THE RESULTs.Buy the way @ 3.2 with the BH5 i have one of the fastest PC'S around. SO come on amandtech redo your review of those 6 memory sticks at 3.4 and than lets see the true results not some hyped up BS because thats what testing at @,2.4ghz is and you know it. IF you deny knowing it you should not be doing Product reviews because you are not quilified..............

 

[Zinn2b]

First off you are so far off base saying memory is not importent on AMD in game perfoprmance but I well stop there.... After reading the review on lastest fast 2-5-2-2 memory i went ahead and bought some . I have corsair bh5 that well run -2-5-2-2 but i wanted to run a little O/C 210 and it was not stable in games at that speed SO I bought Corsair PC 32000XMS 2-5-2-2 because I wanted the lights.I have Intel 3.2C Well your reviews were based on 2.4 engineering . Use Cpu that are the fastest availiable and ones all consumers can obtain please.This new corsair well run@2-5-2-2 With PAT set @Auto only Turbo crashes the system right away my BH5 @210 RUNS PAT @ Formula but does crash if pushed it is perfectlly stable @ 200 So when you do a review of use a product that we can all buy and test with the Fastest CPU AVAILABLE NOT YOUR SPECIAL LILLE o/c cpu'S iT SEEMS TO ME THAT aNANDTECH IS SELLING OUT THE CONSUMERS LATELY i DON'T CARE IF A 2.4 can be O/C to 3.4 and it is really misleading and u know it thats the sickening part . so forum geeks take note this ram is not good @ 3.2ghz at least mine is not . power to the consumer man what a sell out that review was. and Corsair makes great memory but these sticks are not great not even good .I RMD them with no problems But it cost me $50. I HAVE THE NEW CRUCIAL MEMORY COMING AND SHOULD HAVE TOMORROW i WELL POST TOMORROW ON THE RESULTs.Buy the way @ 3.2 with the BH5 i have one of the fastest PC'S around. SO come on amandtech redo your review of those 6 memory sticks at 3.4 and than lets see the true results not some hyped up BS because thats what testing at @,2.4ghz is and you know it. IF you deny knowing it you should not be doing Product reviews because you are not quilified..............

 

[jhu]

there are places listed on pricwatch.com selling 256mb ddr ram. however, in the description, they mention that this is the most incompatible ram and to make sure your motherboard is able to support this ram. how would i go about checking if my motherboard supports this ram they're selling?

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: Zinn2b
First off you are so far off base saying memory is not importent on AMD ...

and in the next sentence you say you have Intel So...how would you know ?

 

[flexy]

this is a very interesting and informative thread...already too many replies with unnecessarely more questins and comments.

As i understand, AS LONG as it concerns AMD:

[ and pelase CORRECT me if i am wrong anywhere....]

TO SUM IT UP FOR AMD USERS:

We can SAVE a lot of money because we really dont need to care about CAS latency, NOR do we really have to care about dual channel. Value Ram 2.5 CAS is almost as good as very expensive low latency ram.

If someone is concerned about overclocking, RATHER go with cheaper CAS 2.5 Value ram PC3500 (because its rated at the desierd speed) and do NOT pay a ot of money for low latency 3200 (or 3500)....save the money for better gfx cards etc.

That's the article sumed up..and i think its nice to know where you can save a lot of money

(ADDENDUM

ALSO..as it looks the upcoming DDR2 standard is far overrated and (as of now) can be safely ignored, at least for (say) the next year or so.

As said: This applies for us AMD64 builders.

Thanks for great and informative posting

 

[ray24k]

I have a couple of questions regarding ddr memory. My mb manual states that my board does not support x16 modules (I do not think they are referring to the # of chips on the module). What does that x16 mean ? Also if a module has 16 chips (8 on each side-double sided), will it take up 2 banks on the mb ? Say I have 2 memory banks (slots) and I have one single sided (8 chips) module in slot 1 then will I be able to put a double sided module in slot 2 ? I have random rebooting problems with this memory configuration but with each module by itself I have no problems.

thanks

 

[ciwell]

So...on a 754 board, would it be pointless to getting two sticks (2x512) as opposed to just one stick (1x512 or 1x1024)? In other words, is there a minimal performance difference or a significant one in a non-dual channel configuration?

 

[Orbs]

I'm a bit confused. When I look at the graphs from memory reviews here on AnandTech, the lower CAS latency does seem to make a difference. CAS 2 gives > FPS than CAS 3, does it not? Or are you just saying it's not worth the price premium?

- Jared

 

[Pete84]

What about dual channel low latency on Athlon XPs?

 

[ts3433]

Originally posted by: Orbs
I'm a bit confused. When I look at the graphs from memory reviews here on AnandTech, the lower CAS latency does seem to make a difference. CAS 2 gives > FPS than CAS 3, does it not? Or are you just saying it's not worth the price premium?

- Jared

Not worth price increase; difference is usually < 5-10%.

Originally posted by: ciwell
So...on a 754 board, would it be pointless to getting two sticks (2x512) as opposed to just one stick (1x512 or 1x1024)? In other words, is there a minimal performance difference or a significant one in a non-dual channel configuration?

No such thing as S-754 dual channel. Go ahead and get 2x512 unless you're really concerned about upgrading the memory in the near future (if you run 3 DIMMs in a 754 you won't be able to run at PC3200 IIRC).

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Pete84
What about dual channel low latency on Athlon XPs?

No difference. Latency is not worth the incredible price premiums some manufacturers will charge.

As for general Dual-Channel on Athlon XPs their FSB are only fast enough to keep up with Non-DC PC3200 memory at max.

 

[flexy]

Originally posted by: Orbs
I'm a bit confused. When I look at the graphs from memory reviews here on AnandTech, the lower CAS latency does seem to make a difference. CAS 2 gives > FPS than CAS 3, does it not? Or are you just saying it's not worth the price premium?

- Jared

But CAS2.5 (most of the value ram is 2.5) should be sufficient.

Point is...if you want to overclock:
You might get a couple fps more with expensive low latency 3200, true...but the overall performance gain would be greater if you just get the next higher rated (PC3500) value ram instead of squeezing out every ounce of some expensive PC3200 ram.

As i understand, Latency is not really that important for A64..and what they are saying is that it is also much more intelligent to save $150 or so on memory and go with some good brand, value CAS2.5 and get the next higher gfx-card instead. (Or more memory or whatever). The overall benefit for your performance would be bigger than you will have with super-duper low-latency memory.

 

[Eduax]

I would like too know what would be better when buying RAM..... buying it OEM or retail.... and what is the diference between them.

Thx for the help

 

[ronnn]

I have an Asus p4p 800mb with Kingston pc3500 hyper x, 256 x2. Will I gain performance or lose by adding 2 more sticks of 256 x 2? As I understand it the ram won't be as efficient, but I will have more.
I have a 2.4c running 3.0 5/4 . Ram is at 2-2-2-8 (I think).

 

[ciwell]

Originally posted by: So
Well, that's pretty simple, you probably should get 1 Gigabyte of CAS 2.5 value PC3200. I'd get two stick of this Corsair stuff. If you're overclocking, consider PC3500.

Why would the PC3500 be better for OCing than the PC3200?



Also, I am putting together an A64 system (3200+), but am working on the RAM. Which would be more practical to get? 1 stick of the Crucial PC3200 Ballistix (512MB) or 1GB of Corsair 2.5CAS ValueRAM? According to the recent reviews/comparo by AT, the Ballistix are pretty impressive, but also about $60 more. The system will be a gaming rig primarily. Thanks.

 

[marine73]

I have noticed that OCZ EB ram has the slower timings to allow stability at higher clock speeds.
Could these higher latencies, and thus the ability to OC, be assigned to other brands, such as Corsair,
that are running the higher latencies also? I have read some of OCZ's material on their modules and it seems they could have done some other tweaking on the memory module controller circuits, but just curious if anyone knows if other brands display these same OCing capabilities.

 

[Lordmojo]

I have an MSI PT880 is this good RAM for it http://www.outpost.com/product/3715396 (Corsair 1GB PC3200 2-64x64 XMS Dual-Channel DDR - #TWINX1024-3200C2PT) I have value kingston RAM now is the price worth the difference.

 

[Firebat246]

I am building a machine using the AMD FX53 as my CPU.....I wanted to know for the FASTEST ram..to go Corsair or OCZ....also whatever one is better....what is the best ram they make? (example: if OZC...what would be the fastest OZC ram available for my CPU) I am getting the new K8N Neo2 Plat motherboard by the way. Thanks for your help

 

[movingincircles]

Wow I am so lucky.

I recently bought centon value ram of somesort. I chose elixer chips cause they sounded coo (never do that again!). Then I read online reviews of elixer chips in some of the value name brand memory, and those reviews WERE BAD. Every single person that ended up with elixer chips had some errors. Then I grabbed microsoft's mem test program and everything turned out ok!

PHEW big relief.

Anyways more recently I bought Crucial OEM 512 ddr333 stick, and they are working fine.


Just my two cents

 

[natto fire]

Originally posted by: Eduax
I would like too know what would be better when buying RAM..... buying it OEM or retail.... and what is the diference between them.

Thx for the help

OEM is cheaper, retail means it comes as you would see it on a store shelf. OEM has minimal packaging. Sometimes warranties vary.

 

[CidHighwind]

Retail is gonna come with an original package, extended instructions, extra paperwork such as warranty papers, etc.

OEM means its gonna come RAM ONLY. You might occasionally get some other stuff, but its usually a stick or two of RAM in a static-bag.

If you save $5-10, and you know how to install a stick of RAM (just about every person on this board can, or could learn in a second), and you know the Voltage, and timings, go with OEM.

 

[bpatters69]

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