4 GB XMS vs. 2 GB Dominator Corsair

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deusex

deusex

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Jun 19, 2006
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The 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 (Latency 4/promo chips) is priced $60, and the 4 GB Dominator 1066 (latency 5/micron d9) is priced at 135$. That means I can either get two sets of the XMs, for 120$ FOR 4gb or 135$ for 2 GB Dominator.

My $2K build (next week) will be used mostly for gaming, (such as Quake 4, Supreme Commander, Bioshock, Oblivion, Crysis), and a moderate amount of programming/web design (C++, Java, Ajax, Macromedia/Coldfusion), and a little graphics/sound editing (CS3, Maya, Audacity).


I will be using Windows XP Pro/ with a chance of dual booting Vista for DX10 purposes.

Parts:

Antec P182
Seagate 500GB SATAII HD
Corsair HX620 watt PSU
Asus/Gigabyte X38 Mobo
eVGA 8800 GTX
INtel Q6600 2.40GHz (Oced on Thermalright 90 ultima/Scythe SFlex to 3.2GHz)
X-Fi Extremegamer Fatal1ty Pro
Samsung 20" 204BW 1680X1050
Logitech z-5300e 5.1 speakers


Will 2GB of Dominator or 4 GB of XMS2 perform better for me?
 
You need to use xp 64bit in order to access the 4 gb. Also if you plan to OC I wouldn't recommend the XPS modules. It seems corsair is swapping out their ram lines with promo IC chips instead of the D9 microns they use to use in some of their XMS models. It's pissed off quite a few people....Choice is yours...If you don't plan to OC..Then the XPS will do you fine...IF you know for sure the dominator are microns (there has been word of them being swapped with IC in a few posts out there)...then yea..but make sure you got a 64bit os.
 
I know that about XP (I'm still going to use 32bit though, the 4 GB will be used for VIsta, if it ever gets better).

I plan to OC the CPU to 3.2GHz, and I know that the Dominators have D9 chips.

What do you mean by the 64bit OS for 2 gB??
 
Hmm?..You lost me with that last question....

32 bit OS' can't use 4 gb worth of memory..Even if it's vista..They have a 32bit vista as well as a 64bit vista. If you are going to us a 32bit vista you are still not able to use all 4 gb. In order to use all 4 gb in Vista or Xp you will need to have a 64bit version...Using 4gb in a 32bit environment (Like I am right now) will report only 2.8-3.5 depending on the system....
 
64 bit doesn't have bad performance...I don't know where that came from. 64 bit has had issues at the start with a lack of 64 bit drivers. That issue is pretty much non existent for current hardware now...Same for vista...but for vista it was more along the lines of the new os ran things differently..Which required fresh drivers from everyone... The only big issue with vista though is that older software tends not to work thanks to the new way vista operates......If I was you I'd nab a 64bit version of both. choice is yours though...
 
Why go 32?..It literally makes no sense considering you are getting 4gb worth of ram. Anyways vista requires the more ram compared to XP...

BTW..I forgot to mention. Keep in mind XMS modules and dominators dimms are slowly coming off D9 micron. There have been reports of them using Promo IC's...not very good for over clocking. You might want to get OCZ Reaper modules although they cost a bit..Or just nab Crucial Ballistix modules which are a great deal. Both running D9 Micron..
 
Pretty sure the doms from Egg are d9....---beard to reasure me?

Well, might do XP 64bit and Vista 32bit then....will vista 32bit run 4 gigs?


Which one will actually give me better performance in real-life apps, 4gigs of good ram, or 2gigs of great ram?
 
will XP support 3 gig or 3.5 gig of ram?, (same brand & chip 2 & 1 giga pieces)?

btw does XP 64 bit is compatible to every 32 bit software & driver?

thanks
 
XP 32 supports 3.2GB RAM ,

for your second Q , well i installed LOST PLANET , BF2 , BF2142, MEDAL OF HONOR : AIRBORNE, JET AUDIO , POWER DVD , DAP , MEDIA CENTER ..... and i didnt have any problems

just when i wanted to intall BF2/BF2142 , it said this game is designed for 32bit windows , but it runs fine and very well
 
DDR stands for Double Data Rate. DDR2 runs at 2x the FSB.
Intel CPUs have a quad pumped FSB (4x fsb) a 1066Mhz processor like the Q6600 runs at a defalt or stock speed at 266.5 MHz
The Q6600 has a multiplier of 9x so at stock speed (266.5 x 9) you get 2398.5MHz or 2.4Ghz.
DDR2 533 is the minimum ram speed to run with this processor. Anything over this will either downclock to match the fsb or change the fsb:ram ratio so the memory runs at a higher speed than the CPU.
Don't believe me do a little wiki or google, or ask all the n00bs I'm sure they will give you the right answer.
 
For the record, Promos makes good ICs. The primary difference with them and the Micron D9s is that the Promos do not respond as well to voltage and therefore do not OC as well. However, this is not due to an inferior IC. The Promos has onboard voltage regulation so they do most of their speed at 2.1v. Anything above that simply makes more heat. Virtually every memory company worth mentioning is using Promos ICs.

That said, based on the OPs usage requirements, the 4gb option sounds best IMO.
 


Here is link that list that show what memory modules types are use in Ram. It is a little outdated, but it is still good.

http://ramlist.ath.cx/ddr2/

If you are going for 4gbs of ram, would look at the Geil Black Dragon series (some are Quad Channel) or look at Gskill and Crucial Ballistix.

Here is another good site with good prices on Ram below.

http://www.memoryc.com/products/type/Computer_Memory/DDR2/index.html
 
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