OCZ Reaper vs Mushkin

[Typhoon99]

Which is better for an EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 DDR2 SLI board with a Q6600?

OCZ 4GB 1066Mhz (2x2048) D/C Kit PN - OCZ2RPR10664GK DDR2 PC2-8500 Reaper 5-5-5-18

or

Mushkin XP2-8500 DDR2-1066 4GB (2x2GB) Extreme Performance Series CAS 5-5-5-15

or

Corsair XMS2 Dominator TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF 4GB Kit (2x2GB) PC8500 DDR2-1066 CL 5-5-5-15

I can get each at the same price now.

 

[ausch30]

I have that Mushkin and I can say it's great memory and would be a great choice.

 

[OS43]

Get the DDR2 - 800 Cas 4 Mushkin. Cas 4 at 2.0v is very nice, and if you ever want to get your FSB past 400, you can easily OC the ram a little, since it runs at relatively low voltage at stock. I will be using the 2gig version of this ram (1.9v!) when I build my new PC at the end of the month.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146764

 

[khaydin]

I have the OCZ Reaper 2x2gb pc2-8500 kit, I ran it on a BFG 680i SLI motherboard and it ran great. I could even get the timings to 5-4-4-10 on stock voltage. It also boots at the default vdimm voltage for ddr2 although it says it should be run at 2.1v. I had a Corsair kit before it that required 2.2v and the board would never boot if I just reset the CMOS because of a failed overclock. I had to swap in some cheap piece of crap ram to boot it, then go into the bios set it for 2.2v and then turn the computer off and throw the Corsair set back in. I'm sure any ram you get will be fine as long as you don't buy anything requiring 2.2v.

 

[ausch30]

I also agree with OS43, I had the Mushkin XP2 6400 4-4-3-10 and it was great RAM but I bought the 2x1gb and I wanted 4gb so I sold it and bought the 2x2gb XP2 8500. Either would be a very good choice.

 

[khaydin]

Get the DDR2 - 800 Cas 4 Mushkin. Cas 4 at 2.0v is very nice, and if you ever want to get your FSB past 400, you can easily OC the ram a little, since it runs at relatively voltage at stock. I will be using this ram when I build my new PC at the end of the month.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146726

Get something that's 1066mhz, DDR2 ram is dirt cheap right now, there's no reason not to go with something that runs at a higher frequency. The OCZ easily goes over 1100mhz on stock voltage if you leave the timings default. Just drop the mem divider and you can get some nice fsb/mem overclocks as long as your cpu can handle it.

 

[OS43]

Get something that's 1066mhz, DDR2 ram is dirt cheap right now, there's no reason not to go with something that runs at a higher frequency. The OCZ easily goes over 1100mhz on stock voltage if you leave the timings default. Just drop the mem divider and you can get some nice fsb/mem overclocks as long as your cpu can handle it.

Frequency is overrated after a point. A perfect 1:1 ratio is underrated apparently. Unless you overclock your FSB to something obscene, you are better off getting the lower latency. Good luck finding 1066mhz ram that is 4-4-4-12, and doesn't require something totally f*^ked like 2.5v.

 

[khaydin]

The OCZ ram does 4-4-4-12 if you up the voltage to 2.15, atleast with my kit that is. I forget which divider you use but you can get the ram running at 1066mhz, 400fsb, and +600mhz to your cpu clock.

 

[ausch30]

I've written this more times than I care to count but here it goes again

There is no such thing as DDR2 above 800. JEDEC is the governing body that certifies memory speeds and their speeds for DDR2 are 400, 533, 667 and 800 all at 1.8v. Anything sold at higher speeds or higher voltages is sold at it's overclocked or EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles) speed.

This is a shot of my Mushkin XP2 8500

As you can see it's officially listed as DDR2 6400 and it's highest JEDEC speed is 800@5-5-5-18 1.8v. It was sold as DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15.

This is from my old XP2 6400

As you can see it is rated for 800 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v. It was sold as DDR2 800 4-4-3-10.

I bought the XP2 8500 because it was basically free but you can't go wrong with quality, low latency, low voltage DDR2 800. The CPU you chose has a 1066FSB so you would have to get the FSB over 1600 before you would have to worry about overclocking your memory and any quality DDR2 800 will easily overclock past 800. Make sure you look at the voltage though because some RAM is sold at it's overclocked speeds and some isn't. Just go down the list of memory at Newegg and look and remember that DDR2 is 1.8v anything higher is overclocked.

XP2 6400 review
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ddr2-800_7.html#sect0

 

[OS43]

Thus why I blew my load when I saw 2x1gb cas4 ddr2-800 ram @ 1.9v. I hope Mushkin doesn't fail me, never used em before, but heard great things.

 

[ausch30]

I had a Corsair kit before it that required 2.2v and the board would never boot if I just reset the CMOS because of a failed overclock. I had to swap in some cheap piece of crap ram to boot it, then go into the bios set it for 2.2v and then turn the computer off and throw the Corsair set back in.

The standard for DDR2 is 1.8v so every stick of DDR2 RAM is required to work at that voltage regardless of the speed or voltage it's sold at. If your memory didn't work at 1.8v it was faulty and you should have RMA'ed it.

 

[khaydin]

The standard for DDR2 is 1.8v so every stick of DDR2 RAM is required to work at that voltage regardless of the speed or voltage it's sold at. If your memory didn't work at 1.8v it was faulty and you should have RMA'ed it.

I actually did RMA it once because one module died, shipped the pair back and got a new pair. It was the same way with the new pair. It may have just been incompatibilities in the RAM and the POS BFG 680i SLI board I had. Lots of people had RAM compatibility in the begining with them, good old C1 codes!

It would never ever boot with both sticks installed, sometimes I would get lucky and it would boot with 1 stick installed, but it would only do it if it was in a certain slot and even then it was iffy. It seemed like the board defaulted to loading EPP profiles over the standard JEDEC profiles if they existed. If only the EPP profiles would set the correct voltages that go with the profile I wouldn't have had that problem.

 

[halcyon]

I've got 8GB worth of the Reapers. It's good RAM, performs great.

 

[bobbknight]

Both good ram, buy what ever you can get the cheapest.
In fact I buy lots of GSkill.
The only ram I have ever RMA'ed was Mushkin, but they have a very good RMA service.