Premium RAM (eg XMS2) v Value RAM (eg Value Select)

[Jagdpanther]

Hi I was just wondering is Premium RAM worth the extra costs involved? What are the performance benefits.

I am currently planning to upgrade around Mid-year. I am waiting to see how the AM2 socket processors turn out.

I will also upgrade to DDR2 and shift from AGP to PCI-e. I am not a performance at all costs type person nor do I have huge sums of money avaliable. I will most likely overclock in the long term to hold off future upgrades.

So is it worth my while to expend the extra cash on Premium RAM rather thn the budget versions?

I am aiming to get a Dual-Core Processor with something in the GeForce 7 series & 2 Gigs of RAM.

Thanks

 

[ShortyNumber45]

a value RAM will work fine, but of course the pemium will do much better.

 

[linux_0]

Tru64 :-D

I normally recommend Corsair, OCZ, Crucial in that order. Their value and premium RAM tends to be great... others can be iffy.

Whatever kind of RAM you get make sure you memtest it!

http://memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.zip
http://memtest86.com/memtest86-3.2.iso.gz

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/

Good Luck!

 

[WINDSHEAR]

If you are going to overclock, get Premium RAM. It is RAM speed that makes a big difference in system speed.

 

[htoon]

if you have a plan to overclock your system, you should go with premium ram. i have corsair value ram. i can not overclock much. if it goes over 680mhz , it becomes unstable.

When you overclock, components like cpu and memory runs faster than their ideal speed. Since cpu and memory work hand in hand, you will never get effective overclocking result if your memory is not running fast enough.

In short, you should go with premium ram. If you do so, please consider muskin or super talent. These memories are expensive but they are way faster than corsair. They have lower latency than corsair.

 

[7H4_D00D3]

OVERCLOCK=PERFORMANCE= MONEY=PREMIUM
CHEAP=NICE=GOOD=LOW PRICES=PUPPIES= VALUE

Corsair's valueram....you're the man!

 

[Jagdpanther]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[WINDSHEAR]

if you have a plan to overclock your system, you should go with premium ram. i have corsair value ram. i can not overclock much. if it goes over 680mhz , it becomes unstable.

When you overclock, components like cpu and memory runs faster than their ideal speed. Since cpu and memory work hand in hand, you will never get effective overclocking result if your memory is not running fast enough.

In short, you should go with premium ram. If you do so, please consider muskin or super talent. These memories are expensive but they are way faster than corsair. They have lower latency than corsair.

I'm using Mushkin Enhanced right now. Running a (512MB) PC3500 DDR434 stick at DDR444 at 2-3-3-8 8)

Low latency is the way to go!

 

[lichocpu]

can I run value ram from corsair at more agressive timings? I mean, is this less agressive than OC'ing them 50Mhz?

 

[7H4_D00D3]

giving them 50MHZ+ is WAY better than reducing latencies

I own a couple of corsair's valueram 512Mb stix (2.5-3-3-8 )
I ran them 2.5-3-3-8@2T Vs 2--3-3-6@1T.......no big deal only a crappy 5% improvement

Then I ran them 2.5-3-3-8@2T @430Mhz and got 7% improvement. If that behaviour is assumed as linnear, @ 450Mhz you'd get an 11.666666666666666666666666666666666666666666(and so on)% improvement

My highest score on superpi( 1 Mdecimals:45 sec)&sciencemark(867) was with 220*9(cpu----obviously), DDR360 2-2-2-5@1T

I had a very well documented archive of my OC testing....but it got poofed when the system went insane @ 225...