which ram should I buy?

[Guest]

I am prepairing to build a new computer, based on the KT266A chipset, specifically the Abit KR7A 133R. I will probably have a 1900+ XP, and possibly a GeForce 4 Ti 4400.

I am not sure what kind of RAM I should get. I have heard that the brand of memory matters with DDR ram more than any other kind, so I want to make sure to do it right the first time. I have heard good things about Crucial and Kingston, and more recently Corsair. The last one really catches my attention because I will be wanting to overclock this new box some, and the heat-sinks will come in handy there. There has been some talk of Samsung, Infineon, and Nanya chips on the ram being less-stable than Micron or Kingmax, but, I have no experience with DDR ram.

Please let me know what you guys think would be the best stick for me. Oh yeah, I will probably be getting a 256mb stick, PC2100. I apprciate your help.

 

[ath0mps0]

If you are planning on overclocking I would suggest you get PC2400 or PC2700. RAM is usually the limiting factor in FSB overclocking, especially with the extra PCI divisors that are availble on some motherboards. The Corsair is usually the most overclockable, but Micron(Crucial.com) is less expensive and is of high quality. Getting CL2 is also something I would stress, although most CL2.5 will do CL2.

Best RAM: Corsair PC2700 CL2 - also most expensive....


I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I had thought.

 

[FatBurger]

If you're getting PC2100, get Crucial. If you're getting PC2400 or PC2700, get Corsair.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>

 

[jlanka]

Just to throw another option into the mix, I've personally had pretty good luck with <A HREF="http://www.theoverclockerzstore.com/subcatmfgprod.asp?0=220&1=235&2=-1" target="_new">OCZ RAM</A>. Just my experience. YMMV.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Guest]

The mobo I would be purchasing is only supportive of PC2100, would this not be a problem when getting PC2400? I know that I could still use the 2400, but from what I understand it wouldn't operate at that speed...

 

[jlanka]

You can certainly buy and use it without a problem. It would simply run at PC2100 speed. Whether or not it's worth it is simply a question of whether or not you foresee upgrading your MB to one that supports the higher speed someday.

Oh, and I just noticed that you plan to overclock. Getting higher speed memory is pretty much a must if thats what you want to do. If you overclock it, it's effectively running the FSB at a higher speed - see the reason now?
<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jlanka on 02/21/02 07:55 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Rob423]

DDR PC2100 Crucial 1 GB thats the way to go!!!

Later, Rob

Once you go AMD, You never Go back!!

 

[Guest]

I am sorry to keep asking questions, but I am new to the DDR scene. I think what you guys are trying to tell me is this... even though I will be using a PC2100 board, if I purchase 2400, or even 2700, when I overclock the ram, it will enable to let me OC the FSB? And when I do OC the ram, I would assume that I wouldn't run much of a risk, because the ram is rated to 2400 anyway???

 

[ath0mps0]

Yes, when you overclock the FSB it also overclocks the RAM proportionately - which is why we recommend that you get higher spec RAM. In an AMD based system, sometimes the RAM can be clocked even higher than the FSB, but this is not recommended because it creates an asynchronous relationship with the CPU and can actually degrade performance. The same, but opposite, is true with P4 systems; RAM can be clocked lower than the FSB, which degrades performance more radically.

I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I had thought.

 

[fulgore_123]

hmmmmmmmm,
I'm not sure about the p4 systems but, aren't Amd systems supposed to run asynchronous no problem no matter the speed.
I have been known to be wrong.

Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get

 

[Guest]

ath0mps0: "In an AMD based system, sometimes the RAM can be clocked even higher than the FSB, but this is not recommended because it creates an asynchronous relationship with the CPU and can actually degrade performance."

are you sure it can degrade performance? take the new asus A7V333 for example, which has specific bios settings to let you to run fsb at 133 and your memory at 166. so you wouldnt be overclocking if you had the pc2700 memory. this sounds to me like it can take full advantage of the faster memory...?

 

[ath0mps0]

It does, in fact, degrade perfomance to run in an asynchronous relationship, but the amount of degredation decreases with the increase in performance of the Memory. When you switch from an FSB/Mem 133/133 ratio to a 133/134 ratio, you have the largest performance hit. As the Memory speed increases a break-even point is reached where performance equals the previous 133/133 synchronous setting; say at 133/155. From that point on, any increase in the memory speed does increase performance.

OTOH, maintaining a synchronous ratio does not result in the performance decrease. See the link below; Red represents synchronous increases in the bus speeds while black represents asynchronous increases. I am, of course, using arbitrary metrics in this graph; it is only to show the approximate trends. The graph is for AXP procs; the graph would be a little different for P4 as the asynch nature is reversed (i.e. the memory speed is slower than the FSB).

<A HREF="http://www.havatek.com/fsb.jpg" target="_new">http://www.havatek.com/fsb.jpg</A>

I thought a thought, but the thought I thought wasn't the thought I thought I had thought.

 

[FatBurger]

An asynchronous bus doesn't decrease performance, but it does severly limit the increase you'll see. In other words, the CPU at 133MHz and RAM at 150MHz will perform worse than both CPU and RAM at 140MHz. Make sense?

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Don't step in the sarcasm!