Which ram? Help a n00b!

[L4g]

Hey OCC...which of these three RAM modules is the best? Thanks!!!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820220161 - patriot eXtreme...highest speed of the three but worse timings

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145034 - corsair xms2...the middle ground

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820141199 - pqi turbo...best timings but slowest speed

-l4g

Edited May 8, 2007 by L4g

[Verran]

The speed may not matter that much if you don't plan to overclock. Do you?

 

What's this going into? What processor and motherboard will it be used with? Do you plan to overclock? If so, do you plan to overclock aggressively, or just somewhat?

 

All this will help determine what speed of ram is best for you.

 

Also, of all the memory on newegg, how did you pick just those three? It seems like a rather random selection.

[L4g]

240 pin-> search for epp -> $100-$200 range, then those seemed to be the notable ones, plus the ram that I have in my box atm (the pqi). I am using an asus m2n-sli deluxe and an athlon 5200+ (do not flame me for that plz) with a zalman cnps9500 am2...I am planning to overclock it however high I can get it running stable.

-l4g

Edited May 9, 2007 by L4g

[Verran]

I would probably get the Corsair if I had to choose between those three. 2gigs of DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 for $110 after rebate is very respectable. Though honestly, I wouldn't buy any of them if it was me, because I don't really think EPP is all that impressive. I'd rather buy G.Skill or something like that.

 

The thing is that AMD chips are still using a base FSB of 200. Your chip is 200x13 = 2.6Ghz, IIRC. So to get that to 3ghz, you'd need to run your FSB at 231 (231x13 = ~3000). So you'd only need memory that could run DDR2-462 if you wanted to run a 1:1 ratio. Given that, DDR2-1066 just seems like a huge waste, and even DDR2-800 seems unnecessary. A good set of DDR2-667 would probably do you just fine, unless you wanted to run the memory faster than the chip, but I don't know how much good that does because I've never tried.

[L4g]

so something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820146093?

-l4g

[neddamttocs]

i have almost the same setup as you

 

my m2n-e is the non-sli version of yours .... DDR2 667 worked best for me i tried at least three different sets before i settled on the corsair i have now (which doesnt have EPP) and im extremely happy with it. Even works nicely with a mild overclock from 2.2 -> 2.5

[Verran]

so something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820146093?

-l4g

 

The whole point of buying 667 over 800 or 1066 is to spend less, not more. There's no way I'd pay $200 for that Mushkin set. 3-3-3-10 is nice, but not worth it for twice the price.

 

I think you should just go with that Corsair set. For $110 after rebates, it's a good deal.

 

As a side note though... Have you read about what EPP does? You seem dead-set on getting a set that has it, but to me it just doesn't seem very useful. You're severely limiting yourself by searching for EPP.

[kingdingeling]

 

EPP is a way to increase prices for something that's mostly useless. I would go for that Corsair set as well.

[cchalogamer]

I have a set of the PQI (well the 5400 version, but same thing just with 4-4-4-12 timmings and higher speed instead) I got cheap off the egg a while back and for either a non overclocking or a light overclocking system it's not too bad, however just over 6400 speed @ 5-5-5-15ish is about all it cares to do so depending on your ram speed options it may limit your OC.

 

With the Athlon 64 CPUs tight timmings mean much more in the real world than they do for intel systems so you'll really be better off buying something that can do both high speed and low latency. The patriot extreme looks nice, but of course it has a price premium for it.

 

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?sc...792&afsrc=1 however is what I would buy...actually it's what i did buy only through ebay for more money after rebate and for the 5300 version (exact same ram so who cares, for a performance idea read my signature but change the older speed to 1190 with the same timmings. For the money I cant think of any better ram atm assumign your system is able to provide the 2.2v it likes.

 

Another thing to remember is that in the performance ram market the higher speed sticks are usualy rated loose timming wise. For example that patriot kit will likely do 4-4-4-9 at stock speed and volts. All in all the moral of this story is there is no correct answer as to what you should get, I havent had enough time dealing with DDR2 (only own 3 2GB kits myself with some play time on two other 2GB kits) to REALLY tell you and on top of that the AM2 platform and 775 like different things in the ram. (AMD's memory controller favoring lower latency due to its efficiency and Intel favoring raw bandwidth due to the latency of the chipset).

 

The only kit you selected i can say i would avoid is the PQI kit, it may be good ram that can do good speeds with loose timmings, however it may have been slapped at that low speed bc it cant run the higher speed no matter what, and 4200 is just too slow if you ask me for DDR2.

 

Good luck and hope some of that helps.

[L4g]

thanks for the input everyone

what about this set? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820145167, it doesn't have the epp (or sli or any other sticker), has better timings than that crucial ballistx, and is *very* cheap.

-l4g

[cchalogamer]

Not bad, but the ballistix i linked has a $40 mail in rebate knocking it to what was it 110ish? And my 5400 Ballistix stock is 3-3-3-12 @ the same speed, of course either should be great ram. Oh on a side note, I may seem a bit partial to crucial, but to be honest there's one reason, I've had to deal with several RMAs in the past and while you'll hear everyone who's used eVGA tell you they have great service, I found that crucial literally stomps even their nearly perfect service. Less than 2 hrs after calling they shipped my replacement ram to me. It barely took 15mins to be off the phone on top of that, no 30 mins of retroubleshooting, just a here's what happened, stick wotn work in any other system, the other one does and a move on to getting an RMA.

 

Heck the ONLY flaw i could find with their service was they were a bit busy at the time and I had to wait for the next customer service rep...wow that really killed me...not.

 

Again good luck, and I also support the anti SLI/Crossfire/EPP mem ory crap, if you cant set ram timmings and voltage in the bios yourself you shouldnt really be messing with performance ram in the first place.

[L4g]

ok thanks...I will go with the corsair then (its $30...and I would buy it off newegg who's return policy is as good as costco for the first 30 days, and I plan to find any problems in the first 30 days )

-lag