First time poster ... so please be gentle. :good: I'm building a system that I'm hoping will be lasting 3-4 years. I'm not an overclocker -- I just want something that I can upgrade easily for the foreseeable future. As an example, in 2-3 years, the FX-55 chips should fall to a fairly reasonable price and offer a decent upgrade. I play games on and off, but generally don't buy the latest/greatest video cards just because their prices fall so fast. I've got an ASUS nForce 4 SLI board (939) and am installing an AMD 64 3500+ CPU and a 6600GT video card. My question is about the RAM -- I'm installing 1GB initially. I've heard several different stories about it and would like clarification. A friend of mine said to just get a good name brand and don't worry. He likes Mushkin because they do extensive testing and recommended the following RAM: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=20-146-299&DEPA=0 His main point was that this RAM would be sufficient for everyday gaming unless I ever wanted to overclock the system. Another friend of mine looked at that RAM and said that I should spend the extra $100 to get hi-speed RAM. He said it would provide a noticeable speed boost and would also work better if I upgrade the CPU in a couple of years. He recommended the following RAM (also by Mushkin): http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-355&depa=1 So ... who's right? How much of a performance boost will I realize with the more expensive RAM? As stated above, I don't care about overclocking the system. I just want something that's going to run well and that I can upgrade in a couple of years without wishing I'd bought better RAM initially. I await (and appreciate) your thoughts.
If your not into overclocking, the 100dollars isn't worth the increase. It's just a slight increase, but heat spreaders are a good idea if your constantly gaming
As you said you want to build a system that will last a good couple of years, but with good prospects of upgrading, to make the system last longer, you would be wise to get some fast memory. Basically memory comes in different speeds at the moment the AMD64 chipsets all run at 200Mhz FSB (stock) this means that you need "PC3200" (DDR400Mhz) speed DDR memory to run any of these processors. I am unsure as to the release of upcoming products from AMD processor wise, or their future plans as i do not follow it to closely, however its always a good idea to get faster memory, personally I would get as fast as you can afford. My system only utilises (Stock speeds) "PC3200" speed DDR however, at the end of this week i will be ordering 1GB (2x512MB) of OCZ PC4400 (DDR550Mhz) PC4400 can run at an FSB (stock) of 275Mhz (fastest DDR1 memory available atm). Basically the speeds you get are (that are relevant to your processor): PC3200 DDR400 200Mhz FSB PC3500 DDR433 216Mhz FSB PC3700 DDR466 233Mhz FSB PC4000 DDR500 250Mhz FSB PC4200 DDR533 266Mhz FSB PC4400 DDR550 275Mhz FSB If you find out, or anyone knows of any processors in the AMD range that are going to be brought out that require a higher FSB than 200Mhz, that will run on a 939Pin board with DDR1 memory, then you will want to get faster memory, this way you then have the choice in a few years time of having this (now) future processor. If not then u can just stick with PC3200 DDR400 memory, however faster memory is always helpful as it means if u sell ur system or change it.. you can use your memory from it.. therefore saving you some money.
Thank you. Based on these (and other) opinions, I'm going to just get the regular RAM. Since I won't do any overclocking, I should be fine for a couple of years.
make sure you get good quality memory such as: OCZ GeIL Corsair Kingston Crucial Samsung Mushkin Personally I would stick with the top 5
