Memory to buy ?

Computer Forum CPU, Motherboards and Memory
1

As I said in another thread, I won’t be getting the Twinmos w/ Winbond ch-5 chips because of the reasons mentioned in that thread !

I was thinking of getting either PC3500 of Geil Dragon (2x256) or OCZ PC3500ELDC (2x256)

But it looks like I’ll be getting the OCZ since it seems to be what to get with the FRN2.

I’m getting PC3500 over PC3200 as it is not that much more expensive, and as it’s already costing an arm and a leg for it. ($246 cad). Also, it gives me more room for overclocking.

The reason I’m paying that much for RAM ?
I want it to do what I want it to do ! And I wanna’ keep it a long time.

Hopefully I’m getting the Barton 2500+ and that memory today (Here goes my paycheck !)

2

Both companies do not have a real good reputation last I checked. I haven’t used them since they’ve been given horrible reviews by users.

NCIX lists PC3200 of Samsung for $76.30CAN for a 256MB stick. They list the same amount and speed of OCZ stuff for $10 more. Even if the price was vise versa, I’d still go toward the Samsung over the OCZ anyday. If you really want to splurge, I’ve seen NCIX have 2 PC3200 sticks of 256MB each running for around $300CAN.

I’m not saying OCZ and Geil are bad for everyone, but in the past, they’ve put out some memory that has been very shoddy quality and did it for so long, I’m surprised they’re actually in business.

3

I’ve decided to go with corsair instead.

Not the xms or the twinx, but the “basic” one.

2x256 PC3200 for $180 cad.

Much less expensive, reputable company, will probably do better than the native spec also.

I’ll buy them at my local store (well they have only two left - just what I need - but only take pre-orders 2-3 hours in advance so I gotta’ wait til’ later in the afternoon to call because I can’t go right now).

4

Whats $180 cd in £, any idea?

If it helps £1=$1.60

Ive just been looking at Corsiar prices. Everywhere I look only sells xms, but ive just found pc4000 :slight_smile: They only sell 2x512mbs and it £330! It isnt the cheapest place, prices are of the same ratio, making 2x256 about £180. If they make it of course.

Now that will go nicely with a presscot :slight_smile:

Im praying the socket 478 prescott will be compatible with the Springdales boards that are out now cos im >< that close to buying the P4P. Icant afford the pc4000 though really… see how nice the bank wanna be :slight_smile:

5

$180 as of todays its 113.366 GBP! the best site to convert http://www.xe.com/ucc/ :slight_smile:

6

wow, thats quite a lot!
Its about £20 more here I think, but thats from the net.

I get sick of the price of stuff here.

Ive been ripped off twice horribly.

1st was western digital 80gb special edition. in the sale £150 down to £130. I get home… its £80 everywhere else!

I bought a wireless optical microsoft mouse for £40, get home, you can the mouse and keyboard combo for £40!

Thats PC World for you… ‘Stamping Down on Prices’
They must have been stamped down so far they’ve gone round the world and are coming back from the top again!

7

O yeah, I broke the mouse yesterday too so im back with wired ball brick of a thing again!

8

no actually $180 cad is more like 80-90£.
Sniper did the conversion with American money instead of Canadian money.

But I had to settle for Kingston instead since the store doesn’T have any more
Corsair in stock.

This is a local store so the prices are a bit higher but there’s no shipping cost so it evens out.
For me, buying memory online isn’t worth it because of the shipping cost, unless I want something very specific that I can’T get elsewhere.

Well Kingston is not Corsair but it’s still pretty good and cheaper (not by much). With the $20-$25 left I’m gonna take a case fan.

Now I only hope this memory will work in my board because it’s not on soltek’s compatibility list, but it may mean it wasn’t even tested with it so we’ll see.

9

sorry my fault :slight_smile: didnt know is it was CAD or USA :slight_smile: its £80 like harrack53 said…

10

Kingston is a pretty decent name. I haven’t used them, but I haven’t heard any glaring complaints against them.

11

Well everything’s working for now !

There was something weird though concerning my cpu.
I changed the jumper on the board for 166/200 fsb cous and it booted as a 2500+ but with a fsb of 133.
The same thing happened with my 2000+, it booted as a 2000+ but with a fsb of 100.
I just had to set it right but I found that odd.

Right now the timings are 7-3-3-2.5@166, I’ll test everything first and then start to overclock :smiley:

12

Its Kingston value ram ive got in my comp.
I have been very pleased with it.

Great value stuff… mypc100 reaches 125, but can pass post at 130.
Had it for years too.

13

What RAM would you buy… pc3500 or pc3700.
Id normally just go for 3700 or even that 4000, but the cas latencys are either 2.5(geil) or 3 (corsair) Its the Corsair I really want.

I think most pc3500 is at cas 2.

I gonna get this p4p800 which allows you to ‘lock’ the ram speed.Does this mean it will literally lock the speed to say 400mhz no matter what fsb ive got? If so, is it just worth buying pc3200 cos that will still overclock 20% at least.

Ive got numbers and websites and models banging around my head summit rotton today!

14

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDgwLDY=

This is Hardocps conclusion on abit’s Springdale board and it looks better tham the asus. It’s actually better than ABIT’s Canterwood !

It also overclocks better than the asus as they have achieved 301 fsb against 275 for the asus (@245, they had to put an extra fan cooling the northbridge to get to 275).

Thje IS7 (raid, no lan): $109 usd @newegg
The IS7-E (no raid, lan): $98 usd @newegg
The IS7-g(gigalan, 4 raid ports (2 optional)): $152 @newegg

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=is7

P4P800: $120 @newegg
p4p800 deluxe: $136 @newegg

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=p4p800

I’d personnally go with the IS7-E because I don’T need raid and it’s $20 usd cheaper than the p4p800, which is quite a good sum of money to me.
The p4p800 has raid and gigalan but noth of these features are useless if you ask me.
For users like us, raid is a toy, really. Nobody needs that kind of security/performance.
As for gigalan, unless you’re planning to connect two computers which have both gigalan, and actually intend to use all that bandwidth, then you can go for it, but if not, I can assure you that you don’t need it because I think I’m not mistaken when I tell you that your ISP doesn’t provide a 1000mb internet service. (not at $20 a month that is :stuck_out_tongue: )

So:

The IS7-E because it has everything that you need: - lan, great overclocking, under $100, beats the canterwood, and it has nothing that you don’t need: - raid, gigalan, higher price.

As for the memory, it depends on how much you’ll want to overclock. The cas latency won’t give you that much more performance (nothing you can actually feel) so I’d go with the 3700, unless you have an incredible deal on some 3500.

I think locking the speed means it will be locked at the bus speed, so if you have a fsb of 230, then the memory will run at 230, if it can of course. But I’m not sure, I’ll try to look for some info on that.

15

For all the hooting people do about CAS latency, it makes very little difference, even in benchmarking. You’ll barely be able to notice on the scores, much less feel it.

16

Cheers for the replys guys. I didnt realise how much cheaper that IS7-e is!
Its £70 here, the P4p800 is £90… Ill go for the is7-e instead!

The reason I was asking about the ram is because having the cas2 pc3500 allows you to drop back to cas3. You cant drop back to cas4 if you have cas3 ram. Im always worried it may be the same silicon. Not that it would matter cos its the same price, with a different name tag possibly.
Im still thinking about how im gonna do the ram. Because im using the p4a ive got now, untill the prescott comes out and p4cs go down in price, i dont need dual ddr400. I might as well get the board now cos its a great deal, the ram wont change in price much so get that too, but when the prescott is out the P4c will go down in price, and get the other ram stick then.
512mb PC3700 cas3 Corsair xms= £132.19
512 mb PC3500 cas2 Corsair xms= £132.19!

17

There’s a review of the Twinx4000 here: http://www.ipkonfig.com/Reviews/Memory/CorsairTwinX-4000/

I’ve seen it from Hardocp’S site so I guess it’s a serious one.
They’ve achieved DDR515@3-4-4-8 w/ the p4c800 and a p4 2.4C.

I’ve also seen good coments about the PC3500 from Corsair on amdforums.
Basically, from what I’ve read over there, in the PC3500 range you have the OCZ PC3500EL and the Corsair XMS (original, not twinx) PC3500 which performs the same but at a higher price. (the xms can do DDR466 speed, so most of the time, the bottleneck isn’T the memory…w/ this memory !)

http://www.amdforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207144&highlight=xms+3500

But interestingly, Samsung seems to be a great choice at a much lower cost. Sams thing for Twinmos w/ winbond CH-5 chips which you can get here:

http://www.amdforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=206235

I couldn’t buy the mem because the guy was mysteriously not receving my e-mails (that’s before he went on vacation) but lots of people have bought from him and I have yet to see a complaint.

I haven’t seen much about the 3700 from corsair though.

18

Samsung is good stuff. I’ve got some PC2100 generic sticks with Samsung DDR chips on them that have done 150MHz @ CAS2. I’m not sure if they can go any higher or not, but I’ve got a hook up with someone for an Epox 8RDA motherboard, so I should be able to see how far this stuff can go. If it went to 150 on a Via KT266 AOpen board, it should at least go that far on this 8RDA. If not, there’s always new memory that can be purchased.