Best 4 gig ram available

thefullcollapse

thefullcollapse

thefullcollapse

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17 Jun 2005
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i have decided to upgrade my computer to 4 gig ram and of course i will need 4x1gb sticks. I was just wondering what the best option to go for is, at this time money is not an issue. ram that would help me overclock my cpu would also help (AMD athlon 3200+)
 
4 sticks of ram and A64 is not a great combo just to forcing 2T timings. As rednut said, 4gb is a waste and im not even sure if windows can even utilise all 4gb ( -though far from 100%).
Go for 2x1GB sticks and spend the remaining money on a better cpu or something.
 
plus a 3200 might not be able to address it all quickly enough.. anyway, if you DO want 4gb make sure you're using xp64 as that can see more than the xp32 3.5gb limit and I'd suggest 4 of the cheapest 1gb sticks you can find seeing as it'll force 2T so there's no sense in going for performance stuff.
 
Overclocking with 4GB WILL put a lot of stress on the memory controller even at 2T. As mentioned, WinXP does have it's issues with 4GB memory (PAE gets around this but at a performance drop). Unless you need 4GB, you'll mostly likely see a slight drop in performance that will outweigh potentially any benefit of 4GB.
 
I'm curious to know what sort of setup would make the most of 4GB. Obviously XP Pro x64 would be required, but what sort of CPU would you need to get the best out of the extra RAM - even if not overclocking?
 
thefullcollapse said:
i have decided to upgrade my computer to 4 gig ram and of course i will need 4x1gb sticks. I was just wondering what the best option to go for is, at this time money is not an issue. ram that would help me overclock my cpu would also help (AMD athlon 3200+)
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Absolutely nothing wrong with your request mate.
Full on ultra fast memory belongs to OCZ. Have a look at OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 / 400MHz / Gold Gamer eXtreme / XTC Edition / Dual Channel.
These are amazing, with timings of 2-2-2-5, Extended Voltage Protection and Lifetime Warrenty.

I guess the other people who suggested its a waste are either, jealous, have tiny computers or have never loaded an 8Gb compact flash card.

Most of the motherboards out today love more memory, its only the complete pantness of windows where our efforts to upgrade get quashed.
 
lemonkettaz said:
4gb at the moment is pointless.. so how is it a good idea?

p.s. nobody is jealous... just giving advice/opinions :p
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concur with that.. I'm certainly not jealous, in fact its a bit of a dumb thing to say.

I think its a legitimate question to ask why you'd want 4gb too because lots of people have posted on here thinking 4gb would be better for games etc etc and its just not true. Servers/image editing the like then potentially yes but to say people are jealous to question it is silly. I imagine everyone is just trying to save the guy some money, you look at the sigs of most people on ocuk and if they really wanted/needed 4gb they'd just go and buy it :p
 
As mentioned there's nothing wrong with asking the question as to why you would want 4gig - it's quite possible of course, but if you are simply looking to "future proof" your PC, it's not worth it at this time.

To be honest, the chances are that if you require 4gig of RAM, an athlon 3200+ is likely to be slowing you down in other areas.
 
dual2max said:
Absolutely nothing wrong with your request mate.
Full on ultra fast memory belongs to OCZ. Have a look at OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 / 400MHz / Gold Gamer eXtreme / XTC Edition / Dual Channel.
These are amazing, with timings of 2-2-2-5, Extended Voltage Protection and Lifetime Warrenty.

I guess the other people who suggested its a waste are either, jealous, have tiny computers or have never loaded an 8Gb compact flash card.

Most of the motherboards out today love more memory, its only the complete pantness of windows where our efforts to upgrade get quashed.
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Indeed there's nothing wrong with it. Just probably a waste of money that's all. And with DDR prices on the rise, waste of quite a bit of money.

Even still if you expect to run 4x1GB at very tight timings in an overclocked processor, then you are taking the rip. Many AMDs have issues with 4x512MB at medium timings (memory controller running at it's limit) and if you try with 4x1GB at anything other than 3-3-3-8 2T, then there's a good chance it just won't work (BSOD heaven).

It is a waste. There aren't many consumer programs if any that can boast they perform faster with 4GB. Imagine you turn your machine on and shock horror: Windows doesn't see the whole 4GB? Welcome to 32-Bit addressing...you'll need a copy of WinXP x64 to make the most of 4GB but even then by using x64 and 4GB memory won't automatically make your machine any faster.
 
Fair play. The maximum speed is 70, but we still buy Sports Cars. Wrong of me to be presumptious. All your points are valid and respected.
Strange how Tyan make a board capable of supporting 128Gb of Ram, where 124.5Gb would not be seen.
 
32-bit Address limit is a limitation of a 32-bit operating system (WinXP, linux x86, etc.). 64-bit Operating Systems (WinXP x64, Linux x86_64, Solaris (64-bit and x64)) are all capable of addressing somewhere up to 16TB of memory (theoretical maximum) but the actually limit is about 2TB. Hence you get boards which can handle large amounts of memory, they require a 64-bit operating system to get the most out of them and address all the memory. This is all assuming a 64-bit capable processor in the first place.
 
What people are suggesting is that yes, 4gig+ RAM is supported/needed, but primarily in the domain of servers, not SOHO type systems. Not the type of systems which people will be planning on overclocking as the OP is.

If money is not an issue I'd probably ditch the 3200+ anyway and go with an FX-60, since the kind of apps requiring such a huge amount of RAM are more likely to benefit from dual core as well.
 
HangTime said:
What people are suggesting is that yes, 4gig+ RAM is supported/needed, but primarily in the domain of servers, not SOHO type systems. Not the type of systems which people will be planning on overclocking as the OP is.

If money is not an issue I'd probably ditch the 3200+ anyway and go with an FX-60, since the kind of apps requiring such a huge amount of RAM are more likely to benefit from dual core as well.
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Agreed.

4Gb is a waste, 2Gb is only really now becoming necessary in games etc.
 


After a little research, I have found that even Record Holders like the Brecca do not have more than 2Gb per CPU.

So have decided to sell 2Gb of my OCZ.

Should have listened to the OCUK forums in the first place. Now I am the jealous one......
 
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