Go for a Value 2 gig kit or pay the extra??

The B.A.

The B.A.

The B.A.

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Hoping to upgrade this week, going with a new AMD +3800 x2 but a little concerned over what memory to go for. Planning to get 2 gig dual channel PC 3200 CAS 2, never overclocked before but will probably try with this chip as it seems to clock quite well, having said that the cooler I'm getting is Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro so it won't be a major o-clock, not sure how much this affects memory selection . Noticed that some are of the opinion that its not really worth the extra cash and prefer to go for value memory... Is there much to choose from between the different brands? Was looking at the Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) for around £124 (plus Mr Brown's share) but notice there are a number of similar options to go for, looking at the "latency" figures I guess that the lower the better?

Any advice would be appreciated...
 
yep, lower timings the better. I had geil value and it ran fine at 200mhz as it should. I lowered the timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and it ran fine.

my Gskill Hz (pc4000) is running at stock (250mhz) but ive only tried once to lover to cas2.5 and it didnt like it at all. The geil is fine for stock and lower timings but you wont be able to push it puch past 200mhz (or at least i couldnt)

I have the freezer pro cooler aswell and its taken my opteron 800mhz over stock speeds getting 50c at highest temps.

Ive never had corsair memory
 
geeza said:
yep, lower timings the better. I had geil value and it ran fine at 200mhz as it should. I lowered the timings to 2.5-3-3-7 and it ran fine.

my Gskill Hz (pc4000) is running at stock (250mhz) but ive only tried once to lover to cas2.5 and it didnt like it at all. The geil is fine for stock and lower timings but you wont be able to push it puch past 200mhz (or at least i couldnt)

I have the freezer pro cooler aswell and its taken my opteron 800mhz over stock speeds getting 50c at highest temps.

Ive never had corsair memory
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TBH I'm not sure how fast I should be trying to get it to run at, I have been building PC's for about 3 years but have never overclocked anything. I have always gone for the cheapest memory in the past - only really worrying about quantity not quality. This time as I am going for this x2 beastie I thought I would have a poke around to see what’s what.. ;)
 
I've just installed 2gig of OCZ pc3200 EL memory. Stock volts, set 2-3-2-5-1t timings in the bios, stuck it on a divider so its at 208mhz and primed for 4 hours this afternoon with no probs at all. haven't tried overclocking it yet, gotta find out how far it'll go with slacker timings, say, 3-4-3-8-2t if possible, but I doubt its worth 'cos of the slack timings.
Toally drama free installation, well pleased and only £146 inc vat from ocuk too.
 
I would have to agree that tight timings around the ddr400 mark using a divider with a64 is the best option imho as the slight performance increase of pc4000 stuff is just not worth the extra £100+ for the 2gb pairs.
 
IzaLearnin said:
I would have to agree that tight timings around the ddr400 mark using a divider with a64 is the best option imho as the slight performance increase of pc4000 stuff is just not worth the extra £100+ for the 2gb pairs.
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Err.. Whats a divider? :(
 
The B.A. said:
Err.. Whats a divider? :(
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A divider is a bios option usually used when overclocking the cpu. As you increase the htt (fsb) your memory speed increases with it. Not all memory is capable of the higher speed so one of the divider options is used to run the memory at a fraction of the htt speed. Differing fractions are available to give options to select the memory speed you need e.g. htt/memory: 6/5, 10/7, 3/2. This is a general description as in practice things are a little more complex as the cpu multiplier also comes into the equation.
 
IzaLearnin said:
A divider is a bios option usually used when overclocking the cpu. As you increase the htt (fsb) your memory speed increases with it. Not all memory is capable of the higher speed so one of the divider options is used to run the memory at a fraction of the htt speed. Differing fractions are available to give options to select the memory speed you need e.g. htt/memory: 6/5, 10/7, 3/2. This is a general description as in practice things are a little more complex as the cpu multiplier also comes into the equation.
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OK, thanks for the explanation, ;) I'm sure I have read somewhere that running with a divider has an adverse effect on performance (or did I dream that?) :rolleyes:
 
The B.A. said:
OK, thanks for the explanation, ;) I'm sure I have read somewhere that running with a divider has an adverse effect on performance (or did I dream that?) :rolleyes:
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Very slight if any on a64 platform. Had a bigger effect on xp cpu's.
 
IzaLearnin said:
Very slight if any on a64 platform. Had a bigger effect on xp cpu's.
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The drop in performance is more than made up for by the ability to use tighter timings at the lower frequency
 
Defcon5 said:
The drop in performance is more than made up for by the ability to use tighter timings at the lower frequency
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but an fsb of 250, with timings 3-4-4-8 is better than having memory running at 200mhz timings 2-2-3-6? or isnt it?
 
TooNice said:
Seems like knitpicking to me :)

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40178

I am also wondering whether I should spend ~£110 on 2GB or closer to £140. I realise there is benefit of running low timing or 1:1. But £30 can also be well used for other things...
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I mean, at the end of the day, in the real world am I going to notice the difference in performance between the 2? Yes I do game, and do a lot of multi-tasking - but would say a marginal peformance boost be seen, or is it far more than marginal? :rolleyes:
 
I've got the Geil Value 2MB sticks and I wouldn't say i was too impressed. Admittedly Latencies dont make too much of a difference in normal running but I've had real trouble tightening mine up. Especially when you consider how loose the timings are on the value. And when you need that little bit of extra FSB you feel cheap loosening the timings even more. Plus your PI scores are horendous

Bite the Bullet and pay a little extra. ;)
 
Beast698 said:
And when you need that little bit of extra FSB you feel cheap loosening the timings even more. Plus your PI scores are horendous

Bite the Bullet and pay a little extra. ;)
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anything higher than 30seconds for a 1mb calculation is just not on and above 27mins for 32mb
 
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