Looking For DDR2-6400 @ 916MHz 24/7

Darkwave · 23 Jan 2007 at 09:44

Hey guys,

I'm looking for DDR2-6400 RAM that will hold up, gaming stable, at a minimum of 916MHz.

I was originally looking at the Corsair Dominator stuff but have been informed that a change in their manufacturing process means they don't hold up at 1GHz like they used to, so I was advised to look at some Cell Shock or Team Xtreem in the same price-range instead.

It looks like my options so far are: -

2GB Corsair Dominator
2GB Team Extreem
2GB G.Skill
2GB Cell Shock

From what I can gather in my own research through Google, the Cell Shock RAM seems to be far superior to the rest of the stuff in my list. The only problem is that Corsair and G.Skill are the only brands I've even heard of, so I'm slightly uncomfortable with going with the Cell Shock.

If it will guarantee me up to 1000MHz (916MHz minimum) though, I'll buy it.

Thanks in advance all.

Sincerely yours,
Ulfhedjinn.

Darkwave · 23 Jan 2007 at 15:59

40 views and nobody has an opinion on which RAM is the best out of those?

jgreen726 · 23 Jan 2007 at 17:00

I am currently looking at a similar spec machine, from what I have read etc. on these forums most people will recommend the Team RAM or Crucial overall.

Many people have been having issues with Geil and I haven't seen much about the Cell shock tbh.

The only other thing I have noticed is that people are cautious of the Team memory due to the RMA procedure whereas Crucial is always good (experienced it myself).

Personally after looking I think I am going to get some Crucial 10th anni 5300...seems to be the best allrounder....

There are a lot of threads about this around...check these....

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17674892

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17681803

trojan698 · 23 Jan 2007 at 18:23

The Crucial Tenth anniversary PC5300 will hit DDR1000 speeds easy, they using handpicked micron D9 ic's and are a bargain @ £199.

Darkwave · 23 Jan 2007 at 19:18

trojan698 said:
The Crucial Tenth anniversary PC5300 will hit DDR1000 speeds easy, they using handpicked micron D9 ic's and are a bargain @ £199.

Hmmm, looks like a winner then, but I'm obviously a bit cautious about PC2-5300 memory clocking that high.

I'll read up on it, thanks for the suggestion.

Junk · 23 Jan 2007 at 20:02

the Corsair Dominator is top top ram also, and i, along with reviewers on this very site, can vouch for it hitting, and happily maintaining, 1000Mhz at stock 4-4-4-12 timings.

nice, nice ram

Darkwave · 23 Jan 2007 at 20:26

Junk said:
the Corsair Dominator is top top ram also, and i, along with reviewers on this very site, can vouch for it hitting, and happily maintaining, 1000Mhz at stock 4-4-4-12 timings.

I was going to get some Corsair Dominator, but I was warned against it as apparently they're not made with the same chips anymore and don't overclock as well as they used to do.

That's why this thread came into being.

After reading up a bit, Crucial Anniversary RAM is looking really sexy!

Rroff · 23 Jan 2007 at 20:51

Sorry I have to say G.Skill 6400 HZ kit - will do atleast 1066MHz out the box on stock timings (4-4-4-12) @ 2.2volts (or less)... the other kits also based on D9GMH will probably hit the same results +/-5% but the HZ kits seem to be more consistant.

trojan698 · 23 Jan 2007 at 21:14

Rroff said:
Sorry I have to say G.Skill 6400 HZ kit - will do atleast 1066MHz out the box on stock timings (4-4-4-12) @ 2.2volts (or less)... the other kits also based on D9GMH will probably hit the same results +/-5% but the HZ kits seem to be more consistant.

Erm, no they wont - I have a pair that wont for starters. They're rated at 800Mhz and although they generally hit 1000mhz and use the same ic's as the crucial 10th, the crucial 10th uses hand picked ic's so clocks better. Don't give out advice if you don't know what you're talking about.

Darkwave · 23 Jan 2007 at 22:02

trojan698 said:
Erm, no they wont - I have a pair that wont for starters. They're rated at 800Mhz and although they generally hit 1000mhz and use the same ic's as the crucial 10th, the crucial 10th uses hand picked ic's so clocks better. Don't give out advice if you don't know what you're talking about.

So you would say, no ifs and no buts, the Crucial 10th is the best bet for someone who is purely interested in overclocking it with stability (and that's it)?

Darkwave · 23 Jan 2007 at 22:34

Ordered the Crucial 10th Anniversary, along with the other "incoming" stuff in my sig.

Thanks folks, you're ruining me.

trojan698 · 23 Jan 2007 at 22:37

Good choice! The 8800 bandwagon eh!? I expected more of you!

Darkwave · 23 Jan 2007 at 22:42

trojan698 said:
Good choice! The 8800 bandwagon eh!? I expected more of you!

I was waiting for R600/R610/R630 and the 8600s but my X1900XT died, had no choice but to replace it.

Rroff · 23 Jan 2007 at 23:13

trojan698 said:
Erm, no they wont - I have a pair that wont for starters. They're rated at 800Mhz and although they generally hit 1000mhz and use the same ic's as the crucial 10th, the crucial 10th uses hand picked ic's so clocks better. Don't give out advice if you don't know what you're talking about.

lol lol lol

only the first couple of batches were "binned" for low voltages, any batches out now are no less or better binned than HZ kits...

and judging by the (brutal) failure rate I'd wonder just how well they were binned in the first place anyhow...

I repeat what I said in the first place, if you want RELIABLE ram thats pretty much guaranteed to hit 1000MHz on stock timings then you can't go wrong with a HZ kit... (some HZ kits have D9GCT chips which are actually rated for 1000MHz while they might not always give as good overclocking as D9GMH they will consistantly hit 1000MHz............. which is what the OP asked for)

trojan698 · 25 Jan 2007 at 02:43

For a start you stated that the HZ kits consistently hit 1066Mhz (for some random reason) not 1000Mhz.

Brutal failure rate? I have to say, I'm yet to hear of a single RMA on these forums. As for the speed binning, theres a thread on here with people achieving over 1000Mhz at 4-4-4-4 or better timings, so I really don't know where you're getting your info from.

Just because you have a HZ kit doesn't mean you should go pimping it to everyone as the best choice.

trojan698 · 25 Jan 2007 at 02:44

Ulfhedjinn said:
I was waiting for R600/R610/R630 and the 8600s but my X1900XT died, had no choice but to replace it.

Hehe, it's a hard life eh!? Liquid smooth with full AA & AF, damn!

Rroff · 25 Jan 2007 at 03:21

trojan698 said:
For a start you stated that the HZ kits consistently hit 1066Mhz (for some random reason) not 1000Mhz.

Brutal failure rate? I have to say, I'm yet to hear of a single RMA on these forums. As for the speed binning, theres a thread on here with people achieving over 1000Mhz at 4-4-4-4 or better timings, so I really don't know where you're getting your info from.

Just because you have a HZ kit doesn't mean you should go pimping it to everyone as the best choice.

Because 1066 is DDR2-8500 spec and also happens to be the lowest cut off point for 99.9% of people running these kits at stock timings. Admittedly I've not seen any reports of crucial 10th kit failures on these forums, so maybe OCuk got some solid batches, but if you head over to other enthusiast forums like extreme systems (and the now defunct dfi street) you find quite a number of posts from people who had these kits fail on them inside a couple of months or so.

I don't pimp HZ kits due to just my own personal experience with one kit... I frequent many hardware forums and hang out on several hardware orientated IRC channels I'm going on the experiences of many people... to me G.Skills HZ kits are like the seagate of the memory world and they have a similiar reputation amongst the communities I hang out in so they are the kits I reccomend.

I notice you run a set yourself...

on a related note... tho not sure I believe it or not... rumours that the HZ D9GMH kits are rebadged speed binned Ballistix kits that hit 1000MHz on 2.2volts.

trojan698 · 25 Jan 2007 at 03:51

To be fair I've seen a couple of posts about dead kits on XS but only after they put 2.6v or something similarly crazy through them.

The HZ kits are good, don't get me wrong, but VFM wise, the Crucial 10th is the best from what I've seen. My kit does 1ghz on 2.1v but any higher (on frequency or voltage, strangely) and it fails memtest though I couldn't tell you if it's the board or the ram.