My Next buy is coming up

wannabedamned · 24 Mar 2006 at 13:43

I've posted this here, Because my question has multiple hardware components involved.

Now, I'm stuck between buying the corsair 3500LL or the Mushkin redline stuff.

I want to beable to hit 300HTT. While the RAM is running at its full potential.

I only have an Asrock Sata2 AGP/PCIe mobo, So i understand there are voltage problems that will cripple me at the moment, But thats fine. I plan on moving to a more overclocker friendly board when i'm ready to buy a PCIe card. Im waiting for the DirectX 10 Graphics cards.

So my questions are.

Which would suit me better Mushkin Redline 2gb or Corsair 3500LL 2gb.

When i am ready to get a new motherboard, Which is the better one to go for? DFI are supposed to be the favourites i understand. But is that still the case?

Also, Any ideas as to when the DX 10 cards are gonna be here?

Raikiri · 24 Mar 2006 at 13:49

300 with either of those won't be easy to get without a lot of voltage, and I believe the Mushkin uses BH-5 chips so you would need about 3.4v and active cooling. The corsair probably would not even manage it at all, due to only being rated at pc3500.

You would either have to pay silly amount for some PC4800 or you could get the G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel Kit for £150, less than either of your other choices and you are more likely to get near the 300mhz mark due to them needing less voltage and being rated as 250mhz stock.

wannabedamned · 24 Mar 2006 at 13:55

Nice one, Replies that save me money are much appreciated

I was always led to believe the Mushkin stuff was the best around, But if it takes that much voltage to push 300HTT, Then thats crazy! I was hoping to put 2.9 through the RAM, At the most. hehe.

If i go with G-Skill instead of Mushkin, Will I suffer terribley due to the slacker timings?

Raikiri · 24 Mar 2006 at 13:58

wannabedamned said:
Nice one, Replies that save me money are much appreciated

I was always led to believe the Mushkin stuff was the best around, But if it takes that much voltage to push 300HTT, Then thats crazy! I was hoping to put 2.9 through the RAM, At the most. hehe.

If i go with G-Skill instead of Mushkin, Will I suffer terribley due to the slacker timings?

Maybe 1-2% at the most, timings seem to have very little effect on athlon 64s, but saying that running with a devider doesnt take a huge hit either. Although I just had a read through and it seems the redline doesnt need as much voltage as it used to, I would still go for the cheaper G.Skill if it were me.

wannabedamned · 24 Mar 2006 at 14:09

Raikiri said:
Maybe 1-2% at the most, timings seem to have very little effect on athlon 64s, but saying that running with a devider doesnt take a huge hit either. Although I just had a read through and it seems the redline doesnt need as much voltage as it used to, I would still go for the cheaper G.Skill if it were me.

I'll have a read around first obviously. But This saves me a lot of money so if all looks good i'll be swapping to the G.Skill stuff. Cheers

wannabedamned · 24 Mar 2006 at 15:34

ok. after some reading around, It looks like its not as easy as i first thought. Apparently no 2gb kits can get to 300HTT without losing out else where.

So what would my best option be?

I mean i've never really understood the divider thing, All i can understand is using one cant be a good thing. I'm not a complete overclocking beginner, I'm just an AMD64 beginner.

Whats my best option, to get my Opteron 146 to 300HTT? Well overall i'm aiming for a 3ghz chip

Im guessing Buying the G.Skill stuff, and running it on a divider yes?

How much efficiency do i lose in the RAM itself by using one?

Can anyone gimme a dummies explanation to what a divider actually does?

Raikiri · 24 Mar 2006 at 15:45

wannabedamned said:
ok. after some reading around, It looks like its not as easy as i first thought. Apparently no 2gb kits can get to 300HTT without losing out else where.

So what would my best option be?

I mean i've never really understood the divider thing, All i can understand is using one cant be a good thing. I'm not a complete overclocking beginner, I'm just an AMD64 beginner.

Whats my best option, to get my Opteron 146 to 300HTT? Well overall i'm aiming for a 3ghz chip

Im guessing Buying the G.Skill stuff, and running it on a divider yes?

How much efficiency do i lose in the RAM itself by using one?

Can anyone gimme a dummies explanation to what a divider actually does?

A devider means the ram runs at a lower frequency than the HTT (FSB), i use the 166 devider on my 3200+, which is also known as the 5/6.

Running my cpu at 250 HTT means that my ram runs at 5/6 of 250 which is 208mhz, I have seen other venice at 10x250 and their scores are near identical to mine in everything apart from super pi which likes high memory speed.

So if you were to run the G.Skill @ 5/6 it would be at it's stock 250mhz although I think the DFI has a lot more options (9/10 or 180mhz) would allow it to run at 270mhz.

wannabedamned · 24 Mar 2006 at 15:51

Seems to me no matter what, i'll be seeing an improvement then, Because my current RAM is running at 200mhz, and i only have 512

So its win win, With the potential to increase my CPU to a full 3ghz.

So i've decided, G.SKill 2gb kit it is.

You've been a great help Raikiri. Thanks.

trojan698 · 24 Mar 2006 at 16:15

It's no biggy if you cant run 1:1, nothing wrong with running a divider

Explicit · 24 Mar 2006 at 16:38

300 HTT 1:1 is pretty insane, I guess the Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4400 Pro TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3 (MY-101-CS) will probably hit that with some slack timings, as it comes at 275 out of the box.

But, more importantly, read this:

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/athlon64oc/
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Guides/athlon64oc/4.html

What have these tests proven? They've proven that overclocking your K8 system while using a memory divider to keep that cheaper DDR RAM within spec is nothing to be ashamed of. We saw quite healthy gains in all departments, including memory bandwidth, merely by raising the CPU clock even though we kept the memory at ~200 MHz at all times. I repeat: You are not a weenie if you use a memory divider.

So, just get some decent ram like OCZ Platinum PC3200 (MY-057-OC), slap a divider on it, and raise the HTT upto 300 on the DFI mobo