OCUK Memory FAQ

d.chatten · 3 Jun 2005 at 15:02

I am buying an ASUS P5WD2 Premium mobo and a Pentium 4 3.40F cpu but i will be upgrading to a Pentium D Dual Core cpu so it would be great if anyone could tell me which memory would i have to get to ensure there are no bottlenecks at all, DDR2 667/PC2 5400 or DDR2 800/PC2 6400, i don't really care which is the cheapest just as long as there is no bottlenecks.

Batty · 19 Jun 2005 at 13:31

Great post guys, found some answers I was looking for.

Angilion · 22 Jun 2005 at 22:29

Very handy FAQ, but I think you mis-typed at the end.

Socket 939 is the "holy grail" giving proper Pentium 4 style double sided support with normal un-registered DDR. All of the current top of the range chips use this socket, but low cost ones are now starting to appear. If you are building a new system, a Socket 754 one is the way to go!

From context, I think you meant "If you are building a new system, a Socket 939 one is the way to go!"

ColinR · 13 Oct 2005 at 13:39

A slightly less technical question for the memory faq:

Q: When ordering memory (1 or 2 strips only) from Overclockers, how is it despatched? After all, a small package will fit through a letter box, whereas a large package would need to be signed for.

quadboi · 16 Apr 2006 at 18:08

Helped me a lot!

ashmanq · 22 Apr 2006 at 21:52

Great post! was looking to buy some ram and that really helped thanks!

ihatelag · 6 Sep 2006 at 22:09

5) Bank cycle time (tRAS) is the number of cycles necessary to develop the full charge differential between bit and reference lines to restore the data in the memory cells. Lower is faster, with most motherboards having settings for 7, 6 and 5.

How can Bank Cycle Time be tRAS?? AFAIK, the real Bank Cycle Time does... uhm something I have been asking in my other thread for a while now and to quote the bit in cpu-z, Cycle Time = Tras and Bank Cycle Time = Trc which is another thing all together.

I wonder if someone would be kind enough to explain it to me? That would be most appreciated!

[offtopic]
I still can't figure out how to shift my RAM Frequency up

Tim_Cdy · 9 Nov 2006 at 20:09

Thanks. Excelent guide!

wizard91 · 2 Jan 2007 at 22:05

Yeah thanks a lot.

tam1888 · 9 Jan 2007 at 07:51

makes hings a lot more understandable...wish i had read this before i waisted money on wrong memry

frosty03 · 14 Feb 2007 at 00:35

while looking about google,

http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/tech/memory_basics/

this is quite good on explaining the basics.... i found it quite useful for someone whos not kept up to date...

Gravity · 14 Feb 2007 at 22:13

Currently using an AMD64 3500(AM2) with 1gig of ram in dual channel. I have a 7600gt graphics card in there.

I'm looking at getting more ram soon and was wondering what sort of performance drop i would get if i added two more 512 sticks in as opposed to using two 1gig sticks in dual channel?

Loony BoB · 13 May 2007 at 10:20

"If you don’t plan to overclock, Crucial is unbeatable."
Is this still the case? What others are considered good for those who aren't overclocking? It's hard to tell how significant a difference will be between 2GB of value memory and 2GB of non-value memory right now...

animeguitarist · 7 Jun 2007 at 17:48

yo, u seem like the expert and am kinda a noob. Am considering getting more RAM. I know that my motherboard supports DDR2 but i was wondering *** is went when webs sites put "DIMM" or "SODIMM" after it. Help would be apreciated, thanks.

PVLFS · 23 Aug 2007 at 16:45

A great post, as can be seen by all the questions. Soooo
I have OCZ PC8500 SLi 4x1GB, an they currently run at 5-5-5-15 @800mhz Stock. (think thats correct :rolleyes:

!)

Everest is telling me that it will also run at 3-4-4-10 @300Mhz, would this be an overall better config, than stock given the timings are better, but the Mhz is lower, I am such a n00b with this memory stuff ! ! !

osirisrt · 4 Oct 2007 at 11:03

i have a quick question regarding ram (being a ram thread lol). its a good explenation at the beginning, but im alittle confused by a couple of things.

in the list of ram types, it says pc800 is rdram, and rdram is different to ddr/ddr2. but im looking around online, and see places selling ram as 'DDR2 PC800 1 X 1024MB STICK RETAIL' (example). so im alittle confused, as i thought rdram and ddr2 were 2 different types.

could anyone give me a very quick explenation for me please ?

Dist · 1 Jan 2008 at 17:09

osirisrt said:
i have a quick question regarding ram (being a ram thread lol). its a good explenation at the beginning, but im alittle confused by a couple of things.

in the list of ram types, it says pc800 is rdram, and rdram is different to ddr/ddr2. but im looking around online, and see places selling ram as 'DDR2 PC800 1 X 1024MB STICK RETAIL' (example). so im alittle confused, as i thought rdram and ddr2 were 2 different types.

could anyone give me a very quick explenation for me please ?

the first post in this thread is feb 2003, before ddr2 came out (which was later that year if i remember right), so the info is quite a bit out of date now. rdram is basicaly a dead tech, best to just ignore it now because these days everything is about ddr2 and ddr3.

GingerNinja1989 · 12 Jan 2008 at 23:30

Hey there, bit of a n00bish question coming up.

Any chance of some clarification on timings? I'm a bit new to this and am getting a bit confused?

Great post though - very informative and answered all my questions!

Cheers

grimjow · 19 Jan 2008 at 22:19

Ahhh one silly question Id like to know is, Does Ram effect the speed a computer boots up in? yeh I told you it was silly

Minstadave · 19 Jan 2008 at 22:21

grimjow said:
Ahhh one silly question Id like to know is, Does Ram effect the speed a computer boots up in? yeh I told you it was silly

Only to a minor extent, hardware-wise the speed of the HDD is the limiting factor.