Which of these 2 high spec ddr2 ram for xmas?

harris1986 · 8 Dec 2006 at 20:21

ok guys just been offered a choice of either the 2x1gb pc8000 cellshock stuff from oc's for £235 or i've found Team Xtreme 2x1gb pc6400 for £204 which to choose? i'm slightly leaning toward the Team stuff due to it's awesome overclockability and lower timings (reports of this stuff doing 996mhz on 4-3-3-10 timings

)

which do you guys think?

Jokester · 8 Dec 2006 at 20:23

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-085-CR

Same chips as the Team, but slightly cheaper.

Jokester

nightic · 8 Dec 2006 at 20:27

Go for the Team but save a bit more - buy the PC5300 3-3-3 version which is doing just as well, possibly better than the PC6400 kits.

The CellShocks at £235 would be the C5 version which is very good but not significantly better than other decent Micron D9GMH based RAM (it's the C4 version of the CellShock PC8000 that is 100% G9DKX).

Alternatively go for the Crucial 10th Anniversary stuff (which incidentally was cheaper, thanks to free shipping/coupons etc before OcUK bought all UK stocks).
It's likely the best buy for under £200 (although the hype is a bit much now - it's not especially any better than other good/high binned D9GMH stuff, just cheaper).

harris1986 · 8 Dec 2006 at 20:50

hmm can't really risk the 5300 as i need faster ram due to my motherboard not supporting lower multipliers, so think i'm going to go for the Team stuff as i'm not paying anyways

. i'm pretty much ram limited at the minute although this 2x512mb geil value pc5300 does 425mhz giving my cpu 3.4ghz but just isn't stable!

nightic · 8 Dec 2006 at 20:59

Team PC5300 3-3-3 is going to do 425MHz with some ease, possibly even with 3-3-3 timings at a comfortable VDIMM (although 4-3-3/4-4-4 would be more of a guarantee).

Wouldn't expect a randomly-bought kit of Team PC6400 is going to do 996mhz 4-3-3-10 with any voltage you'd want to run 24/7.

Not quite sure what all the low timing chasing (not saying you are, just in general) for P965 boards (thinking of P5B-E/Deluxe in particular) is achieving in any case. A few threads on the better informed/more 'xtreme' forums are indicating that:

a) 1:1 FSB:memory increases latency over 'divided' settings.
b) Pushing FSB over tighter timings (within reason) offers greater benefits.
c) Tighter timings (namely 3-3-3) in some instances are actually lower performing than slightly looser ones (4-4-4).

harris1986 · 8 Dec 2006 at 21:03

yeah i'm aware of this, but i have to be carefull with the ram as i know there is a problem with the SPD timings settings on the p5b deluxe that once you go over a certain fsb (think it's 395) then it sends the ram awol and you get very slack timings and very low overclockability!

nightic · 8 Dec 2006 at 21:04

harris1986 said:
yeah i'm aware of this, but i have to be carefull with the ram as i know there is a problem with the SPD timings settings on the p5b deluxe that once you go over a certain fsb (think it's 395) then it sends the ram awol and you get very slack timings and very low overclockability!

It's at 400MHz IIRC after which the 'strap' changes, allowing for greater ability to push the FSB but lower clock-for-clock performance.
On the P5B-Deluxe, this is generally seen as an opportunity to further increase the FSB, somewhat counteracting the post-400MHz performance drop.

harris1986 · 8 Dec 2006 at 21:09

yeah this is true, like i say it was weird because i got the problem with the cas4 2x1gb set of geil ultra, but my pc5300 geil value is fine :confused:

either way i'm pretty sure this team xtreme stuff will do 900mhz+ so that's going to start nearing my motherboards limits, i just want to see how high this cpu will go, as i've had it at 3.4ghz on stock volts and windows stable lol, and 3.2ghz on stock volts orthos stable!