You don't need expensive memory

pieman109 · 29 Dec 2007 at 10:25

I needed some DDR2 memory for one of our systems at home, so I got some real cheap kingston 2 x 1gb 533mhz stuff from a local dealer. Cost works out roughly the same as getting some geil 6400c plus postage from ocuk, still it got the pc going so I'm happy.
Anyways, a coupla days after I installed this ram I realised I hadn't reset the overclock I had on this system, and the memory has been running at 800ddr @ 5-5-5-15, 2.1Vdimm. I ran orthos for a good few hours and it passed fine. Now I know a lot of memory will overclock, especially the slower crucial stuff, but this is dirt cheap value gear and it still goes like the clappers, just shows you don't need the really expensive stuff for midrange overclocking.

schumi84 · 29 Dec 2007 at 10:49

Always nice to get a pleasant surprise like that, unlike so many other things that could happen, like bork your system.

MHayes · 29 Dec 2007 at 13:26

I agree and disagree, nice overclock but what you gonna do if you need 1100mhz.

Minstadave · 29 Dec 2007 at 20:57

a lot of value RAM use Micron chips which clock really well.

pieman109 · 30 Dec 2007 at 21:37

MHayes said:
I agree and disagree, nice overclock but what you gonna do if you need 1100mhz.

This was in system that should have been run stock with no overclocking intended. Just turned out that I forgot to return the settings to stock

.
And if I intended to overclock that high I'd buy some geil 6400c, the four sets of 2x2gb I've got/had ALL do up to 950mhz, good enough for me and dirt cheap too.

FreeStream · 30 Dec 2007 at 22:24

Well you got lucky and got some good cheap memory.

I'd still rather pay £30 more for some PC8500 then run 520 4-4-4-12 with room to spare.

CR.

pieman109 · 30 Dec 2007 at 23:14

Concorde Rules said:
Well you got lucky and got some good cheap memory.

I'd still rather pay £30 more for some PC8500 then run 520 4-4-4-12 with room to spare.

CR.

Oh I agree entirely, just that its nice to get something for nowt when its not expected. Also shows that, for mid to high clocking you don't need expensive ram, for high clocking you do.

gurusan · 30 Dec 2007 at 23:18

A nice little surprise...but 5,5,5,15 are pretty lax timings for 800mhz

pieman109 · 31 Dec 2007 at 01:42

Timings on an C2D system do not mean anywhere near as much as higher fsb.

Speed and hence bandwidth is far more important.

gurusan · 31 Dec 2007 at 08:24

pieman109 said:
Timings on an C2D system do not mean anywhere near as much as higher fsb. Speed and hence bandwidth is far more important.

but us nutcases with our synthetic benchmarks like running super tight timings

Neal · 31 Dec 2007 at 12:20

Im running 3x 1gb Kingstek ddr2 5300 ram @ £7 per gig...

runs at max of 333mhz all day long.... cant moan for £21!

Rroff · 31 Dec 2007 at 14:10

with core 2 CPUs aslong as your 1:1 with your CPU and running CL5 at the loosest it doesn't make much odds, you really don't need performance RAM unless you are going for extreme overclocking...

I've always found value RAM overclocks really well - tho not sure how long it would run stable for before the extra voltage started to thrash it... but I have PC2-4200 sticks here that happily run at 800MHz CL5 on 1.9v and some corsair value select stuff (is PC2-5300 but still) that again happily overclocks to 800MHz CL5 on stock voltage iirc - never tried pushing them further, they happily ran for a couple of months at those speeds while RMAing some other RAM.