Ram

[SKurj]

Ok in the process of putting together a new system.

All the components have been decided with the exception of RAM..

I am building:
XP2800+
ASUS A7N8X deluxe
DDR 400 ram to cover any future upgrades...

My options (all 512mb sticks buying 2):

Apacer $125 (all CDN prices)
Corsair Extreme $199
Kingston HyperX $199

I am not planning on any overclocking, I might consider eventually adding a 3rd stick as well.

Would it really be worth spending an extra $150 for the "better" stuff?
If I go for the better stuff I cannot afford both sticks at the same time..


SKurj

[whels]

with Ram, i always go with Quality over quantity.
i love crucial, they have PC3200 (DDR 400) for
$99 per 512mb stick.


whels

Originally posted by SKurj
Ok in the process of putting together a new system.

All the components have been decided with the exception of RAM..

I am building:
XP2800+
ASUS A7N8X deluxe
DDR 400 ram to cover any future upgrades...

My options (all 512mb sticks buying 2):

Apacer $125 (all CDN prices)
Corsair Extreme $199
Kingston HyperX $199

I am not planning on any overclocking, I might consider eventually adding a 3rd stick as well.

Would it really be worth spending an extra $150 for the "better" stuff?
If I go for the better stuff I cannot afford both sticks at the same time..


SKurj

[Defiance]

Corsair outa the choices  my 2c worth

[capt. apathy]

I've had trouble with kingston (twice).  I'd go with crucial (no problems), never tried the other 2

[blackfalcon4]

Skurj,

 I'd go with crucial ram since you dont need the overhead for overclocking.
 Never had a problem using crucial with the systems I built.

  Just get 2 of the same modules in the lowest cas timing you can get. Forget about the 3rd stick as this will not allow you to use the dual channel option on that mobo.

[bockko]

blackfalcon makes a good point: get low cas 2.5 or 2 if you can afford it, but if you get 3 and don't plan on o/c'ing, don't sweat it. You want to install your ram sticks in two's, slot 1/3, 2/4 to enable the dual channel mode, which is what you are after. if you increas your ram above 2, don't just add 1 -- that will cost performance by turning off the dual ddr mode. Add 2, you will keep your dual mode. Again, running at normal clock speeds the performance penalty of cas 3 is very small, I think I stuck 2.5 in mine, works just fine.

[Defiance]

I don't see Crucial in his options

[SKurj]

Ok some other options I have found:

Infineon 512, $113
Hynix 512, $113


The Kingston is the only CL2 Ram that I have available from the local guys.  (I won't shop online for this stuff)

I've been using the Apacer SDRam in my current pc for a yr with no problems, actually I've never had problems with memory since I owned my first PC...


SKurj

[Reschke]

Infineon is a good brand to get. I have either run Infineon or Micron/Crucial only in my systems for quite a while. If you buy from someone like Newegg.com they have a really good return policy and will generally cross ship you the RMA part you requested. That keeps return times down as well. I haven't bought memory from an online place other than them so I really can't comment on others. BTW never had a bad stick from Newegg either. Locally I generally only see crap memory come into the stores to keep their costs low. That is a shame also since no one really carries any good memory locally.

[whels]

Originally posted by Reschke
Infineon is a good brand to get. I have either run Infineon or Micron/Crucial only in my systems for quite a while. If you buy from someone like Newegg.com they have a really good return policy and will generally cross ship you the RMA part you requested. That keeps return times down as well. I haven't bought memory from an online place other than them so I really can't comment on others. BTW never had a bad stick from Newegg either. Locally I generally only see crap memory come into the stores to keep their costs low. That is a shame also since no one really carries any good memory locally.

i usually buy straight from crucial.

whels

[214thCavalier]

Memory comparisons.

With a 2.8c you will be better off with DDR400 memory running faster timing.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1849

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1853

and

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.html?i=1849

[SKurj]

Thanks 214thCavalier

From reading that article they found that whichever sticks were using Hynix chips gave the better performance...

As I can get the Hynix even if it is probably their "cheaper" stuff, I will likely buy it.  Its also the cheapest..


SKurj

[Sox62]

I have the same mobo,and I use Kingston Hyper X 3500.

I chose this because when I purchased the board,there were some issues with Corsair memory.It's most likely been cleared up,but it's worth checking into.


Whatever you choose,make sure you purchase CL2 latency.Cl2.5,or CL3 will give you a significant performance hit.

[214thCavalier]

But if your cpu is a 2.4 or 2.6 and your going to overclock then your better going with the CL3 DDR500 rated memory.
The extra overclock you are likely to achieve with these cpu's more than makes up for the reduction from CL2 to 3.

And the latest Corsair chips run fine although they apparently do not overclock as well.

[Sox62]

Originally posted by 214thCavalier
But if your cpu is a 2.4 or 2.6 and your going to overclock then your better going with the CL3 DDR500 rated memory.
The extra overclock you are likely to achieve with these cpu's more than makes up for the reduction from CL2 to 3.

And the latest Corsair chips run fine although they apparently do not overclock as well.

If you run the same setup as me,and overclock the same speed memory that's CL3,and I overclock my CL2,you really think it will be outperformed?.

Whether or not you plan to overclock,you'll see a performance hit with the CL3 vs the CL2.