upgrading to a gig ram but which?

gre_soul

ive a amd64 2800 on a KV8 PRO motherboard, am using 512 PC2700 ram at the moment but i need to upgrade, is there any performance differences to using 2 * 512 sticks or a 1 * 1024 stick and which memory can i go for, i see PC3200 to PC4800 which is the best (and more important compatible) to use? i don’t think my processor supports this dual channel stuff also. oh and while im at it i might as well ask anothe question what do CL2,5 and CL3 mean? so many questions so little time!

very grateful for guidance!

stereo_steve

Theres no need really to get anything greater than PC3200 for an AMD64 machine because the CPU has its own memory controller on the die.

The lower CAS the better.

To learn everything there is to know read
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=53160&page=1

gre_soul

stereo_steve wrote:

Theres no need really to get anything greater than PC3200 for an AMD64 machine because the CPU has its own memory controller on the die.

The lower CAS the better.

To learn everything there is to know read
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=53160&page=1

thanks

gre_soul

I think ill go for this ram here from jes.de, a gig for 169.99 Euro seems to be ok, i wonder about the quality of MDT, i guess you get what you pay for!

uberpixie

gre_soul wrote:

I think ill go for this ram here from jes.de, a gig for 169.99 Euro seems to be ok, i wonder about the quality of MDT, i guess you get what you pay for!

You can get a gig of ram, two 512mb matched sticks, twinmos ram for €150 off komplett.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118498&cks=PRL

Archytas

I think I mite be wrong here but doesn't that mobo support the dual ram thingy thing... Where the cpu is able to use two matched sticks faster than 1? Are you plannin to upgrade to 2gig any time? If not I'd go for the two sticks....

gre_soul

Archytas wrote:

I think I mite be wrong here but doesn't that mobo support the dual ram thingy thing... Where the cpu is able to use two matched sticks faster than 1? Are you plannin to upgrade to 2gig any time? If not I'd go for the two sticks....

i went for the two matched sticks at komplett.ie for 139 euros, i think below explains the AMD64 memory question on dual channel memory, i have a socket 754 mobo so no dual channel memory, not the end of the world i think!

AMD64

Socket 940 was the first, introduced for opterons and earlier Athlon FX processors. It uses a Dual Channel memory controller at speeds of up to PC3200. A downside is that it requires Registered ECC memory, which reduces performance slightly. Socket 940 is now purely a server based socket.

Socket 754 was the first "Athlon 64" socket, i.e. designed for desktop use. It uses a single channel memory controller, though as users quickly found out this really isn't as much of a disadvantage as it sounds. Of the two desktop sockets, Socket 754 boards tend to be fussier with the memory they work with.

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 939 one is the way to go!

anthonymcg

uberpixie wrote:

You can get a gig of ram, two 512mb matched sticks, twinmos ram for €150 off komplett.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=118498&cks=PRL

Went for that myself a couple of months ago. Solid performance and no problems since.