Recommend me RAM

unkel

For my S939 clawhammer 3500. Tight timings are essential. Will only consider CAS2. I would consider either 2*512MB or 2*1024MB

Could you also please indicate price and where to get? My budget is flexible but as always I'd like to get value for money

My rig will be overclocked, but not extremely so, as I like to keep things quiet. For the same reason, I'd rather not get RAM that I need to vdimm to 3.6 volt to get it stable

Much appreciated. Apologies, but I haven't the time I used to have, to go about and do all the research myself

rALLy

try this -

[URL=http://]http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_el_ddr_pc_3200_dual_channel_gold[/URL]

I bought this last month for my new X2 rig. Ultra low timings and good overclocker

194 from shop4memory

WizZard

That is good RAM. I would recommend that or the OCZ PC4000 Gold series either. Not the VX, that needs extra voltage which you said you don't want to give it.
BH5 based memort (check Mushkin) also is supposed to have ultra tight timings, but I've heard of BH5 needing a little extra voltage to get those timings.

HungryJoey

Try some OCZ Gold like mentioned above, I have it currently. VERY impressive RAM and Amazing Overclocker for PC3200 RAM. Although if you want to run this RAM @ 2-2-2-5 1T You will need to give itAtleast 2.85V... And if you want a 240FSB from this RAM u will need about 3.1V's to run 240Mhz @ 2-2-2-5 1T, If you want Non Voltage hogger RAM but it will cost you, Get some TCCD RAM. That stuff reaches 300Mhz. But the OCZ Gold is beautiful stuff.

Hold's together very stable in my system, OCZ is just made for AMD Should run lovely in your 3500+.... How far are you planning on taking your CPU ?

Word of warning : Stay away from the Geil Ultra platinum Pc4000, If you run a AMD system. Shop4memory sell it for the same price as the OCZ Gold which tempted me to get it and i did. I failed to get it to run Above 210Mhz which was EXTREMELY disapointing And even at DDr400 Speeds ( 200 mhz ) it would only run at 2-3-3-6 timings which are awful. After that i researched into this Geil to see what was the problem, I noticed that all review's, well most Overclocking review's mentioned in AMD 64 system's the furthest they could get this geil to run at was between 212-216 Mhz... Where as intel it would go right up to its rated speed of 250Mhz... Geil is optomosed to run Alot better in Intel Motherboard's. Just a word of warning for you, Don't get tempted. Stick with PC3200 For now unless you want to invest in alot of money in Decent PC4000 RAM with good timing's. But i would stay with OCZ Pc3200.

Hj

K.O.Kiki

I was going to post a similar thread, but after reading the stuff here I'll stick with the recommended OCZ.
However, if I'm going to be OC'ing, should I get a DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D or an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo? They're around the same price.
CPU'll be an A64 3000+ Venice w/Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 HSF.

Any help appreciated!

unkel

Thanks for the help so far lads

The 2*512MB 2-2-2-5 OCZ EL Gold looks good for €194, but 2-2-2-5 TCCD would only be a bit more at €217 from Patriot or €220 from OCZ. Then again 2*1024MB 2-3-2-5 from Patriot is only €285. Tempting, or what do you think?

K.O.Kiki wrote:

should I get a DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D or an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo?

Get your own thread, ya highjacker ya

Anyway, plenty of posts here or in the tweaking forum on the DFI Lanparty. Seems to be about the best out there on NF4 SLI

K.O.Kiki

Tweaking forum! Totally forgot about that!! *runs off to post there*

BTW, with exchange rates, the OCZ RAM is closer to €182 at overclockers.co.uk

unkel

K.O.Kiki wrote:

BTW, with exchange rates, the OCZ RAM is closer to €182 at overclockers.co.uk

I think you'll find it is €200 from them including shipping. And you'll have to hope you get it within a week with those GLS cowboys. I'd rather spend my money with shop4memory too

K.O.Kiki

And I'm looking for new vendors after reading some of the DOA/RMA horror stories about OcUK Komplett's got some stuff, but I'll have to hold off on my components for a bit 'til I can figure this stuff out.

Meh. Think I'll get a PS2 in the meantime (that's right-I still ain't got one!)

gline

i can recommend corsair 3200XL ram, sorry i havent got a link or price, im running it @ 400 2-2-2-5 and i know it can do up to around 430-440 2-2-2-5 usually with a measley 2.7-2.8 volts

Col_Loki

Id personally go with some TwinMos BH5 512mb Sticks for €65 ..... http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=309097&cks=PRL

It says CL2.5 , but the fact that it has Winbond BH5 chips means you just up the voltage a little and it will do 2-2-2 timings at pretty decent speeds (the BH5 takes pretty well to the voltage, the more you put through it the better it goes). BH5 is very hard to come by these days, and is highly reguarded Ram.

The other way i would go is with some TCCD/TCC5 chips. Since its almost all TCC5 chips at the min you will pay extra to get TCCD stock. They both are performing pretty simularly at the min, so TCC5 would be a choice based on price.
The Mushkin Level2 V2 Has TCC5 chips at the min and is very well priced on www.pc-memory-upgrade.co.uk . I grabbed some of this and it looks pretty good (yet to test).

The GSkill is supposed to be great stuff, but quite expensive......
OCZ Rev2 - Samsung chips aswell, a little pricey.

If your looking for the tightest timings, willing to give it a little extra voltage, id think strongly about the TwinMos....

unkel

Col_Loki wrote:

Id personally go with some TwinMos BH5 512mb Sticks for €65

Great find, C! That sure is incredibly cheap for those legend sticks of RAM

Col_Loki wrote:

It says CL2.5 , but the fact that it has Winbond BH5 chips means you just up the voltage a little and it will do 2-2-2 timings at pretty decent speeds (the BH5 takes pretty well to the voltage, the more you put through it the better it goes)

Makes sense. At default vdimm they would only be recognised as CAS2.5

Now the million dollar question: I want to run @ something like 220-240Mhz. What vdimm would be required to run BH5 @ 2-2-2-5?

I don't care about temps as long as they are not near anything critical

Anyone?

Alternatively, what vdimm would be reguierd on TCCD, TCC5

@HungryJoey - thanks for the advice. Your experience with geil RAM is shocking

And last but not least: my current mobo (A8V - don't ask, let's just say it was not my first choice or second either) will only let me pump 2.8 volts to the vdimm

I'm pragmatic though. If cheap BH5 would work for me, I'd consider buying another mobo

savemejebus

probably a stupid question but if planning on overclocking would these chips be better than the 3200 ones
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=308282&cks=PRL

Col_Loki

Ive heard of (without looking deaply) of TwinMos BH5 doing 2-2-2-5 @ 260mhz with 3.5V . Thats a little extreme, but gives an indication of what the Ram can actually do.

I would think even at under 3v it should hit 220-230mhz @ 2-2-2 timings, and beyond that at slightly looser ones, which definetly makes it a bargain. Plus they take to voltage like a fish to water so have a quiet fan blowing over them and up the voltage for an increased performance level.

TCCD/TCC5 are lower voltage chips, sweat-spot being 2.9v but reaching an average of 220-240 (closer to 220mhz) at 2-2-2 timings, while the BH5 can go much higher with increased voltage. Between 2.7-3.5 the BH5 will do 220-265mhz on average.... Which is very impressive.

[edit] I think the PC3500 Chips would perform very simular to the Pc3200 ones, they are BH5 chips i would say the failure rate for Pc3200/3500 @ 2.5CL is minimal. Only for the fact that i got Mushkin L2 (TCC5) for €62 per 512mb i would have gotten TwinMos BH5 in a heartbeat.
[PS This is just a complete random theory but, when i had a couple of mates who RMA'd some twinmos ram they got Winbond stuff in return. I think this might be komplett's reserve stock of BH5 that they use to give to people with problems with twinmos ram.... thats just a theory, but i do know that BH5 is RARE and performes extremely well]

Cuddlesworth

WizZard wrote:

but I've heard of BH5 needing a little extra voltage to get those timings.

A little is a bit of an understatement considering that nearly every board on the market cant handle the volts they really need ie, 3.4volts upwards

Col_Loki

A little is a bit of an understatement considering that nearly every board on the market cant handle the volts they really need ie, 3.4volts upwards

That kind of voltage would be used to get pretty high speeds out of the Ram, lesser voltage can still be used , Ram just wont go as high obviously.
For the price i dont think theres any other Ram that will do aswell.

With 2.9/3v id say it should hit atleast 220-230mhz @ 2-2-2.... the BH5 does really like voltage so the more you pump into it the better it performs.

Cuddlesworth

Im using ocz vx pc4000 and at 3.6volts it does 260@1.5-2-2-8. But i think it based on winbond utt chips not bh5.And I need to give the modules there own fan. They get really hot

unkel

krazy_8s wrote:

Im using ocz vx pc4000 and at 3.6volts it does 260@1.5-2-2-8

That looks pretty impressive

Now someone please enlighten me. Back a while ago (late '03 - early '04) I knew my stuff on P4C. Have been out of the game a bit since then. The tight timings game is pretty new to me as I've recently gone AMD64 just for the craic

Ram is fed its power through the 3.3 volt PSU to mobo connector, right? Now how can it get 3.6 volt out of that?

Also what can I expect in improvements? Right now on superbudget 2GB of CL3 ram with NO OC whatsoever and with all my normal services running and browsing the web while burning a DVD, I get 43 seconds to calculate Pi to 1 million digits using superpi. I got 40 seconds on my old P4 system under similar circumstances

I am very disappointed that a brand new A64 3500 clawhammer does not outperform an ancient P4C 3.0. It must be a memory thing so

Cuddlesworth

unkel wrote:

That looks pretty impressive

Now someone please enlighten me. Back a while ago (late '03 - early '04) I knew my stuff on P4C. Have been out of the game a bit since then. The tight timings game is pretty new to me as I've recently gone AMD64 just for the craic

Ram is fed its power through the 3.3 volt PSU to mobo connector, right? Now how can it get 3.6 volt out of that?

Also what can I expect in improvements? Right now on superbudget 2GB of CL3 ram with NO OC whatsoever and with all my normal services running and browsing the web while burning a DVD, I get 43 seconds to calculate Pi to 1 million digits using superpi. I got 40 seconds on my old P4 system under similar circumstances

I am very disappointed that a brand new A64 3500 clawhammer does not outperform an ancient P4C 3.0. It must be a memory thing so

Ocz voltage booster or dfi nf4 boards are needed to go above 2.8/2.9 volts on most boards. But to be honest the performance benifits of tight timings at high bandwidth are not really needed.2gigs of value ram will serve you better.

And as for ram performance have you enabled 1t timings in bios.