Memory Brands / Types recommendations

lysergide · Post by **lysergide** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:41 pm

As a whole move of upgrading my Motherboard (from the crappy SiS chipset) i was looking into buying a few other parts, among them a memory upgrade.

Which brand do u recommand most?

I currently have 512mb (2x256 sticks) ddr400mhz of some brand (don't know which)

are there any parameters that should be looked for when buying memory?

Is there anything wrong with mixing my current setup by adding a different brand of RAM ?

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 4:40 pm

To give you any directions you should tell us your setup (board, ram, cpu, busspeed)
As for memory parameters, in general you should go for low latency ram (yes they cost more, but can make the difference). I personally have good experiences with Corsair.
Cheers,
Rob

lysergide · Post by **lysergide** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 5:09 pm

My system now:

Asus p4s800d
512mb ram (ddr400mhz) i have no idea which brand is it or what other specs.. at boot it says "3200" have no idea what else
p4 3.0ghz intel cpu

i am gonna upgrade to intel motherboard (not sure whether d865perl or d875pbz yet)

and want to add additional ram.

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:09 am

Ouch. Your performance options are pretty limitted with the choices you are proposing.

It sounds like stability, not performance, is what you are trying to get. The chipsets you are switching are fairly similar in performance, so not much chance to win big here.

Just swapping the motherboard might be a good 1st try though. Once you do that, if you still have problems, then I would toss the 2x256 memory, and then make the choice. Your current memory sounds pretty nice.

If you end up replacing memory... this stuff doesn't look bad... 2 of these...
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 546&depa=1

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ScofieldKid on 2004-10-15 01:24 ]</font>

Post by **garyb** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:22 am

i'm sure that what you have will work fine. i personally like the corsair twin-x pairs with the 2ns latency......

lysergide · Post by **lysergide** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:01 am

First of all why my performance options are limited..?

Secondly, can i mix 2 types of memory? or if i'm getting the Corsair-Twinx like u said i can't mix it with any other type of memory or any other latency memory?

and last, is it preferred to have 1 stick of 512mb than 2 of 256? makes any difference?

ScofieldKid · Post by **ScofieldKid** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:01 am

The p4s800d is a dual-ddr motherboard that supports 800MHz FSB. That's pretty much what you are replacing it with. Same CPU... same FSB... and rougly the same memory speeds, probably.

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying that buying more memory and switching your motherboard is probably not going to do much for you in terms of performance with this approach. You are at a high level already. Don't get greedy!!!

The next step up is really moving to the new CPU's on the Intel 775 chipsets, to get to 3.6GHz for example. But that is a whole different memory model. Depending on what you are doing, there are various Athlon solutions that are doing nicely as well.

But like I say, you are already in a good place. I don't see why you are beating the drum for performance when your problem is reliability.

And... that being the case, I would say just toss the old memory and get two of the Corsair Twin-X 512's or Ballistix 512's. Mixing memory sounds like something I wouldn't recommend if you want reliability/performance. You'll have 1GB or RAM, so why push it by mixing in two more 256 pieces when you don't know the latency of what you have now?

I'm just telling you what I would do. You can certainly try mixing in with some other dimms. But my experience is that your chances at reliability are better with two matched pieces, than they are with four of anything. Gary's comments are on the money by the way. If your memory is good, it shouldn't be causing your performance problem either.

It really sounds like you have a stability issue, not a performance issue.

If you want to discuss I/O performance... well I'm going home now... so that's another day...

lysergide · Post by **lysergide** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:27 am

Actually my major concern is the motherboard replacement - my system is unusable right now, i'm suspecting this is due to the sis chipset on my motherboard.

First thing i'd like to get is the intel board.. and while i'm at it i wanted to spoil myself with some additional memory, i like to upgrade all at once and get it over with....

I believe i'll be getting the Corsair since they look best for what i need and also low latency.

Rob van Berkel · Post by **Rob van Berkel** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 8:17 am

On 2004-10-15 04:22, garyb wrote:
i'm sure that what you have will work fine. i personally like the corsair twin-x pairs with the 2ns latency......

Always thought latency was measured in clock-cycles (which very well can be nanoseconds

)

But, I do agree on the twin-x ll series. They rock!
Cheers,
Rob