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Need Help Selecting RAM

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Lil Pun, May 27, 2004.

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Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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BTW, Crucial also has free 2nd day shipping.

#21 Dr of Dunk, May 27, 2004

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How does this look:

http://www.komusa.com/25ddrpc1620s.html

#22 Lil Pun, May 27, 2004
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It's PC1600. Don't get it.

For once in your life, just do as you're told Pun. Crap man.

#23 Dr of Dunk, May 27, 2004
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Originally posted by Dr of Dunk
It's PC1600. Don't get it.

For once in your life, just do as your told Pun. Crap man.
Click to expand...

I am sorry, I posted before I looked at your new post. I'm getting a 512 MB stick from crucial.com for about $90.00.

#24 Lil Pun, May 27, 2004
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Originally posted by Dr of Dunk
ASUS is a quality maker of motherboards... I wouldn't know ASRock from Kid Rock. Maybe it's an off-shoot of ASUS - although I don't know why they'd do that.
Click to expand...

ASRock is the budget offshoot of ASUS. Haven't used one before, but I understand they're good.

For memory, I only buy Micron (branded), Mushkin, Crucial, Corsair, or Kingston. My favorite is Mushkin. There is other good RAM out there, but I like to stick to what I know is good. I hear OCZ is really good, but I haven't had occasion to use it.

#25 Vengeance, May 27, 2004
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Ah ok. That explains it then. So there you go Pun. You do apparently have a po man's ASUS.

#26 Dr of Dunk, May 27, 2004
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Originally posted by KaiSeR SoZe
it says on your description you can have DDR400 thats all you need a stick of DDR400
Click to expand...

But I believe his processor has a FSB of 333 (like mine). He might get better performance with DDR ram that matches his FSB speed. That's what I went for.

#27 Bailey, May 28, 2004

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Originally posted by Dr of Dunk
It's PC1600. Don't get it.

For once in your life, just do as you're told Pun. Crap man.
Click to expand...

1600!!! Don't even touch that Pun!

Has anyone ever heard of/used geil of Mushkin?

they have 512mb PC3200 Ram for about 90 bucks. (one is $85 the other is 93.)

Newegg is having a sale on most of their computer stuff for memorial day. I am thinking of picking up an Intel Pentium 3.0 B Ghz FSB 800, etc.

#28 Uprising, May 28, 2004
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Originally posted by Bailey
But I believe his processor has a FSB of 333 (like mine). He might get better performance with DDR ram that matches his FSB speed. That's what I went for.
Click to expand...

That's what I was asking about earlier, is the FSB speed important when it comes to the RAM I select? Will it cost any more?

#29 Lil Pun, May 28, 2004
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How about this stick:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-217&depa=1

#30 Lil Pun, May 28, 2004
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for my Asus P4P800 Deluxe, I bought 1 gig of Infineon PC3200 for $156 shipped. The price has since gone up to $186, but that's still pretty cheap.

Here's the link:
http://www.komusa.com/komusa/1gbkit5pc40d3.html

I used code dualddr but that was a couple of months ago - don't know if it still works.

never buy generic RAM

-- droxford

#31 droxford, May 28, 2004
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Also, how important are RAM heatsinks? I have three fans in my system, the CPU fan, a PCI exhaust fan and a front case fan. Do I need more cooling?

#32 Lil Pun, May 28, 2004
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Oh yeah, I'm planning on having at least 2 hard drives. This will be my first system with two hard drives. Do you need to install an operating system on both hard drives or do you set one to master and the other to slave and then your operating system goes on the master and recognizes the slave drive as an extra storage unit or am I way off base either way?

#33 Lil Pun, May 28, 2004

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Originally posted by Lil Pun
That's what I was asking about earlier, is the FSB speed important when it comes to the RAM I select? Will it cost any more?
Click to expand...

Well, people here are recommending DDR400 RAM, which is faster than the speed at which your processor will talk to it.

Personally, because my mobo is dual channel, I selected two 512MB sticks of DDR333. I get the dual channel benefits from two pieces of RAM, and the processor and memory are at the same speed.

#34 Bailey, May 28, 2004
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Here's an explanation:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/New_Users/Q_20880479.html

There are several different 'Bus' Speeds when referring to your PC.

think of a Bus as a device that information travels on. . . There's a memory bus, the cpu bus and the system bus. (There's also an AGP bus, PCI bus, etc., but we won't get into those . . .)

The computers 'system bus' for currently manufactured processors can be one of the following: 100MHz, 133MHz, 166MHz and 200MHz.

The processors themselves however can be 200MHz, 266MHz, 333MHz, 400MHz, 533MHz or 800MHz depending on the make/model of the CPU.

AMD's current cpu's are 'double-pumped' buses, meaning their 'FSB' (front side bus) on their cpu's is 2x that of your computers 'system bus'. That means that if you're using a 166MHz system bus on your PC, your cpu is, in fact, running a 333MHz FSB.

Intel is currently using a 'quad-pump' on their cpu's, meaning the FSB's on their cpu's is 4x that of their computers system bus. A Celeron 2.0GHz, for example, utilizes a 400MHz FSB, but you clock it during the setup of the computer at 20 x 100MHz and the computers system bus runs at 100MHz. A P4 3.06 is a 533MHz FSB cpu, but the computers system bus is 133MHz.

Confusing, I know. . . hopefully that explains the cpu vs. system bus speed somewhat.

Your memory bus is another story. In both AMD and Intel systems the memory bus of DDR systems is double-pumped. DDR 400, (also called PC3200, fyi) as you mentioned, is memory which can operate at 400MHz speed, but is actually setup on your computer as 200MHz. . . DDR 333 (also called PC2700) is memory which can operate at 333MHz speed, but is actually setup on your computer as 166MHz.

As far as how RAM frequency affects your computer: Generally speaking, the faster the memory bus the faster overall performance of the system. However it should be noted that your system performs best when everything is synchronous, ie: if your cpu bus speed is 266MHz, that means your system bus is 133MHz and your memory should be set to perform at 266MHz. Setting the memory higher than the FSB of the cpu can often result in slower performance, believe it or not.

If you have a 400MHz cpu FSB, then you get your best performance using 400MHz DDR memory and ensuring both are clocked accordingly in your system setup.

DDR stands for Double-Data-Rate and is a kind of SDRAM (Syncronous Dynamic Random Access Memory). Dual-Channel refers to being able to run two sticks of RAM in individual channels instead of one, increasing overall memory throughput, thus increasing performance. Dual Channel DDR memory is slightly faster than Single Channel DDR memory because of it's design, but you need a motherboard capable of doing it and two IDENTICAL sticks of memory for it to operate properly.
Click to expand...

#35 Bailey, May 28, 2004
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Originally posted by Bailey
Well, people here are recommending DDR400 RAM, which is faster than the speed at which your processor will talk to it.

Click to expand...

Will this have any adverse effects?

#36 Lil Pun, May 28, 2004
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Originally posted by Lil Pun
Will this have any adverse effects?
Click to expand...

See my earlier post.

#37 Bailey, May 28, 2004
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Originally posted by Bailey
See my earlier post.
Click to expand...

So how can I tell if I have single or dual style? With dual, would I still be able to use just 1 stick of RAM or would I HAVE to get 2?

#38 Lil Pun, May 28, 2004

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All dual channel mobos can use a single stick of RAM, but will leverage better performance if you have two. It looks as though your motherboard is single channel though, from a quick Googling.

#39 Bailey, May 28, 2004
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I would like to thank you guys for helping me select my RAM, now I need help selecting another vital piece, the video card. I want to spend less than $100.00 for a card that will play most of the PC games out the today and do it pretty good. I found a RADEON 9200 128MB online for about $45, so what do you guys think?

#40 Lil Pun, Jun 1, 2004

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