Some quick ram advice

[krazy_olie]

Hi just thought I'd get some quick advice on which RAM to purchase.

Running 2 gig (2*1gb) in dual channel of pc5300, the ram usage is quite high even when idle in windows 7 (64 bit) and would like to add some as I'm trying to eek some life out of this machine.

I have looked for the same set of xms2 but can only find the 6400, which I assume would still work fine? ( The motherboard can take 6400 but at the time it was rather pricey!)

Are there any benefits to getting a single 2 gig stick over 2 1 gig ones? In terms of power consumption/dual channel. Seem to be the same price. Or is there even much benefit to completely replacing the ram?

Of note: I currently overclock from 266 mhz to 350 (occasionally higher) on a core 2 duo e6300. Though I do the underclocking of the RAM ratio (to 1.8) so the RAM is not massively over-clocked.

Thanks

[CooperXS]

What mainboard/chipset you have there ?
Older i945/i946 may not boot with 800MHz RAM

[danroyle]

you would be best getting rid of the set you have and running a 2x2gb ram set for performance.

If you buy a single 2gbstick to go with yours you will lose dual channel mode,
If you buy a second set of 2gb they will clock down to the lower speed.

As you are overclocking for stability and performance a 2x2gb kit
like
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=42036
or
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(...edcas-5-5-5-18

[krazy_olie]

I Have this motherboard: GA-945G-S3 (rev. 1.0)
http://www2010.gigabyte.com/Products...ProductID=2357

Just realised I have confused myself regarding the speeds ( between referencing it by speed or the PC number).

For clarification... the RAM i have is 533 MHZ, and I can take 667 MHZ. This is a bit problematic as I can't find much good ram from either speed it's all budget stuff... Which could hurt my overclock. Though you would think that if I got some value 667, it would run at 533 and be able to handle an overclock of up to 667 (seeing as that's the speed it should run at anyway?

Edit: The problem with 800 seems to be the voltage which is 1.9, but I run my ram at 2.0v anyway. Not sure if that's a good risk to take though. Having said that the Mushkin set posted claims to run at 1.8!

[CooperXS]

Problem with 800MHz RAM is the chipset limitation and vendor also does not guarantee the compatibility. I'd advise to avoid this option unless you can have a kit tested prior to purchasing or borrow one from a friend.

[krazy_olie]

ARGH I'm even stupider than before. I actually have the wrong motherboard!!! It does actually support dd800! and I have 667! (I had to check my scan order from 5 years ago to see this ).

question is do I go for the Mushkin 4gb set or get some 2gig of either xms2 corsair or 2gb of the mushkin stuff and just forgo a bit of extra ram speed (and possibly dual channel).

Only reason I'd be inclined to get more corsair is that I know it can handle my cpu overclock fine. If I try something new I might run in to problems, though possibly compensated by having faster ram.

Other option is this http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(...edcas-5-5-5-18

Seeing as I have free delivery on scan it works out only a couple quid more than the mushkin.

[Pob255]

Ok some notes on ddr2,
standard JEDEC voltage for ddr2 is 1.8v
Ram can be underclocked (ie ran at slower speeds) it has too to be JEDEC compatable.
So just because your ram is pc2-6400 it should not stop it from being run at pc2-5300, pc2-4200 or even pc2-3200
You can often mix memory without issue, just remember that all the memory will be run at the speed of lowest sticks and corrisponding timeing of that stick.

TIP: run CPU-z, on the SPD tab, this lists the voltage and cas settings for each memory stick at all the JEDEC standard speeds. (only issue is that cpuz only lists the top 4 settings, there may be more)

Also I think you need to look at your overclocking numbers
if I'm reading that correctly you're running you fsb at 350mhz with a (5:9) 1:1.8 ratio which would mean you're running the ram 1260mhz ((350x1.8)x2) which would mean you're stupidly overclocking that ram
If I've got that ratio wrong then are you running it at 1.8:1? if so that's a major bottle neck right there, you don't want to go below a 1:1 ratio on socket 775 systems.

[CooperXS]

If you'll just add another kit in empty slots you will still have dual-channel mode. Though the speed may be decreased to 667MHz assuming your existing kit cannot go to 800MHz.
Another thing is that new kit may simply not work together with the old one you already have. Neither Corsair or Mushkin provide full specs of the kits as amount and type of chips used. So it's a hit or miss game here. But 4GB should be better option anyway

[krazy_olie]

Well it runs at 700 and something, because it's both under and overclocked (first by dropping the ratio then upping the speed on the FSB). To overclock my cpu the same amount with only ddr800 I'd have to run the memory at over 800 , potential problems but could end up with better or worse overclocking capability.

If I added 2 * 1GB in of 800, the 667 would be overclocked, whilst the 800 underclocked. And keep dual channel. Would be £20 better off though run the risk of running unmatched RAM (I think it's a small risk though).

Can't decide

[krazy_olie]

Ok some notes on ddr2,
standard JEDEC voltage for ddr2 is 1.8v
Ram can be underclocked (ie ran at slower speeds) it has too to be JEDEC compatable.
So just because your ram is pc2-6400 it should not stop it from being run at pc2-5300, pc2-4200 or even pc2-3200
You can often mix memory without issue, just remember that all the memory will be run at the speed of lowest sticks and corrisponding timeing of that stick.

TIP: run CPU-z, on the SPD tab, this lists the voltage and cas settings for each memory stick at all the JEDEC standard speeds. (only issue is that cpuz only lists the top 4 settings, there may be more)

Also I think you need to look at your overclocking numbers
if I'm reading that correctly you're running you fsb at 350mhz with a (5:9) 1:1.8 ratio which would mean you're running the ram 1260mhz ((350x1.8)x2) which would mean you're stupidly overclocking that ram
If I've got that ratio wrong then are you running it at 1.8:1? if so that's a major bottle neck right there, you don't want to go below a 1:1 ratio on socket 775 systems.

Thanks, I think I am wrong about the 1.8 thing. I think have set it to 1:1 , i don't know what I was thinking!
Clearly not my day for remembering stuff. 350*2=700, sounds about right

Mixing ram doesn't sound good for overclock though, to get it to run at the moment I need to increase the voltage, whereas any 800 sticks are essentially underclocked and I'd be overvolting whilst underclocking

[Pob255]

EDIT: youu beat me to the reply

Depending on your multiplier/ratio settings/options.
at 350mhz fsb then you'd just need a memory ratio of 2:3 to run your memory at 800mhz (350*2)*2

I think you've miss-understood overclocking on a socket 775 system.

On a socket 775 system the memory controller in in the northbridge so all memory calls go via it, this is why on a socket 775 sysstem you gain very little from running the memory faster than the fsb
However running the memory speed below the fsb does bottle neck the system badly.

Now a lot will depend on your motherboard and BIOS as to how much actual control you have over things.
On many motherboard you don't actually have much control over the cpu:memory ratio, they just give the user a vague speed setting, which then can then be one of two things, 1 it automatically picks the best ratio to get the ram as close to the chosen speed as possible or 2 it selects a fixed ratio that would give the ram the correct speed at default clocks.

The moment you start to overclock the fsb you will be increasing the speed of both ram and cpu, the effect on the ram will vary depending on the ratio control the BIOS allows you.
So if you can lock the ratio then for every +1 on the fsb the ram speed is also being increased by (+1*ratio)*2
However if the BIOS is trying to automatically pick the best ratio then it can be very unpredictable.

[krazy_olie]

Before overclocking I believe it was at the 3:2 ratio.

When I overlclocked it I changed it to the 1:1 ratio so as to not massively overclock , and after increasing the FSB it came back up to a speed just a bit over what it was before.

If I understand what you are saying I will see very little benefit from an upgrade to 800MHZ memory. Other than avoiding potential instability from overclocking mixed ram.

[Pob255]

Thanks, I think I am wrong about the 1.8 thing. I think have set it to 1:1 , i don't know what I was thinking!
Clearly not my day for remembering stuff. 350*2=700, sounds about right

Mixing ram doesn't sound good for overclock though, to get it to run at the moment I need to increase the voltage, whereas any 800 sticks are essentially underclocked and I'd be overvolting whilst underclocking

Yes and No
Running most ram at a higher voltage but lower speed shouldn't reaally do it that much harm as long as the values are not too great.

However you would be greatly increasing the chance of instability compared to running 4 sticks of the same speed.
Personally I'd say get 2x2gb pc2-6400 (or 4x1gb which ever is cheaper) and underclock them.
Looking 2nd hand might be well worth it (more likely to get 4x1gb cheap 2nd hand)
People will say about the dangers of 2nd hand or budget memory, however I'd like to say that the only time I've had cheap memory fail on me is when overclocking it, running it at stock or underclocked has never been an issue.

EDIT: Plenty of ram cheap 2nd hand over on fleabay

[krazy_olie]

Yes and No


EDIT: Plenty of ram cheap 2nd hand over on fleabay

This does actually seem to be the best option in the end. Getting my ebay groove on and trying to get some matching ram!

[krazy_olie]

So I got some matching RAM from ebay.
It seems to be failing in both orthos and memtest. Now I forgot to turn off my overclock etc before booting up and worried I fried it at start up or something.

OR i fried it by having 4 sticks together.

Does anyone have a recommended test methodology for this. Still trying to determine the exact cause for the fail, it could be a dimm slot. I seem to randomly and frantically changing RAM, it's suggesting that one particular stick is failing.

Using orthos as it was taking ages to get memtest to fail whereas orthos seems to fail after a few minutes.