Do you need expensive ram ?

I have just done two Seti benchmarks, from testing before, the time you get will be very close to a PC's seti average time.

I had been surprised at how quick the A7N8X-X was crunching seti with Crucial 2100 ram, so I borrowed a stick of ram out of my main PC for a test.

Spec

Asus A7N8X-X NF2 Single channel Motherboard
Barton XP 2500 @ 200 x 11.5 = 2300Mhz

Time with one stick of Crucial 2100 @ 200 Mhz timings 9-4-4-3 = 2.234 or 2h 14 Mins

Time with one stick of Corsair XMS 3500 @ 200 Mhz timings 3-2-2-2 = 2.203 or 2h 12 Mins

The only thing that changed between the tests was the stick of memory and the timings.

So an expensive stick of ram @ tight timings only gained 2 mins for Seti

I have now used Crucial 2100 in a 2nd cruncher @ 200 Mhz so it was not a lucky stick :)

CAS latency settings are only supposed to make small differences, however you try running the crucial memory at ddr 433+ timings, i bet it begins to smoke then, and thats the point of all this expensive memory, faster FSB timings is the key element at present.

I would imagine you would probably get close to a sub 2hr time with its fsb up to 216fsb. Thats why you buy better memory, for faster FSB not necessarily faster cas latency.

TiG

nice overclock there on the crucial :)

i usually get expensive ram (2nd hand corsair) for high fsbs

I agree that if you want to rink out that last bit of performance then low latency high FSB is the way to go, but if you overclock for the best "bang per buck" there are other options to look at.

Cpu City

ASUS A7N8X-X £49.92 inc
XP 2500 AQXEA £72.37 inc
Crucial 2100 (256) £35 inc (easy to find S/Hand £20)

Although not cutting edge, you have a fine performing set-up for little outlay.

id get TwinMos pc3200 (for amd setups)

doesnt cost much more than crucial and can run 200fsb @ good timings... but doesnt cost anywhere near as much as corsair

i've got TwinMOS PC3200. 2 modules of 256MB. They can handle my 200MHz FSB no problems whatsoever. I tend to go for the RAM from Komplett has it gives detailed information about it. I can't remember the info that was given about mine but i know i got the good stuff.

That would've been the stuff w/Winbond chips, I'd guess, same here though I'm not really pushing it.