Ddr Ram

[wol]

Ive been looking into RAM (who hasnt at the moment) and have narrowed myself down to these two:

2 loads of 512Mb DDR RAM PC4000 DDR500 - A-Data - £250


or


1Gb kit DDR PC-4000 Dual Channel - GeIL Ultra Platinum - £268

That Geil RAM is supposed to be optimised for Dual channel. Is this just a marketing gimmick or will the A-data do the same job?


Wol

[M@tt]

Is the Ram for a P4 system, I ask because some Ram does not like tight timings and I would go another route if its an AMD system.

[Axion]

im assuming its a p4 system as no amd system remotely needs 500ddr

anyway adata seems to be working very well for all p4 users... although 2x512mb isnt working so good for abit users

if you have an abit board id recommend getting 4x256mb which is actually cheaper.... just over £200

[praetorian]

Originally posted by wol
Ive been looking into RAM (who hasnt at the moment) and have narrowed myself down to these two:

2 loads of 512Mb DDR RAM PC4000 DDR500 - A-Data - £250


or


1Gb kit DDR PC-4000 Dual Channel - GeIL Ultra Platinum - £268

That Geil RAM is supposed to be optimised for Dual channel. Is this just a marketing gimmick or will the A-data do the same job?


Wol

May I suggest OCZ as a brand that you could consider as well. Either of their OCZ 1GB (2x512MB) PC4000 Dual Channel Series EL-DDR or OCZ 1GB (2x512MB) PC4000 Dual Channel Gold Series DDR are getting very good reports from users on ABit MAX boards and on others aswell. These things clock the hell outta themselves on tight timing as well

What mobo are you using so that a better suggestion can be made

[wol]

Sorry i should have posted..


Its for a P4 (2.4c hopefully) and an Asus P4c800-E Deluxe, or soon to be anyway.

As for OCZ, ive heard that some people have been having trouble with it so i may stay clear.


As for the no. of sticks, i was thinking 4 * 256, does it make that much difference?

Also this optimised for dual channel, rubbish or true?


Wol

[Sinizter]

I would say AData from what I have read from different forums.

I just feel that it does slightly better with less problems than Geil memory.

[Austin]

I really dislike Geil and OCZ stuff was very poor for a good while although it seems their latest stuff is MUCH better now. TwinMOS esp with Winbond should also be worth considering as that's top notch stuff. I would suggest Adata PC4000 for your P4 but you may still find async necessary so slightly slower RAM (even the cheaper PC3200) may not limit you much at all. People seem to much prefer > 1000FSB with async RAM than 900FSB(ish) synced.

As for 'matched' or specifc Dual Channel RAM it's just a way to take more of your money, avoid. Do consider 2x256MB as you can easily add another 2x256MB when there's actually a need for it ... almost all home users don't need all of the 512MB let alone 1GB and in the long term RAM prices will always fall (esp for the current top end stuff like PC4000).

In terms of what's optimal (from what I've read) 2 doublesided DIMMs seem best, VERY closely followed by 4 doublesided DIMMs but I doubt diffs are that big really, just try to keep them all of equal size (ie 2x512MB, 4x256MB, 4x512MB etc). Do rem that doublesided is no longer as simple as 'chips on both sides' though, logical layout is what's important.

[wol]

Ok nice post Austin,

How can i tell if its double sided?

PS think ill go for the Adata 2 * 512 pc4000.


So whats the deal with the dual channel stuff? Because its matched its supposed to be better?


Wol

[Swafe]

go with a data

1, cheaper
2, OCZ normally use adata chips, so its basically the same but minus the heatspreader

[M@tt]

Originally posted by wol

So whats the deal with the dual channel stuff? Because its matched its supposed to be better?


Wol

IMO it's marketing hype, when Dual channel memory motherboards started to be produced, there was no such thing as "matched memory" people just bought 2 sticks of the same type and off they went, I don't recall seeing any post about people having any problem...........so imo its to make more money.

I never found evidence that a certain amount of chip on either side made any difference to the overclock of memory, that's just imo.

It used to be much easier to buy memory, slack timings = higher fsb, but know some brands don't seem to like running out of their spec, even loosening timing can make the memory unstable.

Food for thought.

I could buy Crucial 2100, have some heat spreaders printed with M@tts Magic Memory or the like and sell it as DR400 as the sticks and I have tried will run at 200 FSB 9-4-4-3 (I would conceal the timings deep in me web site) I could even put in my spec that 2.7 Volts is required, just to be on the safe side

[Axion]

about the matched memory

its mostly hype but does have some grounds

1. both sticks have been tested to run with eachother - this is the rubbish that makes marketing... all sticks will run dual ddr together... just limited by the smallest &/or slowest stick

2. most likely the same batch and will... supposedly... reach similar fsbs... if they are from the same batch... which would be logical... the sticks wont limit one another but become a limit together... this can be seen as good or bad

[wol]

I think ill go for the Adata then,


Ive been reading somewhere (just closed the window) that filling the banks is slightly better than half filling them


ie 1gb of 512mb sticks (so 2 banks are filled) is not as good as 1gb of 256mb sticks (so all 4 banks are filled).

Wol

[Kezzer]

Dual Channel is very good yet people underestimate it. I'm always told how Dual Channel is a joke and it's stupid. Every little bit helps and i found out that is does help.

I ran my system without dual DDR with GF4 MX440 gfx once ages ago on my NF7-M. Did a benchmark and got about 2100~. I then changed it over to Dual Channel and got just over 4000~

This proves it does help, maybe not by a big load but every little helps

[Agent]

Originally posted by KeZZeR
Dual Channel is very good yet people underestimate it. I'm always told how Dual Channel is a joke and it's stupid. Every little bit helps and i found out that is does help.

I ran my system without dual DDR with GF4 MX440 gfx once ages ago on my NF7-M. Did a benchmark and got about 2100~. I then changed it over to Dual Channel and got just over 4000~

This proves it does help, maybe not by a big load but every little helps

I don't think anyone is questioning the use of Dual DDR, but rather the claims of "optimised RAM".

The only advantage of "matched pair" RAM is that they will almost certainly overclock to the same extent (this can be a good or a bad thing).

Also Dual DDR RAM is certified to run at slower timings than non dual DDR RAM due to the JDEC specification.
http://www.geil.com.tw/faq.asp.htm

Q: Why GeIL burn the spd is 2 6 3 3 or 2.5 6 3 3 in the single channel,but in the dual channel is conversed 2 8 4 4 or 2.5 8 4 4?

A: The Spec of Geil Memory is followered byJEDEC spec.So Geil burn the spd is 2 6 3 3 or 2.5 6 3 3.In the single channel is fine.But in the dual channel is conversed 2 8 4 4 or 2.5 8 4 4 .So in the nvidia and intel chipset is both conversed SPD.

[Austin]

KeZZeR you always get a BIG boost from Dual Channel when using the onboard gfx (GF4MX nF2). However if you don't use them (which is advisable) then Dual Channel only gives a 5% speed boost at best (outside of synthetics). Of course on the ever hungry (and needy) P4 Dual Channel gives huge benefits, largely to match up with the QDR FSB.

So when using the nF2 onboard gfx you either get GF4MX420 perf (1 DIMM) or GF4MX440 if using Dual Channel mode. Since GF4MX440 are £30 and DX9 cards can be had for £50 it doesn't make much diff even if you have Dual Channel goodness.

3Dmark2001:

GF4MX420 = 2200ish
GF4MX440 = 4000 (£30)
GF-FX5200 = 5600 (£50)
GF4TI4200 = 10000+ (£75)

[wol]

Think ill skip the dual channel then, got a gf4ti4200 (which i now need to upgrade thanks to HL2!!!)



Wol