Which DDR ram for 8rda+

[Gipo]

Which ram?

Should I get 2x256mb or 2x512?

I had been running 2x512mb sticks with nanya chips on em for a while, but the ram doesn't want me to overclock my 2100+ too much hehe...

G

[Kezzer]

2 x 512 TwinMOS PC3200 w/winbond

[Gipo]

where to get the twinmos with winbond tho? Theres places that have twinmos but dont specify if they're winbond or not

[Kezzer]

www.komplett.co.uk is the best place. That's where i got my HDD, CPU and RAM

[Gipo]

hmmmm... decisions!!! dual ddr of 2x256 or 2x512... that is the question... 1gig might be a bit overkill after all, but I got my original ram cheap, so... hehe

or get 1x512mb stick now, another at a later date!?

[gobbo]

Best bet is 2x256mb, as 256mb modules normally overclock better than 512mb modules.

Best bet is TwinMos with Winbond BH-5 chips.
Else, Kingston Hyper X C3500 are amazing, and not too expensive. Only place i've seen them in UK is www.overclockers.co.uk

[Austin]

All SktA needs is PC3200 so any decent brand like Crucial, TwinMOS (Winbond is nice but not overly needed) or the ever popular Adata. www.crucial.com/uk (free P&P) www.cpucity.co.uk www.refreshcomputers.com and as said www.komplett.co.uk

512MB (2x256MB) is more than almost every home user needs, given current RAM prices and stuff to use it it's hard to justify 2x512MB. If you do envisage wanting or needing 1GB in the near future then 2x512MB is advisable now as nForce2 have big problems filling all 3 RAM slots and keeping 400FSB which many people buy them for.

All you need then is a good gfx card and a TbredB or Barton based CPU! Happy clocking...

[M@tt]

If you want the best get Corair XMS 3500 2x 256 will allow very tight timings at High FSB (220+)

Best value would be TwinMOS PC3200 w/winbond chips from komplett.

Speaking from what I have read (I have not tried Adata) Adata does not like tight timings making it a poor choice for AMD set-ups

[Gipo]

Right, decision time!

Shall I get:

2x256mb twinmos with winbond @ £98
or
2x512mb crucial @ £135

both pc3200

[Gipo]

ooooorrrr....

2x512mb twinmos standard @ ~£136

[M@tt]

2x256mb twinmos with winbond @ £98 if it was me

[Austin]

Why only those 2 options? This is all PC3200, mostly CL2.5 although IIRC Crucial is CL3.0 and TwinMOS Twister is CL2.0...

Crucial (lifetime & free P&P):
256=£39 x2=£78
512=£72 x2=£144

CPUcity:
TwinMOS 256=34 x2=£68
TwinMOS 512=£68 x2=£136

Refresh:
Adata 256=£38 x2=£76
Adata 512=£63 x2=£126

Komplett:
TwinMOS 256=£37 x2=£74
TwinMOS 512=£76 x2=£152
TwinMOS Winbond 256=£46 x2=£92
TwinMOS Winbond 512=£92 x2=£184
TwinMOS Twister 256=£54 x2=£108
TwinMOS Twister 512=£107 x2=£214

With Crucial you get a lifetime guarantee, compatibility guarantee (if you use mem selector) and free P&P but CL3.0 isn't good even though running Dual Channel negates much of what lower latencies do anyway. Excluding TwinMOS Winbond and Twister it is a little pricey.

With TwinMOS (std) you get RAM which is arguably better than Crucial's (lower latency) and comes in 10%ish cheaper (CPUcity as Komplett's is about same price as Crucial). The added cost of the Winbond TwinMOS is no where near worth it IMHO and although the Twister is low latency (for PC3200+) and should easily equal Corsair's best offerings it is a LOT to pay.

The Adata 512MB is pretty cheap (256 is about the same as Crucial) and IIRC it is only the super fast stuff like their PC4000 which uses higher latencies so you should be fine ESP as you're running Dual Channel anyway.

Check the exact latencies before you buy as it is from memory, also rem to consider P&P which can add between £4 and £8 to the final cost (not good if all you want is RAM). If I were buying I wouldn't hesitate to get 2 lots of Adata PC3200 512MB for 1GB RAM or 2 lots of CPUcity's TwinMOS std PC3200 256MB if you want 512MB RAM.

[Gipo]

I used to run 2x512mb pc2700 in my motherboard until my mate's ram cocked up so he needed to borrow one stick...

To me, 1gig of ram gave me the impression that programs loaded up a bit quicker and things...

Is there actually a small performance increase in 1gig of ram over 512mb? Or is it the fact that I was running dual ddr mode before with 1gig, and now I'm using single ddr mode!?

[Sinizter]

2 x 512 MB of PC3200 of TwinMOS

If you want faster RAM, then

2 x 512 MB of ADATA ... PC4000 or whatever you fancy.

[Austin]

Gipo benchmarks (can't rem where) have suggested that there are gains from 1GB vs 512MB but diffs are very small unless you actually use programs needing more than 512MB. As for Dual Channel, for SktA it 'only' yields a 3-5% perf boost synthetics aside. So it was probably a bit of both. Of course P4 and SktA using onboard gfx both gain a LOT from Dual Channel. FWIW the diffs between the fastest and slowest RAM timings only tends to come in around 3% at best (again synthetics aside) and the diffs are likely to be even less on SktA where most of all Dual Channel does is reduce latency.