RAM help

I like to think I know a fair bit about PCs, the truth is, I dont :D I've never bought big-name memory before, just el cheapo OEM PC3200 stuff, so my knowledge is fairly limited and I require some help with it :D To me, the higher the number after the PC prefix the quicker it must go :crazy: :rockon:

I know this is not true, but I've never really understood timings, CAS or the (dis)advantages of DDR2. However now I need to, Im intending on building a fairly meaty PC for a friend, the motherboard has DDR2 support but I haven't heard great reviews of it all. Im browsing through CustomPC magazine, and under their "top hardware choices" they recommend:

• Patriot XBLK Extreme Bandwidth - DDR RAM
• Corsair 1024-4400C25 - Overclockers' RAM
• Mushkin PC2-4200 - DDR2 RAM

Now they all have different timings and CAS numbers, the guy in question would not be doing much/any overclocking however will be doing some fairly specification hungry tasks and maybe some gaming from time to time, not much. Could you please advise to what all the silly numbers mean, along with any suggestions? Muchos gracias! :Oops:

Regards,

Tobeman

Well first of all DDR and DDR2 are not cross compatible, i.e your system either takes DDR or DDR2 (or both but you need 2 separate types of slots, only found on some LGA775 systems)

So AMD64 - DDR, Intel LGA775 - DDR2 (normally)

then youve got the PCXXXX number indicating the speed the memory can run at, commonly 3200 (200mhz), 3500 (218mhz?), 4000 (250mhz) etc.

CAS is where ram companies rake in the cash, CAS2 for DDR is tight and therefore fast so companies like corsair can charge far in excess of the likes of CAS3 Crucial value. It also means if you run the corsair at CAS3 you might be able to get it to run at 240 or 250mhz.

So basically CAS and high Mhz are opposites, you generally only find low cas on low mhz modules.

If your not gonna overclock at all you might aswell get the cheapest PC3200 ram you can find. If your slightly overclocking get some PC3200 CAS2 corsair, it can overclock a bit wthout costing the earth. This is all presuming you need DDR, DDR2 runs at worse CAS but much higher frequencies.

So basically, the higher the frequency the better the overclocker (allowing for more performance depending on the rest of your rig) and the lower the CAS the better the performance 'straight out of the box' will be?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tobeman

I like to think I know a fair bit about PCs, the truth is, I dont :D I've never bought big-name memory before, just el cheapo OEM PC3200 stuff, so my knowledge is fairly limited and I require some help with it :D To me, the higher the number after the PC prefix the quicker it must go :crazy: :rockon:

I know this is not true, but I've never really understood timings, CAS or the (dis)advantages of DDR2. However now I need to, Im intending on building a fairly meaty PC for a friend, the motherboard has DDR2 support but I haven't heard great reviews of it all. Im browsing through CustomPC magazine, and under their "top hardware choices" they recommend:

• Patriot XBLK Extreme Bandwidth - DDR RAM
• Corsair 1024-4400C25 - Overclockers' RAM
• Mushkin PC2-4200 - DDR2 RAM

Now they all have different timings and CAS numbers, the guy in question would not be doing much/any overclocking however will be doing some fairly specification hungry tasks and maybe some gaming from time to time, not much. Could you please advise to what all the silly numbers mean, along with any suggestions? Muchos gracias! :Oops:

Regards,

Tobeman

---

What motherboard are you using and what is your budget?

This is for a friend, I have Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe, but tbh I will need to talk about his budget with him, as I currently have some el cheapo Kingmax ram specified.

However, I am also thinking of buying some in preparation for Crossfire, and am holding off on buying the motherboard (obviously because none are available yet), I am looking in the £150 region for some decent memory.

When you posted originally I though it was a P4 system. DDR2 is not possible with an A64 system at this time.

If you're using an A8N-SLI Deluxe just buy the cheapest modules you can find that use TCCD Samsung chips. NF4 boards and A64's lov'em!

2GB or 1GB?

Yeah sorry about that, forgot to mention :D The DDR2 I mentioned just because I was intrigued to the differences between DDR and DDR2 :)

I've been using 1gb for over 2 years now, I find it more than sufficient, however Battlefield 2 does feel like it could do with a bit more, but 2gb is silly money.