More RAM over faster RAM?

[Holtzclaw]

Hi everyone,

Right, here's the deal... and hopefully you guys can help me out!

I recently made a post asking for opinions on Geil value ram, as I was edging towards 1gb of the dual channel shiny stuff. Now, I think 2 would be best, however the timings are 3-4-4-8, higher than it's 1 gb counterpart. Now, pc-memory-upgrade.co.uk has 2gb OCZ Performance Dual channel at the same price (on special offer at £157, I'm on a budget and this is it!), with slightly lower timings of 3-3-3-8.

So, after all that, what am I asking? Well it's like this, I could go with either of the above for 2gb, but if I spent less cash and went for 1gb with tighter timings (for example the 1Gb DDR PC3200 OCZ EL Platinum Dual Channel kit at 2-2-3-5 for £118), would I see better performance than the 2gb with higher timings?

I'm just starting to understand what the timings mean, but not sure what performance differences you get bewtween cas 2 and cas3 in games. If anyone can help me decide, I would be eternally grateful!

This is the rest of my spec, if it helps (just pricing up, not purchased yet!).

CPU: X2 3800+
Mobo: Abit AN8 Sli Nf4
GFX: 7800GT
CPU cooling: Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu
Hdd: 160gb Samsung spinpoint
Power: 480w Tagan 2force Sli
Case: Coolermaster Cavalier
RAM: who the heck knows?!

Much thankiness in advance

[TheAnimus]

What is it your building your rig for?

If you get 2 gig, you probably have enough to disable the page file, this has a hudge effect on system performance (particually as the spinpoint is going to be a bottle neck). But if your gaming, the benefit from an FPS point of view favour the faster memory. But load times will be faster!

Will you actually need teh extra gig, upgrading its better go go for the faster stuff. (assuming u'll have space).

[Holtzclaw]

Cheers for that,

Rig will be used mostly for gaming but I'll be doing some photoshop work too.

Would you recommend something other than the spinpoint? A raptor would be nice but I think they're a tad expensive for the size. Obviously you pay for the 10krpm.

[Mullet]

I use a 2gb patriot kit (from memory upgrade) and it works a treat at 2-3-2-5.

[BubbySoup]

If you benchmark and get all geeky over figures, go for the faster 1Gb. If you do anything else, go for 2Gb.

Just my opinion of course

[Holtzclaw]

Ha! Thanks. Not that into benchmarks tbh

I am looking to attempt overclocking the cpu for my first time though! I know overclocking depends on a lot of factors, and luck, but would the value ram limit how much I can oc?

All opinions welcome!

[kalniel]

Agree with the more over faster. The more will make a difference in areas other than benchmarking fps

But funny how shops always put special offers on out of stock product eh?

[Holtzclaw]

Pants! Hadn't noticed the OCZ is out of stock! Arrgh!

[kalniel]

Quick response from their support guys too, but they are not going to restock either

[Holtzclaw]

Damn. Thanks for enquiring though

Think I'll go for 2gb. The Patriot looks good, but a touch outa my reach - see if I can squeeze some cash from somewhere!

Thanks for the replies everyone!

[TheAnimus]

Erm, i've always been an advocate of HDD's been bottlenecks, because for everyday use, there the most anoying thing to wait for. When your running Pi 95, you really don't mind waiting an extra 10%, but every time you open IE, or Office, or compile something, the HDD bottle neck kicks in.

However i don't like WD. I don't like the raptors, call it religous predudice if you want, i just plain don't like em (their support, failure rate, and sound). 2 gig ram, no page file, an amazing performance boost, less waiting on applications.

Tbh, i wouldn't recomend the difference for a 10k vrs a 7.2k with your budget. RAID would be better i think. That said you can pick up two 10k's raptors that are small for penuts (mainly because they dropped dead like flies). I wouldn't like to be an advocate of it, because enless you think you'd benefit from the higher throughput, odds are you won't. Myself, i run a raid 5 of 15krpm HDDs, they make so much sound you think the worlds comming to an end

[UKMuFFiN]

im thinking of getting these

DDR400 CAS Latency 2.5
145.84 inc.VAT
SuperRAM! <-- its gotta be good

should overclock quite well

[NightshadowUK]

Well would you look at that. I'm impressed... and compared to Corsair's 2GB stuff you're saving over &#163;50!

[TheAnimus]

that KingMax has tradionally been good stuff. I think Corsair just charge way ott for what it is, but then i've never really clocked my memory that hard since i've been able to afford decent components (and as such valued sability as the holy grail!)

[Holtzclaw]

Great find. I don't know anything about Kingmax - have they been around for a while? Would they be a worthwhile alternative to Geil?

[UKMuFFiN]

all good reviews.... i'd say so, the reviews point out that the kingmax is able to compete with the top brand names easy