Need new RAM

[Richie2K]

Yes another one of these posts.
Looked around at other posts but thought i'd ask anyway

Asus A8N-SLi
A64 4000+ @stock 2403
7800GTX @ 497-1.32
2 gb of PC3200, crap unamed stuff .... 1x 1gb stick and 2x 512gb sticks

Now tried for the first time ever to o/c the other day and got it up to 2606 easy but anything much over that i get problems...am i right in thinking its my ram thats messing it all up ??

If so i need recommendations on damn good 2 x 1gb ram sticks so i can get the best out of the rest of my system....
Money is not really a major issue, i just want some good stuff that will last



Thanks in advance to all those who reply btw.. (just in case i forget to thank you that is)

[nvening]

Budget?

[Richie2K]

Around the £200 mark i think

Am i right in thinking 2 stick will be better than the 3 i have ??

My ram atm is at 3-3-3-8 if that makes any sense... a bit new to all this,

.... to be totally honest i never thought ram would be so important .... learn something new everyday

[cotswoldcs]

I've been happy with my Corsair TwinX (matched pair). The price was good as well (from Scan)

[windog]

I had a bit of a compatability issue with some Corsair 4400 and my AN8 Ultra ( though others have this in Abit boards no probs!), but the Geil pc4400 I bought works fine, Or lots of Gskill, OCZ or Patriot used on the Abit forums!

[Richie2K]

I have an Asus board tho

[windog]

Doh! I just saw the A, 8, & N, not the order, or the word precedeing it

[Richie2K]

** Update **

My existing ram is 1gb PC3200 Elixir 2x512mb PC3200 crucial

gives you some idea whats in there atm... i've never tried to change any of the settings etc

[nvening]

those numbers you gave as are the latency. generally people only worry about the first one, this is Collum access strobe (CAS) Basically, the lower the better (the faster) your ram will be, but you would not see any humanly detectable difference. What a lower CAS does allow you to do is overclock to higher speeds. You can also set your motherboard to make the cas a bit higher to make it overclock even firther, but now we are gettinging into overlcoking method, and it could take all day.

There is also ram which has a very high clock speed. Normal ram has a clock speed of ddr400 and this is as fast as a non overclocked A64 will go (with a 200 MHz front side bus).This is where i get confused because you can overclock with ddr400 ram, do you overclock the ram as well as the cpu? My head hurts.

This is where i get confused because if

[Richie2K]

I like it here, i learn stuff .....

I understand i've only given you minimal information on my system but do you or anyone else think its worth sticking with what i've got .. ??

I want to o/c my cpu up to at least the 2.8mark and if i can get my ram be it my current stuff or some newer stuff, working better for me then i'll be happy...

The question really is, 'Is my ram i have now that bad its worth spending £200 on new stuff ???'

You guys all know alot more than i do and i trust your judgements, will my ram restrict me getting to my goal of 2.8ghz ??

Now my head hurts ..

[nvening]

Download mem test 86, put it on a floppy or cd rw and run it for 3 - 8 hours (leave it overnight mabe) It should get no errors

[Richie2K]

Ok cheers for that will give it a go

[BUFF]

The question really is, 'Is my ram i have now that bad its worth spending £200 on new stuff ???'

You guys all know alot more than i do and i trust your judgements, will my ram restrict me getting to my goal of 2.8ghz ??

Try running your RAM on a divider.
To get 2.8GHz you need 12x233HTT so running your RAM on the 166 divider will make it run ~186 which is within it's spec.
Don't forget to drop your LDT/HT multi either.

[Richie2K]

Ah... ok

Thats easier said than done for a someone who's new at this...

...i'd better do some research

Thanks for that advice tho