Memory help

[Nex321]

So I have a sucky ram......its samsung 512 mb pc2700 (333mhz)

And I can only buy another 512 mb stick. This is what I have in mind:

Corsair XMS PRO4000 DDR-DIMM 512MB 32Meg x 8, 3-4-4-8, 500MHz, with LED

....now I hear thats alot better ram than my current but can I have it without slowing it down a bit? If the only choice is to slow it down, how much do I have to slow it down then?

 

[Daegon]

your sammy pc2700 aint /that/ bad.

That corsiar certainly is excellent (overpriced IMHO) but keep in mind that if you add another stick of ram that both sticks will have to run at the same speed. So any possibility of extra speed you may get from that hellafast corsair would be canceled out by the comparitive mediocrity of the pc2700.

btw, what speed is your front side bus at? in my experience it has been more beneficial to run the ram at the same speed as the fsb, but lower the timings.

 

[Nex321]

I have no idea how you check fsb but is this it?

Current: 333 Mhz

and corsair is on 500 Mhz

 

[Nex321]

I'm trying to learn the ram thing but can't

tell me this:

2x Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB CL3 5ns Unbuffered, Non-parity, 2.5V, 32Meg x 64

If i get that will it run good with my current RAM? With those ram will I be able to play future games with?

I don't want the game to lag just because of the damn ram.

notice I'm slowing down alot just because I have the 512 mb samsung

 

[Daegon]

your slowdown probably isn't due to your ram. Tell me about the rest of the system. what version of windows do you have and how long have you had the pc?

 

[Asus]

Don't bother with anything above PC3200.
Your Samsung memory is good solid memory.

If you have an Athlon XP with 333FSB, there is no need to replace your 512MB PC2700 that you have.
Just buy a good brand but non-expensive 512MB PC2700/3200 memory.
CL3 or 3-4-4-8 is not 'speedy' memory.
Do you know if the sticker on your Samsung memory says if it's CL3 or CL2.5?

Look at me, I'm running an Athlon 64 yet I still have my PC2700 Corsair memory. A total of 1GB will help a lot though.

 

[Nex321]

Asus, there is a so called an "upgrade pack" that I'm thinking of buying, it contains:

Athlon 3500+
Abit AV8
2x Crucial PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB CL3 5ns Unbuffered, Non-parity, 2.5V, 32Meg x 64

I'm going from pentium 4 to athlon 64. So that crucial will be good enough to run future games "perfect"? just need to know that since you get those ram sticks for free when you buy it.

 

[Asus]

If you get them free then good.
I personally do not buy 256MB sticks at all. They are very limiting when you want more memory as you generally have to take them out of the system and add 512MB sticks.

In this case if you wanted more than 512MB of memory, you would have to remove a 256MB stick to add a 512MB stick because otherwise all of the memory would downclock to PC2700 speeds. That was the case at least with the earlier CPU revision.

 

[Nex321]

Ok, seems like 512 mb sticks is a better deal. What do you recommend? Something thats good and cheap.

 

[Asus]

2x512MB Kit Corsair Value Select if you want good and cheap.

512MB OCZ Enhanced Latency if you want something that is good and speedy yet isn't out of this world expensive.
You can actually buy two of these for cheaper than the speedy Corsair or OCZ 2x512MB kits.

 

[Nex321]

There's some few problems:

I have heard some negative feedbacks about value that you should allways go for xms and the other ram I can't find on any site selling them except the US ones.

I don't live in usa :/

 

[Asus]

I would also recommend XMS or OCZ's enhanced latency memory. Value is just that for the thrifty, we are talking about an A64 3500+ here.

 

[Nex321]

Sorry I forgot to say this.

My limit for ram is $150 and I need just another 512 mb stick because I allready have 512 mb.

I want a crucial or corsair(since thats the only ones they sell here)thats equals my current one(samsung pc2700 333mhz) but still is "better" than it. I don't know how else to explain it.

 

[Daegon]

perhaps i should reinforce that memory may not be the center of your concerns, perhaps it would be more appropriate to go somewhere else in his computer. I've got a PII with 512mb of ram but i'm not playing games on it... (it's a fileserver) Nex, what does the rest of your computer look like (cpu, video card, storage) even a gig of ram won't make a difference in game performance if he's playing on onboard video.

 

[Nex321]

3.06 Ghz
Radeon 9700 overclocked to PRO
512 Mb Ram

Getting slow downs in alot of games, heard that 512 mb ram should help alot (well in farcry, doom 3, CS:S beta)