Best DDR ram available?

Hello All!
I am about to complete the construction of my 2nd pc(last one was done 3 years ago...ugh!). What is the best possible ram on a Epox nforce2 mobo? From everything I have read, corsair 3500 xms seems to be the best? Do you concur? (I am going to get a 512mb stick for now..then hope in a month or so to get another....when taxes come back!).

I concur. Gotta love the lifetime warranty.

woa! lifetime? didnt know that! I was going to purchase the geil 3700 ddr memory, but thanks to the forums, i changed my mind rather quickly.

Quick question: This place has one stick with a black heatspreader, and one wiht silver heatspreader...are these things nonsense? is it worth the extra 9 bucks?

SILVER: http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85013-1

BLACK: http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85013

Most ram offers a lifetime warranty - Crucial, Twinmos, OCZ etc. etc...

But what about the silver vs black? does it really matter which heatspreader?

you might want to look into the twinmos 3200 With the winbond chips. i don't have any but i've herd they are great. and cheap at only 76 bucks for a stcik of 256.
http://store.yahoo.com/memx/gn256pc3200.html

Thanks for the suggestion! ill check it out! But really: does the silver heatspread vs black heatspread really make any difference? just curious! I doubt i would be able to overclock any better with the silver, right?

There is no difference in performance between the silver and black modules. They are the same thing except for the color.

One is actually platinum and the other aluminum, I believe. I went ahead and sprung for the platinum 3500 C2 and it sure is pretty. I had some xms 3200 C2 in black... but, it didn't come with the nice holograph on the side

They should really make no difference in actual performance though... go black if you're that worried over the extra few dollars.

Morbid said:

One is actually platinum and the other aluminum, I believe. I went ahead and sprung for the platinum 3500 C2 and it sure is pretty. I had some xms 3200 C2 in black... but, it didn't come with the nice holograph on the side

They should really make no difference in actual performance though... go black if you're that worried over the extra few dollars.

Click to expand...

I can tell you for a fact that one is NOT made out of platinum. Platinum is one of the most expensive precious metals out on the commodity market (I think it goes for around $600 an ounce). They are both made out of aluminum.

If I'm not mistaken, the platinum version is “suppose” to dissipate heat better than the black version.

I am in process right now of making a decision on ram as well I will order in next few minutes. I have come down to choosing either OCZ PC3500 EL DDR rated at 434 and has run as high as 245 fsb in reviews I have read.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory_specs.php?id=1

Its $89 a stick

Quote
"So what is EL-DDR? It is basically a series of packaging and binning process improvements that allow reduced latency and higher speed operation than standard DDR SDRAM components. This is thanks to the fact that OCZ have a new way of pressing the die into the tsop package. OCZ's TSOP is thinner than regular packaging and this allows for far better heat dissipation, and thus higher tolerances to tighter memory timings and higher speed. "

My other choice is Geil PC3500 Ulta using 4.5 ns chips at $85 it tested to 228 fsb

http://www.geilusa.com/proddetail.asp?linenumber=11


I think GEIL will meet the needs of 99.99% diehard overclockers but the OCZ sure looks good as well but at $4 more a stick. Pretty sure MDA is using this version of PC3500 OCZ DDR with very good results on his 8RDA+


Cisco KId

Baptizer said:

Hello All!
I am about to complete the construction of my 2nd pc(last one was done 3 years ago...ugh!). What is the best possible ram on a Epox nforce2 mobo? From everything I have read, corsair 3500 xms seems to be the best? Do you concur? (I am going to get a 512mb stick for now..then hope in a month or so to get another....when taxes come back!).

Click to expand...

SOrry if someone already stated this but if you don't plan to get any more memory after that 512, I would suggest 2 sticks of 256 to take advantage of nForce2's dualDDR Technology.

Bald Shadow said:

If I'm not mistaken, the platinum version is “suppose” to dissipate heat better than the black version.

Click to expand...

Nope. If you ask one of the Corsair company reps, even they will tell you that the performance is exactly the same between the two. Only difference we have here is aesthetic.

Re: Re: Best DDR ram available?

SpyderX said:

SOrry if someone already stated this but if you don't plan to get any more memory after that 512, I would suggest 2 sticks of 256 to take advantage of nForce2's dualDDR Technology.

Click to expand...

No, he stated he was going to get one stick of 512mb now then one later. He wants a total of 1gig of system memory when he is finished with his purchase's.

I have both a black and platinum XMS3500 stick and they both perform identical. Actually the black stick will dissipate heat better (black absorbs/radiates heat better than other colors or a polished surface). That why pots were black in color. A trick on engine blocks and trannies is to paint them flat black to get rid of the heat better.

The labels with the holographs are on Corsair's latest stock of sticks.