ram or water

I am looking to purchase some better ram I think my ram is holding me back. I can only reach a FBS of 175mhz I guess it is not that bad but I think I could do better I was thinking about one of these two?

Corsair CMX256A-3200C2PT 256MB DDR400 PC3200 XMS Memory w/Silver Heat Spreader Retail

or

Corsair CMX256A-3200LLPT 256MB DDR400 XMS3200 Low Latency SPD Memory w/Platinum Heat Spreader Retail

which one would you guys buy ? Or what ram would you buy? or is my money better spent on water cooling?


Thanks
JOptionPane

id go with 512meg off twinmos myself or even adata im running at 227fsb on pc3200 only at 2.7V and the timings below and i dont think thats the end off it my psu is holding me back now

anyone else?

Those water cooling systems make me nervous. If it were to spring a leak, then you're wish you'd gotten the RAM....

JohnnyCNote said:

Those water cooling systems make me nervous. If it were to spring a leak, then you're wish you'd gotten the RAM....

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Not actually, there are MANY ppl here that have had their stuff DRENCHED and simply just bathed it in alcohol and it worked good as new.

ok so is the ram i am looking at a good deal? i am still thinking about water cooling. more input please.

Peace out
JOptionPane

The LL will be much better than the C2. That particular LL you linked appears to be BH5 at the moment (timings are 2-2-2)

Try dropping your multi and raising you FSB. If it wont go up any, than it's either your ram or Motherboard holding you back. If it will go up... it's probably the cpu.

There is really no reason to buy water over high end air unless you want to run high voltages (1.90v+) with low noise. To keep decent temps at those voltages air needs loud fans. Water can do it quietly.

Personally, I'd upgrade the ram to a 512 stick of bh5 anyway... 256 is kinda low these days. And if you do upgrade the ram... buy a different heatsink to go with it. A sk-7 under that volcano 9's SF2 will work very nicely for up to 1.9v

Lithan said:

There is really no reason to buy water over high end air unless you want to run high voltages (1.90v+) with low noise. To keep decent temps at those voltages air needs loud fans. Water can do it quietly.

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Plz dont turn this into a water/air fight. I use to be like you to. Never would think of going water. 1: Water is cool. 2:Its more fun to mess around with then fans. 3:It lowers temps 4:It provides a more stable temp. 5:It is very quiet.

EDIT : Cool sig btw...whatever its from

i can bump it up all the way to 192 x 11.5 but not stable at all you can run like word, e-mail, internet and it is fine. but will not run prime95 or sisoft burn in for long at all. then the blue screen of death when i run the sisoft ram benchmark the screen get blurry for a few sec then it fine after that. that is why i think it is my ram.

Peace out
JOptionPane

how much differance do you think the SLK-800 will make? 46c-55c in the hot part of the day are my temps.

Thanks
JOptionPane

JOptionPane said:

how much differance do you think the SLK-800 will make? 46c-55c in the hot part of the day are my temps.

Thanks
JOptionPane

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I went down a good bit from a volcan 11 to a SLK-800-u back in the day =P

ConquereR said:

Not actually, there are MANY ppl here that have had their stuff DRENCHED and simply just bathed it in alcohol and it worked good as new.

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What happens when things get shorted out? In any event, it's just a risk I'm personally not willing to take. I can appreciate the challenge of squeezing the most out of a CPU and the creative ways people find to do it, but for my own purposes it's further than I need to go....

JohnnyCNote, the last post that ConquereR left is EXACTLY what I did. I went from Volcano 11 to SLK800-u and a HUGEEEE difference. Just make sure you get a nice big fan to dissipate the heat better. I got the Vantec Tornado 80mm, but that thing is half as loud as a vacuum cleaner. I didn't buy the (whatchamacallit... help me out) to adjust the speed.

Anyways, about RAM... I bought Geil Golden Dragon Dual 2x256 PC3500 CAS2, which is running @ 210fsb (420) @ 2.8V. I used to have it run at 217, but I'm keeping it lower for now. This RAM has red LED lights which are sooo cool, and the chip itself is beautiful. Anyways, that's not the important part. This RAM is just sooo stable, and I've had zero problems with it. And to top it off I bought it four months ago for $129. I'm sure it's not much less, but to think for less than $130 I GUARANTEE you will be satisfied!!!

Timings right now are @ 2-3-3-7, but remember I'm only running 2.8V and not even 3.1V... it's just that my mobo (ASUS A7N8X-Del) can't go any higher on the VDimm

JohnnyCNote said:

I can appreciate the challenge of squeezing the most out of a CPU and the creative ways people find to do it

Click to expand...

Me two...

but for my own purposes it's further than I need to go....

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Thats not what i got it for...nor do i try to max out my cpu...

If you leak enough to form droplets while the computer is running... something will probably fry. If you leak with the computer off, it will only fry if it hits something active (A part of the mobo that always gets fed voltage for example.) You can dunk electronics in water, and as long as they dry out before you use them, they will be fine.

And Conquerer I use water, and I'm speaking from experience when I say there are few if any benefits of water over air cooling unless you plan on running high voltages. Building a water rig to run an XP at 1.80v is pointless. You can get near silent air that will keep an xp at that voltage cool enough unless you have absurd ambient temps. In fact at low voltages water and decent quiet air have very minor temp differences... It's when the cpu's heat output gets very high that water becomes useful. At stock speeds and voltage, my air and water gets pretty close to the same temps. I wont go over 1.85v on my (quiet) air. I've gone to 2.2v+ on water and kept reasonable temps. Im not starting a fight I'm trying to save people who worry about frying their cpus with voltage from wasting their money on watercooling because they expect it will help them overclock further.

How much of a drop you will see depends largely on your motherboards temperature monitoring accuracy. I'd guess you'd see about 38-45*C with the fan around the same rpm on a slk800. But really, the slk800 is a much better heatsink than the volcano 9 and as long as the base is smooth and it's mounted right, your cpu WILL run much cooler. Maybe as much as 10-15*C cooler.

Also I made a mistake. I thought you only had ONE 256 meg stick. I see now that you have two, Personally... I'd still upgrade the ram and heatsink... Or save and go for a nf7-s, 2 256meg bh5's, and a sk-7 for a total of around 275$. After selling your old stuff you might be down only 150$ or so. Of course, your system is good enough that you probably don't NEED to upgrade... if that's the case, hell, go with watercooling for the adventure of it or save your money. But if you WANT to upgrade, I'd say get the ram and sk-7 (or 800/900u for slightly better performance, more secure mounting, and Intel compatibility)... and if you still can't get a good FSB (200+ with 5-2-2-2.0 timings on ram) then upgrade the board.

The last case I got, an Antec (can't remember the model), is very quiet even with 3 fans + the PS. A neighbor bought an off the shelf HP a few months ago that's so quiet I thought something was wrong with it when I went to set it up for her.

Beyond that, it all depends on what you're looking for and what suits your purposes. What works for one person may be completely unsuitable for the next....

not to be a smart-***, but save up and do both.
on a budget of sorts here and married with 3 kids. . .
squeezed out enough for crappy water cooling AND 1.5Gb of PC2700 with CL2.0 . Now, saving for better water-cooling

So should the fan from my volcano 9 work on the SLK-800? I think I will try 2 Corsair CMX256A-3200LLPT 256MB DDR400 XMS3200 Low Latency SPD Memory w/Platinum Heat Spreader Retail for memory. And go with the new heat sink if you guys think it is not that much better to go no water. oh ya what is the Average price I should pay for quality ram I want 2, 256 sticks ddr 3200

You shouldn't pay more than 135$. You can get bh5 (the best pc3200) for around 125$ for a pair of 256's. Shop around. Look for hyperx 3000, 3200, 3500 with 2-2-2 timings (maybe 2700 too... dunno if that's bh5). Buffalo pc3700 is bh5, as is 2-2-2 corsair 3200 and 3500, and muskin level 2 3200 and 3500. Hyperx 3000, 3200 or buffalo 3700 will be the cheapest.

I have Geil Golden Dragon Dual 2x256 CAS2 PC3500 chips. Are those BH-5's, and how can I tell anyways if it's BH-5's? Also, what is the real significance of that chipset?