which provides better performance?

I have a p4 2.4c coming soon and i currently have an ASUS p4p800 865PE motherboard. I do want to achieve the best overclock i can get with air cooling. I'm gonna get the zalman7000. Well, RAM is wat i'm gonna get next and i've been really looking at the corsair xms series pc3700 512mb twin pack. But it's a bit pricey, then i noticed the pc3200 512mb twin pack low latency which was a little bit cheaper. by $4 to be exact from newegg.com. so my question is, which of the two will give me the best performance? and i mean the highest stable overclock.

the exact models are: Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, Low Latency (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3200

the timings are 2-3-2-6 T1
2.6v

and for the pc3700: Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, (Twin Pack) 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3700 with Platinum Heat Spreader

3-4-4-8
2.75v

*sigh* i don't know which way to go. i have little knowledge when it comes to ram timings and overclocking. I've never done any overclocking major overclocking besides my video card. but even that is not very MAJOR.

any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.
- Jonathan

Neither

For low latency check the BH5/BH6 sticky above.

For high 1:1 FSB look for something faster e.g. OCZ 4200EL or even 4400 since the Corsair 3700 will likely give up before your CPU does.

For a compromise consider OCZ 3700 Gold, which will give lower latency than the Corsair at same or possibly higher FSB.

For something cheaper look for Kingston ValueRam with BH6( low latency) or Hynix D43 (high FSB).

But don't take my word for it, do some searches on this board, which is mostly filled with discussions on this subject.

Br
hepp

First off, I'd get the SP-94 heatsink rather than the Zalman. Secondly, with the 2.4C if you are going for max O/C, then your FSB will get rather high. Not sure what your goal is, but if you don't have BH-5 chips on your RAM, then most PC3500 and lower RAM will have to use the 3:2 ratio above about 275 FSB (sometimes more if you are lucky and/or you volt mod for more vdimm). The higher speed RAM sometimes don't like lower ratios, you have to be careful. With BH-5 RAM, I can get 3.4 gig out of my 2.4C using the 5:4 ratio, tight timings and vdimm of 2.7v to 2.8v.

I would like to keep the prices to around $150 and lower. I looked at the pc4000 and pc4400 ram and those are looking to be too much. I’m on a budget and I need to buy a hard drive along with the ram. pc3700 seems to be the highest I can go as far as money-wise. I’m looking at the ocz pc3700’s. I see a gold rev 2 and just regular gold, any idea which ones better? I looked at some benchmarks and the regular gold was getting better performance and achieved a higher overclock. And I couldn’t find out anywhere if they’re bh-5 chips, are they or no? I don’t know much about the bh-5 and bh-6 stuff but it looks like the bh-5 is what I should be looking for. $160 is the very max I’ll go for dual channel 512mb of ram. I don’t know the max potential of the 2.4c so I don’t really know what my goal should be. I also don’t understand the 1:1 and 5:4 ratio stuff very much either. I want to get around 3.4ghz without doing any kind of volt mods. So I guess whatever ram will get me up there and perform well at a stable rate.

Thanks for your replies

The OCZ PC3700 Gold rev2 is good stuff, but it's probably better suited for the 2.8C or 3.0C. It does not have BH-5 chips, maybe Hynix?

Lately, the average O/C for most 2.4C is 3.2 to 3.5 gig with good cooling. So, 3.3 to 3.4 gig is a reasonable and realistic goal since you'll be upgrading cooling. Don't forget to add a couple case fans to improve case ventilation.

Tell you what, to make it easy on yourself since you are on a tight budget, just get the Kingston HyperX PC3000 (see link). There is a chance you'll get BH-5 chips with this stuff. Even if it's CH-5 chips, it'll still do pretty good without sacrificing too much. Worse case you'll have to run the 3:2 ratio if you get a good O/Cing CPU. I run the 3:2 ratio with my 2.4C when I go above 3.4 gig or so too. I personally have 2X256 KHX PC3000 and it overclocks nicely. I can post some screen shots later if you want.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-144-123&catalog=147&depa=1

so you would recommend the kingston over the corsair 3200LL? Thanks alot of your input, i really appreciate it. deciding on ram is hard when money is an issue. i COULD spend a little more than $150 on ram but i really don't like to. I can spend around $200 a month on computer parts and i already have the video card, motherboard and i have the CPU coming in already. My next order would be ram, and i would like to get a hard drive along witht he ram, but the hard drive can wait another month. There's other little items i'd like to get along with the ram. but if i really have to, i could spend up to around $180-190.

And about that thermaltake sp94, what kind of fan should i put on it? and is it mandatory that i put one on right away? could i use just the heatsync to run stock clocks on the 2.4? or can i just slap on an old fan from my 1.2ghz celeron til i get the fan? I'll probably be able to just order a fan along with the heatsync as it is so that probably won't be much of a problem. i need to know what size fan will go on it, and fan noise should be taken into consideration. i'd like to keep my computer as quiet as possible without hurting cooling performance.

and as far as case cooling goes, i have 1 in front, 2 in back, 1 on side panel and 1 on top. i also have 2 more 80mm coming in to add on the side panel and front. thanks alot guys.

- Jonathan

ok after looking around a bit for a list of different kinds of ram i am willing to pay for here's what i came up with

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-965&catalog=147&depa=1

it says it's got bh-6winbond. thas a price i'll most definitely pay for

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-955&catalog=147&depa=1

i dunno wat chip is in there, but it's pc4200.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-937&catalog=147&depa=1

that is the very max i'll pay, i dunno wat chip is in there either. i'll go for this one only if i REALLY should get it.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-432&catalog=147&depa=1

some corsair low latency

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-431&catalog=147&depa=1

another corsair low latency, there's a little difference in timing, i don't care about the heatsync differences.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-287&catalog=147&depa=1

here is mushkin "2-2-2 special" package.

Well that's all that i came up with under the newegg search. I'll buy any of those that will give me the best performance excluding the $190 ram, i'm not too sure on that yet. if the performance is a big difference from the others then i'll probably go with it.

thanks everyone

-Jonathan

The OCZ3200 plat LE and the Mushkin 2-2-2 Special are guaranteed to be BH6.
The KHX3000 is probably BH6 as well but could be BH5 or possibly CH5.

BH5/6 should all be capable of about 270-280 5:4 with 2.85V whilst maintaining 2-2-2 timings. But nothing is guaranteed in this game apart from the spec performance. In the case of KHX3000 there is not even a guarantee regarding what chips you will get.

The corsairs are not worth a premium since they are definately CH5. The OCZ4200EL is good if you must run 1:1 but for most purposes 5:4 with tight timings will equal or outperform 1:1 with slack timings, so if you are on a tight budget I would not recommend those.

just regular gold

Click to expand...

Not sure what that would be, perhaps rev 1 which would be even better or perhaps rev 2 but they did not boher to write that.
In any case batboy is right, if you have a 2.4 and aim for max o/c then these are not your best bet.

I also don’t understand the 1:1 and 5:4 ratio stuff very much either.

Click to expand...

Search some more and you will find a better explanation than this but what it means is basically this.

1:1 means the memory is running at the processors FSB speed.
If you FSB is 200 then the ram will run at DDR400 = PC3200 speed. If a 2.4 is running at 3.3Ghz the FSB will be 275 which is tough for most ram.

So you run the memory slower by setting a 5:4 memory ratio.
275/5:4=220 ~ DDR440 which is possible with BH5/6 if you feed it 2.85V.

Or you could keep 1:1 if your memory was capable ot 275 which the OCZ4200EL might be. This sounds better in theory.
But because the timings(latency) of that module is much worse (3-4-4-8 at this speed) you loose most of that performance.

Good luck
hepp