Memory Recomendations

Hi im new to this forum hence my overclocking skills are still quite noobish (hence why im here).

I have recently bought the ASUS P4P800 i865PE in which I do not belive is the deluxe edition. I have been researchibng in which RAM to purchase and from my results I find that either Corsair or Kingston HyperX are highly recommended.

My question is that if I went for Corsair which model should I go for bearing in mind it must be PC3200 400MHz and I want to go for at least 512MB. This leads me to my other question which is if I bought the HyperX which runs at PC4200 or something similar wiould I be able to place this on my motherboard without any modifications being made to the motherboard.

Thanks and any other useful information will be great and much appreciated.

Thanks

What cpu are you going to be using? Don't forget you want to get 2 sticks of the same size to run dual channel

Steve

You have two choices, either getting DDR3200-3500 either Kingston HyperX, Mushkin, or Corsair. All of these must use either BH5 or BH6 memory chips, Maybe CH5. These chips are best if you only need to go up to 240 or so FSB with very tight memory timings. If you want to go higher, forget the HyperX 4200 and get this stuff> http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=273799

That's all I can say ATM, good luck.

Hi thanks for your replies, I will be either purchasing a P4 2.8Mhz 800FSB or possibly the P4 3.02 800FSB with 1MB Cache. I was also wondering, if I buy one memory stick for example 512 I will not obviously take advantage of the dual DDR feature. But if I then got the same one 3 months later for example will that then use the Dual featur and three chips would disable this I presume.

Are the BH6 chips an advance to the BH5 ones or should I try and look for the old BH5 if I could find them.

Finally I was also wondering that if the chip is faster than the memory slots stated on the motherboard would this cause an issue or will I have to adjust the settings in the BIOS to compensate.

Thank again for your help

Hempmaster said:

Hi thanks for your replies, I will be either purchasing a P4 2.8Mhz 800FSB or possibly the P4 3.02 800FSB with 1MB Cache.

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The P4s with 1MB cache are Prescotts. They run HOT. If this is your first overclocking experience, you may want to stick with a Northwood chip (P4 C).

Hempmaster said:

I was also wondering, if I buy one memory stick for example 512 I will not obviously take advantage of the dual DDR feature. But if I then got the same one 3 months later for example will that then use the Dual featur and three chips would disable this I presume.
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Yes...adding a 2nd memory stick will enable dual DDR (assuming it's placed in the correct slot). Don't run with 3 sticks.

Hempmaster said:

Are the BH6 chips an advance to the BH5 ones or should I try and look for the old BH5 if I could find them.
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BH5s are generally recognized in this forum as the preferred memory chips. BH6s and CH5s are later generations, but don't seem to perform quite as well. However, the newer generations are still pretty darn good compared to other alternatives.

Hempmaster said:

Finally I was also wondering that if the chip is faster than the memory slots stated on the motherboard would this cause an issue or will I have to adjust the settings in the BIOS to compensate.
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Click to expand...

Memory speed is driven by both the FSB and memory ratios set in the bios. Generally, you shouldn't have a memory problem if it is running at or below it's maximum overclock speed. (Of course, the max overclock speed is a variable itself and can be impacted by bios setting such as VDIMM voltage, memory timings, etc.)

Thanks for the replies guys this forum is a lot better than I expected. I think im quite up to date now with RAM knowledge, so all I have to do is decide what one to get but I think from what I hear im going to go for a Corsair PC3500 512MB but is it true that Corsair have issue on Asus motherboards

Also excuse my ignorance but whats the differnce between a Northwood chip and a Southwood one?.

Thanks

Hempmaster said:

...whats the differnce between a Northwood chip and a Southwood one?.

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Intel uses a code name for every generation of CPU. The code name for the one-generation old P4 model is "Northwood." These chips can be identified by the "C" in the processor name (e.g., P4 3.0C).

The latest P4 generation is code named "Prescott." Prescotts can be identified by the "E" in the processor name (e.g., P4 3.0E).

Currently, most overclockers (and OEM computer builders) still favor the older Northwoods because of their lower power consumption (read "lower temperatures").

Just so there's no confusion, there is a "North bridge" and "South bridge" in Intel motherboard chipsets, but they are NOT CPUs. You can find plenty of information on these in the motherboard section of the forums.

I understand now about the processors but I wont go further into that here, but thansk for your reply.

I am considering purchasing

Corsair (CMX512-4000) THE XMS EXTREME SERIES - 512MB - DDR500 - PC4000 - 184Pinn - Unbuffered - BLACK Memory Module

just the 1 for now and another a few weeks. Is this any good as it has a CAS latency of 2 which as far as I know is the lowest you can get. Does anyone know if this uses BH5 memeory chips? Also the fact it says unbuffered does that mean its not a Registerd or ECC chip?.


thanks

You not only have to pay attention to the CAS latency number, but also the numbers that follow it, as they have an impact on your memories speed as well (memory that runs at 2-2-2-5 will run faster than memory of the same DDR speed that runs at 2-3-3-7).

However, on Pentium systems I don't think the lower timings are quite as important as with AMD, as they benefit more from the higher FSB speeds. Corsair's website lists the CMX512-4000 as being CAS3, also, not CAS2. Though if your motherboard by chance won't run a FSB of 250, you may be able to underclock the RAM a bit and tighten the timings to CAS2 (I don't have any experience with this ram, so I don't know how it performs when run at DDR400 or DDR433 levels instead of DDR500).

And like I said, I don't know anything about the RAM you listed from personal experience, but if you're buying it brand new, it's not going to have BH-5 chips in it (I don't know if any memory above DDR433 ever had BH-5 chips, actually).

You stated that you're thinking about either a 2.8 or a 3.02 cpu. Did you mean a 3.0 or a 3.20? I believe that you should try to match your memory to your cpu. Try to get memory that will run just outside what you can expect from your cpu, but with the fastest timings for that speed. That way you can get the benefits of the fastest timings but not have your overclocking attempt limited by your memory. Some RAM is able to operate across a wide fsb range and with faster timings at the lower fsb while others simply won't work at faster timings, even with a lower fsb. An example of one that will is the OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev 2 at about $265 per 2 x 512 the last time I checked. They're rated at DDR466 but have been shown to overclock to DDR500 - DDR533 speeds. They would work good for a cpu in the 2.8 - 3.2 range but would most likely be too slow for a good 2.4 P4. I would think that if you got a 3.2 you would not need memory running at 250 PC4000) as you're not likely to get your cpu running that fast. If you do want the high fsb memory, then follow that link above if you haven't already done so and read about the A-Data.

And stay with the "C"s and avoid the "E"s P4 if for no other reason than you're going to find a lot more info on the "C". The Prescotts won't really show their true stuff until they get the new pin layout and the higher clock speeds. Next year's toys.

And by the way, unbufferred does mean that it is not Registered or ECC.

Sorry yes i meant 3.20 but I think il go for the 2.8 due to funds.

What would be the best course of actionto take when purchasing RAM, would it be better for me to go for a good Corsair (they seem to be the most highly rated) PC3200 DDR400 and overclock that or to go for one of the already overclocked chips such as the ones recommended to me above?

Above were I mentioned the CAS Latency for that Memory was 2, I assumed this becasue the description for it on the website selling it said CL2. Is that right what I thought or is it just a mis-description of the memroy?

Thanks

How about a link to the memory specs page you're look at? PC3200 would quite likely be Cas 2, but not the PC4000.

If you go with the 2.8, which is pretty popular right now from what I can tell by looking at what people are running, check out what others are using to get a feel for what's working with the 2.8s. I don't remember if you said what king of cooling you were using, did you? It's going to play a big part in how high you can OC that cpu. With the 2.4 you can either go with the A-Data for example, at 1:1 or go with some BH-5/BH-6, using 5:4 divider and fast timings. With the 3.0 or 3.2, the BH-5/6 or some good PC3700 with maybe a little bit of headroom would work real good at 220 - 235. The 2.8 is probably going to max out somewhere around the 240 - 255 range on air so PC4000, with a little bit of headroom would be just about right. I think that if you're trying to keep your cost down, you ought to consider either the Komusa 2 x 256 (PC4200) at about $140 (or about $240 for a gig) or the Hynix BT-D43 which can be had on Kingston value ram for about $80, after a $10 rebate, direct from Kingston through the end of March. The Komusa will run at faster fsb, but you won't really need it for the 2.8. The Hynix will OC to 250 - 260 range without too much trouble from what I've heard (I bought some of it for a 2.6, but it still in the box so I can't tell you for sure that it will do 250 plus). What I did was to go to my local BB, find the Hynix and buy it at their high price and then wait for my order from Kingston to come in. It turned out to be the Hynix too, but if it wasn't, I was just going to return the stuff from Kingston to BB and keep the Hynix. If you don't do something like that you can't be sure you'll get Hynix chips since you don't really know what Kingston will ship you (it is the RETAIL Dual Channel Packs, by the way). Those are probably your best low cost options. If you're willing to spend a little more jack, the OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev 2 has received some pretty good press and it will run at faster timings at the lower fsb. The A-Data and the Hynix won't do quite as well there. Go to the memory section of Anandtech.com if you want to read one of the OCZ PC3700 review/articles.

If I had to choose for you, this would be my order of preference... (1) the PCZ PC3700 Gold Rev 2.0 for about $265 (for 2 x 512), (2) if you don't quite have that much available to spend, I'd get the Komusa (2 x 256 for $140 or a gig for about $240) because it will give you lots of headroom for this cpu or others you may get later and you'll get good performance at 1:1, and (3) to spend the least, but still able to reach a high enought fsb for the 2.8, go with the Hynix. If you can find it at Best Buy, its on sale this week (2 x 256) for about $70, after rebates.

Thanks for the advice, but I was considering getting a good PC3200 such as

http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/products/specs/cmx512-3200ll.pdf

or

http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/products/specs/cmx512-3200c2.pdf

due to budget and the fact im still new to oc'ing I dont want to go overboard. But please let me know if im going the wrong way about this.

I didnt mention cooling as I havent considered it yet but I think il have to go air due to budget again but il create a new thread about that in the right firum.

Thanks