RAM decision time again

Sorry, I'm sure these pages are full of 'what ram do I get' questions but I really could use the help!

The last time I built a PC EDO RAM was new. I'm completely bewildered by all the choices on offer today. Just how many ways are there to buy 1gb??

Like I say I'm putting a machine together. The shopping list so far looks like this (not bought anything yet so if something's 'wrong' let me know):

AMD64 3800 socket 939
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Nforce3 motherboard
Some form of Nvidia 6800 ultra.

And 1gb of Ram.
I'd initially decided on 'Corsair DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x512)' for about £170 (about $310), but from reading various forums everyone seems to have vastly more expensive memory. So I'm just looking for a little advice and explanation.
I've never been mad into overclocking but I'd like to have the option to maybe tweak it a little bit.

So thanks for any advice you can give me on which memory to get.

**Update: I'm hearing a lot of good things about the Ballistix

Well what exactly are you trying to do with this system? Are you going to overclock the crap out of it and get the most as possible out of your system? Also does that msi support 3.3 volts for the memory in the bois. Really its all up to what you want to spend on your memory. But yes from what I have read in the last couple of days the Ballistix is supposed to be pretty good.

Thanks for the input.
The blurb on the MSI site has this to say about it's accepted memory:

• Supports dual channel DDR 266/333/400, using four 184-pin DDR DIMMs.
• Supports a maximum memory size up to 4GB with ECC.
• Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM DIMM.

The Ballistix spec is 2.8v and you're talking about 3.3v so is the quoted MSI spec of 2.5v a little weedy then? will that cause problems?

It's mainly going to be used as a games machine, little bit of video encoding and a lot of general use.
I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to overclocking. I'm not keen on spending £1500 on kit then seeing something melt because I pushed it too far
I may not even overclock it at all.

Maxheadroom said:

Thanks for the input.
The blurb on the MSI site has this to say about it's accepted memory:

• Supports dual channel DDR 266/333/400, using four 184-pin DDR DIMMs.
• Supports a maximum memory size up to 4GB with ECC.
• Supports 2.5v DDR SDRAM DIMM.

The Ballistix spec is 2.8v and you're talking about 3.3v so is the quoted MSI spec of 2.5v a little weedy then? will that cause problems?

It's mainly going to be used as a games machine, little bit of video encoding and a lot of general use.
I'm a bit of a coward when it comes to overclocking. I'm not keen on spending £1500 on kit then seeing something melt because I pushed it too far
I may not even overclock it at all.

Click to expand...

humm ECC, i thought that s-939 was non-ecc, it must be a typo.

w/ corsair xms3200XL(2-2-2-5)(samsung TCCD's) many dont need 3.3v, nor do the 3200ballistix(2-2-2-5)(Mt -5b G), either would be a good choice. also if you could find some, OCZ 3700 EB(3-2-2-7)(Mt -5b C) is good to for a64.

and as well OCZ PC3200 Platinum Revision 2(Samsung TCCD's, just like the Corsair 3200XL) is good

overclockers.co.uk seem to do the full range of OCZ sticks, and I'm ordering most of the other bits from them anyway. The OCZ 3700 EB looks like being a contender, or even the OCZ 3200 EB.

Those would both definitely work in the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum then? (Or would I be better off with the Asus K8V?)