Memory confusion - nforce4 based winchester rig

Hi folks,
Am putting together a n-force4 based rig at the moment (asus motherboard due tomorrow ), using a 3500+ Winchester. It wil be watercooled, so i anticipate a fair amount of overclocking - i'd like to get the chip to circa 2600mhz.
I'm getting a but confused as to the right memory i should go for.

From reviews. the Gskill 4400 stuff with tccd chips looks good, as does the OCZ EL Platinum Revision 2 pc3200 and corsair TWINX1024-3200X. Ive got no real idea what speed i'm going to end up running at

One thing that confuses teh issue further is i will have 2gb of ram. Now from what i can gather, 4 sticks of ram means i cant use 1T settings...?
I know OCZ do some 1gb sticks, so i could get away with just two (the ones i have seen are pc3500 at CL3-3-3-8 )

Any thoughts?

4x 512mb will = 2gb I dont see why you wouldnt be able to use 1t. The Patriot ram is really cheap and it has tccd (you will prob save 80 dollars goin that route with 2gbs) Just get their 512x2 package twice The OCZ ram and G.Skill ect work fine too. By default you will run at pc 3200 unless you overclock the fsb of your sys. When buying pc 3200+ all it means is its gaurenteed to run at that speed with the listed timings.

If you are going to use 2GB, I would recommend using two 1GB modules.

You are correct that the majority of motherboards simply won't run 1T with 4 x 512mb modules installed, and furthermore most won't run DDR400 with such a combination. Keep in mind this isn't a motherboard limitation.

A 1GB module is double sided, as is 90% of 512mb modules. The motherboard sees double side as the same (regardless of capacity, this is due to signal strength when spread across multiple banks), and most will only run DDR400 with TWO dual-side modules.

double post

Thanks adelphia. i guess i am going to have to do some searching tomorrow to see what other options i have for 1gb sticks!

stu_allen said:

Thanks adelphia. i guess i am going to have to do some searching tomorrow to see what other options i have for 1gb sticks!

Click to expand...

There's not many, and most will not do the speed most overclockers are looking for. Unfortunately there's a tradeoff between highest overclock, and 2GB RAM.

Moreso, 512mb owners often overclock higher than those with 1GB. 2GB only complicates the problem further.