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General stuff about memory

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radbrit

Registered
Joined
Apr 20, 2005
Can someone help me out please. What do I want to look out for when buying memory. Like does is matter how many pins it's got and stuff. If someone could give me a brief summary on what to look out for I'd appreciate it..
 
First of all Welcome to the forums. :welcome: Seams like we have been getting alot of new members lately.

You need to know what type you are shopping for. It is probably ddr, but it could be sdram or some other type. If you could give us your system spec, it would help alot. Then there is the speed of the ram. It rangers from PC2100 to PC4400 and up. And finally is the Cas Latency. this comes in CL3, CL 2.5, and CL2. The lower it is, the faster it is. Visit our memory section and read the stickies. What I gave you is the rawbone basics. There is much more once you get into it.
 
I don't know if I'm the best person on memory but here it goes.

240 pin is DDR2 and 184 pin is DDR (regular)

DDR400=PC-3200 and is basically the standard right now. Lower Latencies are also good such as 2-2-2-5(mine). Even if a motherboard says that it supports DDR00(or something else), you can always put in higher memory and get low latencies. ie: PC-5400 in a DDR400 motherboard = uber low latencies. Another thing is that DDR2 and DDR will not mix and I don't think you could find any motherboards which support both.

As of right now, AMD only supports DDR because the memory controller is built into the CPU and to support DDR2, AMD would have to re-spin the core. Intel supports DDR2 on their new 9xx motherboards. DDR2 isn't that great until you get up to DDR667(or DDR677, I forgot) and higher. To be "future-proof", I would get DDR2 right now. Some Sweet OCZ DDR2 would be nice.

-1cem4n
 
I have an AMD mobo (athlon 63 3200+) so it will be ddr then. It has some samsung 512mb pc2700 but I want to upgrade. Anyone know any sites selling memory for cheap lol? And cheers for the help :)
 
radbrit said:
I have an AMD mobo (athlon 63 3200+) so it will be ddr then. It has some samsung 512mb pc2700 but I want to upgrade. Anyone know any sites selling memory for cheap lol? And cheers for the help :)
Are you wanting more memory or faster memory. If you put a stick of 512mb PC 3200 in there, it will only run at PC2700 speed. It will only run as fast as you slowest sick of ram. Go for 2 sticks of 512mb PC3200 and up. Try Newegg.com for shopping, they have pretty much everything.
 
Cool :)

I'm looking for more and possibly an upgrade. What do people mean when they put "server ram". I take it I'm looking for gaming ram as I play many games lol..
 
All DDR ram is the same. they are just different speeds. Server ram and gaming ram are just labels that companies make up.
 
Server RAM isn't very good. Server RAM is registered RAM and often has ECC built in too. ECC stands for Error Checking and Correcting. Avoid this at all costs. ECC doesn't really help unless you are leaving your computer on for a long time. ECC takes up a Clock cycles too. Registered RAM is just RAM which takes up a clock cycle to make sure data is in a stable stream. Avoid this too.

As for Some good RAM, Whats your budget? and what games?

-1cem4n
 
Well my budget isn't high lol, I dunno how much depends whats to offer, but I don't wanna spend loads. And the latest games like far cry, doom 3, brothers in arms etc etc
 
oh okay. Try the Corsair that Supernade recommended. I used it before I got my OCZ and it worked fantastic

-1cem4n
 
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