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OCZ 2 X 1GB 2-3-2-5 PC3200 with Venice, any forseable Problems?

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prominance

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Nov 19, 2004
Ok Just put a new system together, Asus A8N SLI Deluxe, 3700+ Venice with some pretty old Corsiar Ram 2 X 512MB, specd at DDR 443 2-5-5-7, it served its purpose on my old P4 IC7-Max 3 system for 2 years. I wanna move to bigger, better memory and I just saw the OCZ Pair of 1 GB sticks (Z4002048ELDCPE-K model) for like 300 bucks which seems like a steal to me. I currently max my memory cuz I run alot of background stuff and have multiple windows open and it would make an awesome transition to windows 64 when it is fully capable or running all my devices. Is there anything i should be weary about? I will not be overclocking on the start and if it means less OC headroom I really do not mind as stabilty is key to me (hence not getting the DFi for insane 300FSB overclocks). The spec on this ram is for 1T right? And it seems with such good timmings at PC3200 speeds (I am, assuming, the spec pages on these things all say as low as 2-3-2-5, wether that means at DDR400 or DDR333 I really do not know, clarification would be great!) If I ever overclocked the most I would go would prolly be like 237 Memory Frequency to get the 2.2 to 2.6 (which I think is an excellent clock if my chip can pull it off, plus I read some places memory runs asynch anyways!)

So in essence would this be a good buy for my needs?
 
I've been wondering this as well, the overclockability of 1GB sticks, especially in pairs. I'm not looking for a high-end overclock either, but staying at stock is definately not fun. :D

EDIT: The only high-speed 1GB stick I've found is a Crucial Ballistix 1GB PC4000. Although, there's two problems with this. It's most likely not guaranteed to run that speed in dual channel with another 1GB stick, and considering you can get 1GB sticks with low cas timings for around the $125 area, the $265 for just one of these is kind of hefty. Almost seems more worth it to save the money by getting a good pair of PC3200 sticks, and use the extra money to buy a higher processor that will have a bigger multiplier. Then you can raise the timings, up the voltage, and hope you can get something decent out of them. Then again, you'll still have a bomb machine either way.
 
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237MHz would be a lot to hope for from these at 2-3-2. From what I've read about these and the similar modules from PDP, you'd be lucky to get 210 at stock timings.

You might want to consider low latency 4x512MB instead. Yes, you'll have to run at 2T, but this Corsair whitepaper
http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/guides/AN501_Latency_Settings_and_Performance.pdf
indicates that 2-3-2-5-1T will beat 2-2-2-5-2T by only about 1% in real world aps. Better overclocking tips the balance towards 4x unless you plan to add more RAM.
 
They are rated 2-3-2-5 1T. A few boards have problems with 1GB sicks and they may force you to run cas 2.5, but it's not that big a problem
 
ok on a Sus A8N SLI deluxe would the OCZ be a good idea? And if I cannot get the memory to go higher than I want can I just runa divider and overclock my cpu to a high frequency and keep my ram at ddr 400? Also why would 2-3-2-5 1Gb Ram sticks specd at DDR400 not overclock as well as their 512MB counterparts? They are both specd the same right so assuming the same ram quality (same ram chips on board) shouldnt they theoretically overclock within a not to sizable difference between them? I mean why should I get 2X512 2-3-2-5 memory when I can get 2X1Gb 2-3-2-5 memory?
 
prominance said:
And if I cannot get the memory to go higher than I want can I just runa divider and overclock my cpu to a high frequency and keep my ram at ddr 400?
Yes, but if your memory works only in a very narrow range, you might have trouble selecting the CPU speed you want at DDR400 or above. You'll probably be able to underclock that RAM if necessary, though, and as long as your timings are tight, that won't hurt performance much.

Also why would 2-3-2-5 1Gb Ram sticks specd at DDR400 not overclock as well as their 512MB counterparts? They are both specd the same right so assuming the same ram quality (same ram chips on board) shouldnt they theoretically overclock within a not to sizable difference between them? I mean why should I get 2X512 2-3-2-5 memory when I can get 2X1Gb 2-3-2-5 memory?
Because the chips on the 2X512 are half the density of the 2X1Gb, and lower density chips generally offer better overclocks and tighter timings even if the modules are rated the same. Basically, the manufacturers have already pushed the high density chips about as far as they will go in order to match their low density cousins.

Now, if you're going to actually use more than 1GB of RAM, the penalty for swapping RAM to disk will far outweigh anything else, so get as much RAM as you'll use, whether you go with 2x1GB or 4x512MB.
 
If you are planning to overclock later down the line you should purchase the pc3200 performance 2GB kit rather than the platinum. The performance does much higher FSB speeds with 3-3-3 timings, but at stock the platinum will do 2-3-2 timings
 
wouldn't the pc3200 platinum 2GB kit o/c to the same speeds if loosened up to 3-3-3 instead of 2-3-2?
 
I'm still a little confused on why you would have to run 1t with 4x512mb. I thought the venice memory controller was supposed to solve the end all be all of ram overclocking? :)

-Collin-
 
NinjaZX6R said:
I'm still a little confused on why you would have to run 1t with 4x512mb. I thought the venice memory controller was supposed to solve the end all be all of ram overclocking? :)
-Collin-
Assuming that's a typo and you really mean why you'd have to run at 2T with 4x512MB: The Venice memory controller is an improvment over the one on the Winchester, but it it still can't handle four sticks of double-sided RAM at 1T. It can do four sticks of single-sided at 1T, but that means high-density chips which of course aren't going to OC as well. The good news is that it no longer forces a reduced memory clock when using four DIMMs.

1T/2T is the time it takes to select an individual RAM chip before sending it commands, and I figure that with 64 chips it must be very hard to pick one out in a single clock cycle.
 
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