Best match for my lvl 2 blk?

I've got two more dimm slots available in my first sig rig. I'm looking at 2x this OCZ as the best pick to match my one stick of BH-5 PC3500. This board pretty much maxes out at about 215 FSB stable so I'm looking to go up to 3x512. FYI-I am aware that there might even be cheaper options to go up to 2 gig, but I *really* wanna' do something with that stick of Mushkin and 1x512 isn't gonna' cut it.

Got WIN98se stable, will set up dual boot w/XP shortly. Might try some higher end gaming now that I've got a decent vid card. Otherwise, music, movies...pretty much the home entertainment center.

FlailBoy said:

I've got two more dimm slots available in my second sig rig. I'm looking at 2x this OCZ as the best pick to match my one stick of BH-5 PC3500. This board pretty much maxes out at about 215 FSB stable so I'm looking to go up to 3x512. FYI-I am aware that there might even be cheaper options to go up to 2 gig, but I *really* wanna' do something with that stick of Mushkin and 1x512 isn't gonna' cut it.

Got WIN98se stable, will set up dual boot w/XP shortly. Might try some higher end gaming now that I've got a decent vid card. Otherwise, music, movies...pretty much the home entertainment center.

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Hey, I remember Win98SE and there was no such thing as stable at any speed!....lol
If you are looking to mix ram be advised that you are looking for trouble. It does work sometimes and you could get lucky, but certainly don't count on it working. If you really want to keep what you have you might want to check out used ram that will really match it. Good luck.

rseven said:

Hey, I remember Win98SE and there was no such thing as stable at any speed!....lol
If you are looking to mix ram be advised that you are looking for trouble. It does work sometimes and you could get lucky, but certainly don't count on it working. If you really want to keep what you have you might want to check out used ram that will really match it. Good luck.

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I've actually had good success w/win98se. You just have to be willing to babysit your registry.

I am aware of the issues mixing RAM. My own preference would be not to do that; but I wasn't smart enough to buy a gig of the Lvl 2 black back then so here I am. The OCZ 3500 seemed to be the closest match (timings, volts, price) for what's available now. I'd like to get over 1 gig. For my last socket A, I figured a gig and a half would be a good compromise between my wallet and performance.

FlailBoy said:

I am aware of the issues mixing RAM. My own preference would be not to do that; but I wasn't smart enough to buy a gig of the Lvl 2 black back then so here I am. The OCZ 3500 seemed to be the closest match (timings, volts, price) for what's available now. I'd like to get over 1 gig. For my last socket A, I figured a gig and a half would be a good compromise between my wallet and performance.

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I t's not the timing and voltage, although that's not a bad idea, it's brands and chipsets that matter more. I have seen it work ad I've seen it not work. The only way to know is to try. Keep your fingers crossed. Good luck.

rseven said:

...it's brands and chipsets that matter more.

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That actually was another thing I looked at-aren't both the OCZ and my Mushkin Lvl 2 Black Winbond BH-5?

FlailBoy said:

That actually was another thing I looked at-aren't both the OCZ and my Mushkin Lvl 2 Black Winbond BH-5?

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You may be right, but I really don't know. I did have a link that gave that information, but I can't locate it. Someone around here will know for sure.

Which OCZ kit are you talkning about?

fldrice said:

Which OCZ kit are you talkning about?

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this

This review is where I picked up on it being Winbond BH-5.

It's not genuine BH-5...It is Winbond BH quality UTT. It's worth a shot if you really want to keep your lvlII.

fldrice said:

It's not genuine BH-5...It is Winbond BH quality UTT. It's worth a shot if you really want to keep your lvlII.

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Ok thanks. Was just looking for the best match on what's currently out there. I might just go for it.

You will be better of getting some Gold VX's.

RedDragonXXX said:

You will be better of getting some Gold VX's.

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OCZ memory

I don't see the VX in PC 3500. And the 4000 is obviously overkill on a board that maxes out at about 215.

Yeah-the 4000 might be a bit more 'future-proof' but with my current finances...by the time I can build a new rig, PC-8000 will probably be standard on most machines.

FlailBoy said:

OCZ memory

I don't see the VX in PC 3500. And the 4000 is obviously overkill on a board that maxes out at about 215.

Yeah-the 4000 might be a bit more 'future-proof' but with my current finances...by the time I can build a new rig, PC-8000 will probably be standard on most machines.

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Then you will be better off putting money aside for a new rig and run with what you have right now.

RedDragonXXX said:

You will be better of getting some Gold VX's.

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Gold VX is Winbond CH quality UTT. He's better off with the GX since they are BH quality and will probably play better with the lvlII at lower volts.

fldrice said:

Gold VX is Winbond CH quality UTT. He's better off with the GX since they are BH quality and will probably play better with the lvlII at lower volts.

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I'm talking about replacing LVII (try to sell them at Classifieds) with VX's.

Or if you are even tighter on a budget then you can get some XP3200's which are UTT's as well, but not sure if Mushkin is still using Winbond chips on them.

Mushkin still has the HP-3200 with Winbond CH quality UTT ICs left in stock but if you want to be sure, give them a call. However, the CH UTT is no longer in production according to Mushkin.

RedDragonXXX said:

I'm talking about replacing LVII (try to sell them at Classifieds)...

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This had previously occurred to me.

fldrice said:

...and will probably play better with the lvlII at lower volts.

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My thought also as I'm currently running@ 2.80v and would have no need to go any higher than that running inside spec.

You guys have both been extremely helpful. Thanks.

I think I'll pull the trigger on the OCZ GX 3500, try to run it with my lvl2. If it works-great. If not, I'll drop down to a gig of the OCZ and maybe sell the lvl2 in the classies (a first for me). Then if I'm inclined, I'll try to pick up another 512 of the OCZ and call it a day on the socket A platform.

UPDATE:

Ok, I got the OCZ. Pulled out the BH-5, and put the OCZ in Dimm's 1&2, Vdimm @2.8. Ran fine w/ a gig of the OCZ. Timings read as 2.5-3-2-7. I'll tweak those down to 2-2-2-6.

So I plugged the BH-5 into dimm 3. Got an error message at windows startup: "Not enough memory to launch windows. Try ending memory-resident programs in congig.sys, autoexec.bat". Both files are of course, completely empty.

OS is WIn98se. Yes-I know-but I'm trying to get a dual boot going, 98se/XP.

Anyhoo, this is a known issue with win 98se when more than a gig is installed. There's a fix that's supposed to work. Microsoft article 181862. It suggests adding the line: MaxPhysPage=40000 to the system.ini file. That's hexadecimal for telling 98 not to use more than a gig of ram. Kinda' stupid if you want to use 1.5; but I tried it just to see if I could get windows to launch. Same message. Hexadecimal for 1.5 gig is 60000 (I think). Tried it. Same message.

In any case, and in the interest of posting results out here, I pulled out one stick of OCZ and I've been playing Age of Mythology for a few hours w/ the OCZ in dimm1, the BH-5 in dimm2. 2.8v, 2-3-2.5-7. No problems, no noticeable difference. Haven't run memtest yet; but it seems like they are getting along famously. I'm reasonably sure the results would be the same at 2-2-2-6.

I still have a couple of things I'm gonna try to get 1.5 gig running. I tried setting the swap file to the same min and max sizes (20 meg), got the same error message. I considered disabling it entirely, but some apps apparently need some kind of swap file.

If anyone has any insights as to how I might get 1.5 gig running with 98se, I'd *really* like to hear them.

For now...IMO if you're looking for a good match for your BH-5, I'm liking the OCZ gamer extreme.

My .02. Yeah ok, my 158 bucks.