PC6400 Best price/performance brand?

[dreamtfk]

So it seems like my OCZ Gold is going bad on me (one stick or both not sure) and I dont plan on purchasing anymore OCZ, they screwed me on the rebate too.

Prices are so low now and I want some solid memory with good timings. What brand/series should I check out? I do not really OC my components anymore so that is not much of a concern to me...

[AFG34]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220144

[meionm]

Crucial ballistix pc6400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

[Elluzion]

Crucial ballistix pc6400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

x2^

[Evilsizer]

here in lies the problem... Balli's are going so cheap and oc great.. yet many people using them have had them die from 2days up to 3months. this is for ram bought around 6months ago. the D9 highspeed ic's that is, so this doesnt just apply to crucial ram. Any ram with micron D9 highspeed ic's. the IC's die after certian time wiether oced or not.

my suggestion is to go with these for $79.99 at ddr2-800 4-4-3-5@2.1volts
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231114

*edit*
want more proof, look at xs forums and here. here is one that came up today, his ram was only 3wks old ballit pc2-8500's.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=534220

[esveezy]

I saw those G.Skills and I was tempted. The only problem is that I was planning on maxing out my p5b-dlx with a full 8GB (virtual machines, not just e-peen). Do you have any advice on the available 2GB options?

Seems 5-5-5-15 is as good as it gets @800Mhz. I need it reliable with my fsb @401, since my max multiplier is only 8x and my mobo has a nice big hole just below that speed.

*UPDATE* I are dumm. Seems g.skill makes a rather reasonably priced 2x2GB pc2-6400 kit at 4-4-4-12. So, let me ask a more relavent question: If my minimum FSB will be 401, and my (realistic 24/7) max FSB would be ~450, should I opt for PC2-6400 4-4-4-12, or PC2-8000 5-5-5-15 (same price at Newegg)? Or should I just say "screw it" and leave well enough alone, stay at 3.2 and settle for 5-5-5-15?

[meionm]

If they are D9 then pc6400 will do speed of pc8000

[dreamtfk]

here in lies the problem... Balli's are going so cheap and oc great.. yet many people using them have had them die from 2days up to 3months. this is for ram bought around 6months ago. the D9 highspeed ic's that is, so this doesnt just apply to crucial ram. Any ram with micron D9 highspeed ic's. the IC's die after certian time wiether oced or not.

I appreciate you pointing that out to me, b/c I was looking at the Ballistix deals. Anyone else wanna chime in on this??

[Evilsizer]

yea np man! :thup:

[maxfly]

you have to keep in mind that the ballistix line is probably the most popular overclocking ddr2 brand right now.of that i dont think there is any debate.the majority of people that oc today will give you the unanimous d9 for ocing suggestion.so knowing that most ocers are going to be running gmh/gkx the failure rate is obviously going to increase.for the simple fact that we tend to crank the voltage well beyond safe levels :D (we ocers also have a tendancy to be much more vocal about hardware failures).
i dont think the failure rate is any higher with the d9gmh/gkx than with any other ics.the only difference being that ocers are immediately drawn to them because of the price/performance.which is unbeatable atm.
if you are unlucky enough to have a module die on you then you always have crucials lifetime warranty and top notch customer support to fall back on.

[inkfx]

My first set died on me after about a month or two. I got a second set through a speedy RMA process have been holding strong for maybe 8 or 9 months now.

[Reefa_Madness]

you have to keep in mind that the ballistix line is probably the most popular overclocking ddr2 brand right now.of that i dont think there is any debate.the majority of people that oc today will give you the unanimous d9 for ocing suggestion.so knowing that most ocers are going to be running gmh/gkx the failure rate is obviously going to increase.for the simple fact that we tend to crank the voltage well beyond safe levels :D (we ocers also have a tendancy to be much more vocal about hardware failures).
i dont think the failure rate is any higher with the d9gmh/gkx than with any other ics.the only difference being that ocers are immediately drawn to them because of the price/performance.which is unbeatable atm.
if you are unlucky enough to have a module die on you then you always have crucials lifetime warranty and top notch customer support to fall back on.


I'm glad to see that someone has brought this up.

If there are 10x more sticks out there of a certain brand, then just plain statistics are going to result in "more instances of failure" from this certain brand or IC, when compared to others, but percentage wise, not really more than any others.

Crucial Ballistix or any of the other D9GMH based modules are currently your best bet for consistent performance and value when it comes to DDR2.

Anything else will be second rate.

[dreamtfk]

Could someone tell me what the EPP feaure is that I keep seeing on some modules?

[esveezy]

Extended err... I mean Enhanced Performance Profile. It is nothing more than a convenient list of settings stored on the RAM itself. Kinda like super JEDEC (which is basically your RAM's default 1.8v speed and timings)- it tells you motherboard one or more set of speed/voltag/timing combinations that your RAM is supposed to be capable of running reliably. Unlike JEDEC, EPP will list overclocked and overvolted settings.

CPU-Z will show you both. Think of JEDEC as the more conservative, standard settings that should let pretty much any mobo boot from the RAM using Auto mode. EPP will show any "high performance" settings that some non-enthusiast boards won't like.

Setting your RAM speed and timings manually completely overrides the EPP stored on the RAM. I don't really know who would benefit from it except maybe a lazy overclocker.

[Evilsizer]

@reffa/maxfly
if you read my post and other forums. namly XS you would see its not just Cruical sticks, as i stated its happening on all sticks with micron D9's. its hard to toss that aside that all ram makers/resellers using D9's have the same problem. i think you both missed that point, maybe im wrong. From yalls post you make it sound like no one else has had this issue with MICRON IC's.

[Reefa_Madness]

@reffa/maxfly
if you read my post and other forums. namly XS you would see its not just Cruical sticks, as i stated its happening on all sticks with micron D9's. its hard to toss that aside that all ram makers/resellers using D9's have the same problem. i think you both missed that point, maybe im wrong. From yalls post you make it sound like no one else has had this issue with MICRON IC's.


Please re-read my post....you will see that I did not restrict my comment to Crucials. There are simply more D9GMH based modules being sold on performance oriented parts than any other IC. I still believe that the number of instances of failure, compared to the number of modules in use, is not that significant.

For the record and quoted from my first post:

If there are 10x more sticks out there of a certain brand, then just plain statistics are going to result in "more instances of failure" from this certain brand or IC, when compared to others, but percentage wise, not really more than any others.

Crucial Ballistix or any of the other D9GMH based modules are currently your best bet for consistent performance and value when it comes to DDR2.

People RMA ram all the time that isn't using D9s. The simple truth is that all modules have a certain failure rate...some based on the IC used and some on the PCB or other factors causing the failures. In support of this assertion, you don't have to search any further than the opening post of this very thread...one of his OCZ sticks is failing and I bet that these OCZ 6400s are not D9GMH nor D9GKX based...but more likely to be either Aeneon (Infineon), Elpida or PowerChip based modules.

http://ramlist.ath.cx/ddr2/

I am still not convinced that the D9GMH based modules fail more than those based on other ICs...just that you hear about more of them because there are simply more of them in use by the people that would be more likely to post about such failures in forums such as this one or XS.

Seeing that we really don't have the proper data to actually confirm or debunk either of our views, it will be left for each to come to their own opinion on this point.

[maxfly]

the majority of people that oc today will give you the unanimous d9 for ocing suggestion.so knowing that most ocers are going to be running gmh/gkx the failure rate is obviously going to increase.for the simple fact that we tend to crank the voltage well beyond safe levels :D (we ocers also have a tendancy to be much more vocal about hardware failures).
i dont think the failure rate is any higher with the d9gmh/gkx than with any other ics.the only difference being that ocers are immediately drawn to them because of the price/performance.which is unbeatable atm.

the gist of what i mean is that 6-12 months ago the amount of people running d9s was much much lower than it is now.i would guess that its probably at least ten times more common to see d9s in someones sig now versus 6-12 months ago.which would explain why we see so many reports of failed modules now.

[Evilsizer]

ah ok for somereason i didnt read the "or any other", my mistake then.

i am how ever suprised to finally see ram not based on micron in the 4gig kits. while only pc2-8000 rated it is impressive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145

*edit*
while that is true the amount of people though and going thru more then one rma with the ram still dieing. just seems microns are more prone to dieing then others. while other might, they prolly didnt die within 3days, the only other thing i could think of is micron has a bad batch or 2 of ic's.

[Reefa_Madness]

4 gig kits for less than what it used to cost for a 1gig kit.

Must be a real hard time to be in the memory making business.

[downer]

I'd go with Crucial Ballistix PC6400, they're cheap and overclock great. I currently have 4 x 1GB modules running in my DFI NF590 board @ 533 (5-5-5-12 2T) with only 2.04V. Orthos stable for over 10 hrs, and with a little burn in they should be 24hrs Orthos stable. The two kits in total only cost me around $100, which is just insane.

I bought one 2GB over the summer and another about a month ago, so they aren't from the same batch. Both sets clocking to PC8500 speeds. I've read about way more people loving their Ballistix kits, than people having problems. I had a set of PC8000 tracers and PC8500's briefly, both ran their rated speeds and beyond. No problems with either set.

I think about it like this: With DDR1 most people (not all) agreed that 2.6-2.9 was about the safe limit for voltage for daily use. With these Ballistix modules Crucial is specing them to run @ 2.2V, which is like running DDR1 @ 3.0V. Of course people are pushing their Ballistix kits beyond this voltage and having problems. For people claiming that their kits died without adding volts or overclocking, it can certainly happen. These modules run hot and need a fan over them. There are so many modules around with D9 chips, you're definetly going to hear about some failures. Thats with any piece hardware.

[ryboto]

With these Ballistix modules Crucial is specing them to run @ 2.2V, which is like running DDR1 @ 3.0V. Of course people are pushing their Ballistix kits beyond this voltage and having problems. For people claiming that their kits died without adding volts or overclocking, it can certainly happen. These modules run hot and need a fan over them. There are so many modules around with D9 chips, you're definetly going to hear about some failures. Thats with any piece hardware.
A lot of the ram failures I've read about have all been of users using 2.2v+. I think this is where a majority of the failures are arising. Even if they do fail though, Crucial warranty's them for quite some time, and their RMA process is pretty damn quick.

[meionm]

4 gig kits for less than what it used to cost for a 1gig kit.

Must be a real hard time to be in the memory making business.


Thanks to vista I doubtl, 2gb or 4gb just to start.

[Reefa_Madness]

Yeah, but my point is that at $160 for 4 gigs compared to not long ago when a 2 gig kit was $300-$400, it certainly can't be as easy to make money.

Overheads are overheads and they don't disappear just because the value of a module has dropped to 25% of what it used to bring.

[dreamtfk]

Think Im gonna jump on the Ballistix bandwagon... great price after rebate and good timings. So is this the right one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

Anyone know how are the Crucial rebates are?

[Jotosuds]

Think Im gonna jump on the Ballistix bandwagon... great price after rebate and good timings. So is this the right one?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

Anyone know how are the Crucial rebates are?

yeah that deal is pretty great

also curious if anyone has done MIR with crucial.

[downer]

Yes, those are the right modules.

Crucial Rebates are excellent. I have done four myself, with zero hassle. Doesn't take long to get the rebate back either.

[Evilsizer]

4 gig kits for less than what it used to cost for a 1gig kit.

Must be a real hard time to be in the memory making business.

well if that 4gig kit keeps dropping imma have to buy! it was at 169 now at 154, while not much in a drop it could still go down futher! :eek::drool:

[Reefa_Madness]

That price drop from $169 to $154 represents just shy of a 10% price reduction and for us in the accounting field, we consider 10% to be more than insignificant.

I saw some 2x2GB kits of Crucial Value line ram for right around $100, but the timings weren't as good as these G.Skills.

Gotta believe that at some time in the not too distant future these prices will firm up, but until then, we might as well grab 'em while you can.

I personally just don't have any need to populate a board with more than 4x1GB, so I won't be jumping in on any of the 2GB sticks (for 4x2GB), but I can certainly understand others doing so.

[DaPoets]

Honestly I'm using PC6400 from Transend... I have enjoyed Transend ram for YEARS and it's dirt cheap ram that I have running at 4-4-4-12 @ 2.2v and it's rock solid.

I think I paid like $55 for 2 gigs of this stuff a couple months ago. I'm not one to just take any cheap ram because ram can make or break your overclock but Transend is a fairly big name in the memory industry (I have a Transend memory card in my phone too) and I have never had one of their products fail on me (knock on wood).

But that's my experience so far, your experience may vary, void where prohibited. :-)

[lokie]

Go with the crucial for sure. I bought a set of the tracer 8500s and liked them so much i got the rebate deal for the tracer 6400s off td. The 6400s are keeping right up to the 8500s no problem. The 6400s worked so good i bought two more sets off td without the rebate. Im running a Q6600 stable at almost 3.9 with the two different sets mixed together with only 2.0 volts of juice. Stock voltage for both sets is 2.2. I did have some ocz pc8500 sli in my asus before i got the crucial and compared to the tracers they were crap as far as im concerned.:)