Difficult dilemma, need suggestions

[Zenoth]

Hi,

What do you think should be better between...

CORSAIR TWIN2X2048 PC2-6400 C4DHX 4-4-4-12 @ €79.00
CRUCIAL BALLISTIX 2X2048 PC2-8500 5-5-5-15 @ €66.00

And that's going to be running on a Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 along with an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (in about 10 days or so). And yes, of course, I would be crazy not to over-clock with either of those Memory sticks. The reason of the dilemma is their price, and other reasons. The CORSAIR costs more than the CRUCIAL, but it has a better heat-spreader, and, to be honest, a better brand name (by that I mean I would tend to believe that CORSAIR is more reliable than CRUCIAL due to its popularity). On the other hand, CRUCIAL is more affordable and is faster at stock frequency.

Which one do you guys recommend?

[thideras]

...no doubt the Ballistix...it is cheaper and will overclock better.

If you can get the 800mhz Ballisitix...here is why:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g121/thideras/Overclocks/Memory/600mhz.jpg

That is slightly relaxed timings and 2.3v. ;)

[Zenoth]

The 800Mhz Ballistix you say? And is it better than the 1066Mhz one I'm looking at? Because my local store sells the 800Mhz variant at €60.00, only €6.00 less than the 1066Mhz one. So I told myself why should I not buy that one instead at only €6.00 more? However the price differences within the CORSAIR family are much higher, which is why I only considered the PC2-6400 from them.

As long as CRUCIAL is concerned I think I'll stay with the 1066Mhz variant due to its price being almost the same as the 800Mhz one. I'd almost be stupid not to get it over the slower one, unless of course you give me a very good reason. :)

By the way, can DDR2 memory run at 1T? Or is it just out of the question? I'm asking this because I'll be completely new to the DDR2 world in just a few weeks, and I want to learn as much as I can in advance about DDR2 over-clocking. I'm coming right from the DDR days as you can see in my signature. I've tried DDR2 already on a temporary system to test my motherboard (GA-X38-DQ6), with an E6600, but I couldn't over-clock it, because those parts weren't owned by me (except for the motherboard of course which I wanted to test, and it's working fine), so I didn't want to risk anything.

[thideras]

The 800Mhz Ballistix you say? And is it better than the 1066Mhz one I'm looking at? Because my local store sells the 800Mhz variant at €60.00, only €6.00 less than the 1066Mhz one. So I told myself why should I not buy that one instead at only €6.00 more? However the price differences within the CORSAIR family are much higher, which is why I only considered the PC2-6400 from them.

As long as CRUCIAL is concerned I think I'll stay with the 1066Mhz variant due to its price being almost the same as the 800Mhz one. I'd almost be stupid not to get it over the slower one, unless of course you give me a very good reason. :)

By the way, can DDR2 memory run at 1T? Or is it just out of the question? I'm asking this because I'll be completely new to the DDR2 world in just a few weeks, and I want to learn as much as I can in advance about DDR2 over-clocking. I'm coming right from the DDR days as you can see in my signature. I've tried DDR2 already on a temporary system to test my motherboard (GA-X38-DQ6), with an E6600, but I couldn't over-clock it, because those parts weren't owned by me, so I didn't want to risk anything.Well, I wouldn't say it is better (don't have it/never tested it), but as you can see the overclock you can get out of these is pretty sweet ;)

If the 800 and 1066 are very close in price...I'd go with the 1066. Not idea why the 800 is so expensive...that is around, what, $110?? I just got my set for well under half of that.

...you could run it at 1t. At greatly reduced speeds. I have never heard of someone running 1T on DDR2 though...maybe someone else has experience with that.

[JamesXP]

Enjoying my reccomendation thideras? :P

[thideras]

Enjoying my reccomendation thideras? :PYes...omg I love this set sooo much.

[Zenoth]

Alright, CRUCIAL it will be.

I'll verify which one I'll be getting.

Well in fact I've already ordered the CRUCIAL PC2-8500 yesterday. But no panic, because I've voluntarily set a delay of 14 days before delivery (I'm still waiting for the E8400 mind you). So I still have 14 days to change my mind, and meanwhile I won't lose my gripe on it. If I call the store next Monday and tell them to cancel the delay they'll deliver it the same week (if not the same day).