Finishing up system, What ram? Help is appreciated.

Hi there!

I've been researching for the past 2 weeks and finding out what system to purchase, and its going to be ordered later today. I've come up with the following.

P4 2.6c 800fsb
Abit IS7-E
Xaser III with 7 fans + Fanbus and a 420 PSU
Thermalright SP-94 with a Vantec 92mm Tornado
ATI Radeon 9800XT

Have HD, Audigy and DVD/Cdrom

I will be OCing this system to 3.2-3.4 or there abouts. Im not looking to go extreme as this is my first time OCing. Who knows what may happen later though

I need to figure out what ram to purchase, and i've been doing alot of reading but I cannot seem to come up with an answer.
Im looking for 1gig of DDR dual channel (2x512) and while im not on a budget per say, Im not looking to spend an absurd amount on ram. I need something that'll work well in the system, and its going to be used for gaming only. Do I need to go for PC4000? Or will 3200 be OK? What kinda timings do I need to look for?

Appreciate the help.

- Daerius

P.S. If you have any recommendations of changes that I should make, now would be a good time

your system look very nice, i would go for some BH-5 Ram, look at the sticky at the top.

the timings you want to shoot for are 2-2-2-5.

Like stand said, memory using Winbond BH-5 chips would be most suitable to your system. Winbond BH-5 chips are widely regarded as the best performing mass-produced memory IC's currently available. They once were available in many places, but are now out-of-production (due to Winbond switching over the to cheaper CH-5). The memory listed in the "BH-5 Pricelist" sticky, are the last remaining memory utilizing these chips.

For the cheaper course, I would recommend Kingston HyperX PC3000. Pay no attention to the PC3000 rating, as these should be using BH-5 chips, which are (just like almost all PC3200/PC4000) are naturally 5ns (200MHz - DDR400) chips.

For the more promised course, I would recommend purchasing Mushkin Black Level 2 PC3500 from NewEgg.

Thanks for the reply.


I was wondering, does memory speed impact load times or FPS within a game? Or both? I never really figured that out, and have never put much emphasis on ram until now.

Speed_Mechanic2 said:

For the more promised course, I would recommend purchasing Mushkin Black Level 2 PC3500 from NewEgg.

Click to expand...

Awhile ago I did some reading in the Intel CPU section and many people were saying the 2.6c and this ram were a great matchup.

So I'll second that, doesn't seem like you can go wrong with BH-5 anyways.