Down to 3 I think ..

Looking at the prices on the good 800MHz DDR2, I think I'm going to have to settle for DDR2 @ 667MHz. My price cap is about $300 for 1GBx2.

After catching up a little on RAM, I'm down to 3 ... based on expected compatibility with the Presler 930 (coming Wednesday) + Abit AW8-Max bios revision 15 (most likely, not ordered yet).

Anyway, these are what I was looking at:

- Mushkin DDR2 667MHz (if I can even find them)
- Corsair XMS DDR2 675MHz
- Crucial Ballistix DDR2 667MHz

As I understand it, all of these should have the Micron "Fatbody" D9 ICs.

I've pretty much ruled out OCZ unless Abit comes up with a proper bios in the next couple days. At the moment, bios revision 15 doesn't seem to get along with OCZ and rev. 15 is required for Presler.

So what does everyone think?

p.s. The sticky at the top of the memory forums is outstanding but it seems to lack DDR2 5400.

why get the abit if they can't even get their bios support down? the asus 775 boards are excellent (p5wd2 series).

i doubt those rams you have listed have d9. mushkin's pc2-6400 has it, corsair's pc2-5400ul and pc2-8000ul have it, and some crucial have it. they're all also very expensive. unless you are a benchmark person you don't want to spend twice as much on d9. you want something more like what I have in my sig, pqi turbo pc2-5400. ~$180 for 2gb.

crimedog said:

why get the abit if they can't even get their bios support down? the asus 775 boards are excellent (p5wd2 series).

i doubt those rams you have listed have d9. mushkin's pc2-6400 has it, corsair's pc2-5400ul and pc2-8000ul have it, and some crucial have it. they're all also very expensive. unless you are a benchmark person you don't want to spend twice as much on d9. you want something more like what I have in my sig, pqi turbo pc2-5400. ~$180 for 2gb.

Click to expand...

if you check out the Asus forums, there are 5x as many complaints about that board as there are about the Abit - typically in regards to post/boot issues. Agreed it is the better OC'er, but for the moment they have even more kinks to work out than Abit.

Checked out those RAM sticks prior to the initial post and indeed they do have D9s - though the Mushkins are likely out of production - which is why I figured I wouldn't be able to find them.

As for the PQIs, I have seen that they did well in benches and I know they're popular among those aiming for a budget PC. I just don't know the company well enough to sink my $ into their RAM, whereas I've been dealing with the 3 aforementioned companies for many years.

These are currently the top 2x1GB DDR2:

OCZ Technology PC2-6400 (4-3-3-8) DDR2 800
Mushkin eXtreme XP6400 (5-3-3-8) DDR2 800 <~~~~ this would be my choice (D9 IC)
Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 (3-3-3-12) DDR2 667
OCZ Gold Series PC2-5400 (4-4-4-8) DDR2 667


EDIT: If you decide to get a 2x512MB kit then the Corsair's PC2-5400ul (3-2-2-8) are the best ones to get.