Memory advice for a new system?

[UnexplodedScot]

Just figuring out what to get and I'm a little lost when it comes to what memory would be best. Damn, some of this ram is really expensive.

Here's what I'll likely get for a system:

Case: ANTEC SONATA QUIET CHASSIS ATX 3X5.25 6X3.5 PIANO BLACK 380W TRUEPOWER (SONATA)

Processor: INTEL PENTIUM 4 P4 2.4GHZ C 512K 800FSB S478 HT RETAIL BOX (BX80532PG2400D)

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800 DELUXE I865PE S478 DUAL DDR AGP 6PCI SATA 1394 SOUND 1000LAN (P4P800 DELUXE-UAY)

IDE Hard Drives: (2) MAXTOR 160GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB HARD DRIVE OEM 3YR MFR. WARRANTY (6Y160M0)

Floppy: 1.44MB BLACK 3.5IN FLOPPY DRIVE(BLACK-FLOPPY)

Video Card: ATI RADEON ALL-IN-WONDER 9800 PRO 128MB AGP DVI-I VIVO TV OUT RETAIL BOX (100-713103)

Keyboard: MICROSOFT NATURAL KEYBOARD & OPTICAL MOUSE OEM (WITH SYSTEM ONLY) (K99-00001)

DVD Writer: ASUS DRW-0402P/D DVD-RW 4X2X12 DVD+RW 4X2.4X12 CDRW 16X10X32 IDE RETAIL BOX (DRW-0402P/D)

Optional: MAXTOR 200GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB OEM HARD DRIVE

The question is, what kind of memory to go with?

Should I go with:

CORSAIR TWINX1024-3200 PC3200 2X512MB DDR CAS2 SILVER HEAT SPREADER (TWINX1024-3200C2PT)

or

OCZ DUAL CHANNEL OPTIMIZED GOLD 2X512MB DDR PC3500 CAS2 HEAT SPREADER (OCZ4331024ELDCGE-K)

or something else these guys sell?

http://www.ncix.com/pcbuilder/

(you'll have to click intel to get to the next screen showing the memory selections. I guess I'd also be willing to buy the ram from some other online place, assuming the price isn't insane.

If you have any other suggestion on what to do better (or can recommend a good heatsink), I'd love to here them. Been away from the overclocking world for a couple years...and apparently things have progressed.

Thanks, Scott

 

[Speed_Mechanic2]

If you had to pick memory from that offered by NCIX.com, I would pick the OCZ PC3500 Platinum. About $450 CAD ($335 USD) for 1GB. Otherwise I would suggest getting memory from elsewhere, either Mushkin or HyperX PC3000.

If you want a good quiet, yet still very capable, heatsink that doesn't cost too much, get a Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu. It's much lighter (and cheaper) then the 7000A-Cu and performance is very close between the two. The best would prolly be Thermalright's SP-94 w/ a good fan, though noisy.

 

[UnexplodedScot]

Thanks for the advice. I went with your suggestions after doing a little more reading and the stuff just showed up today. I think I got a good cpu. Haven't even install the zalman stuff yet (just stock intel heatsink and fan) and I've got it running stable (haven't run prime or anything yet, just a bunch of ati demo's that came with the card) at 3.42GHz and stock voltage.

Do you (or anybody) have any suggestions re: memory timing, etc...?

I've currently got it set to to auto and turbo, but have yet to to manually play with the memory settings.

 

[Speed_Mechanic2]

Set it to 2-2-2-6 @ DDR400 with 2.6V and memtest it. Then increase memory speed to where it fails a memtest. Then raise voltage and then memory speed as needed. Once you find the highest your memory will go with tight timings, run it 5:4 FSB:MEM ratio (allowing your CPU you go ~3.4GHz w/ 2-2-2 timings.).

OCZ PC3500 Platinum should get ~220MHz (DDR440) at about 2.9V with 2-2-2-6 timings. If you want more performance, you can increase voltage by performing a VDIMM mod (although it's not good on the warrenty )