need some help making a choice for 1 Gig sticks of PC4000 ram

[soundfx4]

I had decided on Crucial Ballistix, but I'm seeing some bad customer reviews on it at newegg, so now I'm confused again. So I decided to ask for some advice. Here is a link to what should be 10 sets of ram. These are the 2 x 1 GB kits that are rated at PC4000 on newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

Crucial ballistix isn't there, if I wanted that particular brand, I would have to order two individual 1 gig sticks.

here is a link to 10 different 1 gig sticks

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

Anyway, on to the official question. I'm buying these for the board in my Sig, and I'm probably not going to try to OC them at all. I guess in this case, any would do, but I still don't' feel confident enough to pull out the CC just yet. Any advice at all would be great. Thank you!

 

[avalanche83]

I would go with the Gskill Extreme HZ or the OCZ Gold edition if you want to wait two months for the mail in rebate. I definitely wouldn't go with the OCZ Gold GX because it is the same as the OCZ Gold just with a fancier heatspreader.

 

[{FKR}Loki]

I would recommend the Gskill Extreme HZ

 

[Revivalist]

I definitely wouldn't go with the OCZ Gold GX because it is the same as the OCZ Gold just with a fancier heatspreader.

What's wrong with the heatspreader if it's the same price?

Edit:I just happened to notice this review under Tech News on the OCForums home page. It looks like those fancy heatspreaders don't do anything anyways.

 

[Mustanley]

If you don't plan to overclock then don't buy the Ballistix. Many have died, but they are also your best chance of hitting high htt memory speeds (~300MHz). You can get stuff that will run at PC4000 speeds much cheaper, like the gskill, mushkin or OCZ sticks.

 

[RollingThunder]

Sound,

The last I saw Crucial doesn't offer 1GB Ballistix anymore. I would take the advice given about the other brands.

 

[soundfx4]

Sound,

The last I saw Crucial doesn't offer 1GB Ballistix anymore. I would take the advice given about the other brands.

Really? hmm...well, it looks like Gskill or OCZ then. Besides, even if I did Overclock I wouldn't want to go as high as 290 or 300. Thanks for the advice everyone, I'll try to order from outpost.com before midnight tonight so I can get them tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to wait over the weekend. Thanks again.

 

[soundfx4]

One more quick question. Are both of these the same?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

AFAIK they are, but I just thought I'd check to see if someone knows something I don't. The reason I'm asking is because I'd like to get 3 gigs of ram, and I know if I don't order them all at once, I'll probably never order another gig stick.

Thanks!

 

[soundfx4]

On second thought, what about these? (not the $330.00 ones)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

they are a bit more expensive, but the newegg reviews are better...although I'm not sure how dependable those reviews are.

 

[Big Lar]

The Mushkin XP Pc4400 will probably run a bit faster/further as to an overclock than the rest. It really all depends upon your setup, and luck of the draw as to the actual ram modules.

You'll lose performance, ie; you'll need to run 2T if you run more than 2 sticks.

 

[RollingThunder]

On second thought, what about these? (not the $330.00 ones)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

they are a bit more expensive, but the newegg reviews are better...although I'm not sure how dependable those reviews are.

Sound,

If you're not going to OC (yeah, right...... ) you are spending some good bucks on something you don't need. I'm not a serious OCer and you see what I bought (PC3200).

I agree with Mustanley and Big Lar, I'd get the $229 pair with the rebate. It's more than enough. A premium step up with PC3200 will work too.

 

[soundfx4]

so I'll have to run at 2T if I have more then two sticks? how much performance will I lose? Because I could really use 3 gigs.

 

[RollingThunder]

so I'll have to run at 2T if I have more then two sticks? how much performance will I lose? Because I could really use 3 gigs.

Yes, 2T with more than two sticks. Each board is different and I needed 2T with this mild OC I use with 2 sticks. I am strictly on a BIOS OC, no mods. My difference is about a 3% loss on 2T. I don't know what other boards lose. You won't see the difference unless you test for it.

How do you know you need 3GBs? I would go with 2 sticks of 1GB, try it for a while. Or back off the price range and get the 4 sticks of premium 1GB PC3200 and be done with it.

There is no sense getting more than PC3200 if you are not going to OC it IMHO. And a mild OC with good sticks will work just fine and you'll overcome anything you may lose on 2T settings and more.

Whatever you do, buy good quality sticks as recommended here, a mid range premium. If you want to do a mild OC later, you'll thank yourself for having them. I did! RT

 

[Eldonko]

On second thought, what about these? (not the $330.00 ones)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&description=&srchInDesc=&minPrice=&maxPrice=

they are a bit more expensive, but the newegg reviews are better...although I'm not sure how dependable those reviews are.

The mush xp4000 are a good choice, and plenty of mushkin reps post here if you need some support. Also running 3 gigs of RAM will probably be worse that running 2. You wouldnt have dual channel and have to use 2T.

 

[darksparkz]

If you aren't going to OC, just look for the tightest timing 2x1GB ram modules you can get.

It's really unnecssary to have 3GB, 2GB is plenty for pretty much ALL games out there, including BF2. 2GB is also plenty for the average users web browsing and application usages. You might need 3GB if you actually do lots and lots of 3d rendering and such.

2-3-2-5 at 2.6-2.7v:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231032

 

[Dinzy]

If you aren't going to OC, just look for the tightest timing 2x1GB ram modules you can get.

It's really unnecssary to have 3GB, 2GB is plenty for pretty much ALL games out there, including BF2. 2GB is also plenty for the average users web browsing and application usages. You might need 3GB if you actually do lots and lots of 3d rendering and such.

2-3-2-5 at 2.6-2.7v:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231032

3D rendering does better with more ram. I have 2 GB and Maya immediately snags up 1 gig when it loads. I am only doing very simple things with it now, but I can see it loving 4gigs

 

[soundfx4]

The mush xp4000 are a good choice, and plenty of mushkin reps post here if you need some support. Also running 3 gigs of RAM will probably be worse that running 2. You wouldnt have dual channel and have to use 2T.

Awesome, it looks like I'll be ordering the mushkin then.


That's ok, because the athlon 64 socket 754 boards didn't support dual channel, and besides, dual channel doens't do anything. The computer in my living area is running in dual channel and the benchmark results are the same as on my PC (give or take 100-200 MB/s) So that isn't a problem.

 

[soundfx4]

more then occasionally I have a lot of crap open and 3D rendering, although I have not done any lately, is definitely not out of the picture. I also use photoshop, and have several pictures open at any given time, and I use azureus, which uses java, which uses a LOT of memory. I'm sure 2 gigs would be enough, but I want to give myself plenty of overhead.

 

[avalanche83]

I don't know if the mem contoller on that cpu will handle higher speeds with two sticks. I also have a 754 setup and can't run both my Ballistix at the same time at 300MHz. I can run them both individually at 300MHz but not both at the same time. Maybe that Asus and 3000 is better in those terms.

 

[soundfx4]

I don't know if the mem contoller on that cpu will handle higher speeds with two sticks. I also have a 754 setup and can't run both my Ballistix at the same time at 300MHz. I can run them both individually at 300MHz but not both at the same time. Maybe that Asus and 3000 is better in those terms.

I actually had that problem too, and I had never had it before. Only I couldn't get both of my 512 sticks to run at 400Mhz. Individually they would run at 400 Mhz, but when I loaded both, it dropped to 300 Mhz. I found out that a bios update was doing that, so I downgraded to the latest bios that would let me run both at 400 Mhz. It REALLY p****d me off, and now I can't use my Dell monitors USB hub with certain things because of that

anyway, I'm not sure how it will react, but as long as there is no noticeable difference in speed, then I won't care too much. Besides, if three won't work, then I'll simply have an extra gig stick for extra memory