questions, questions... RAM

[djlst]

Yeah I totally agree. He knows more than me and thats why im here asking you guys.
I wasn't trying to go against Tim. My mother board only takes ddr 800 but can except 1066 via overclocking....
My understanding of what Tim said, was that the dominators would be able to overclock better and the xms2 wouldn't go as much past stock specs.
Because I wont be pushing past 1066 and my next m/b will most likely be ddr3, I thought the xms2 would be the better choice??
However if I planed to oc the ram further the dominator would be the better choice.
Have I understood that correctly?? doubting myself now.... lol
The other advantage is the xms 1066 is listed on msi's site as compatible with my board but they do not list the dominators.
Also I thought the xms2's were a performance not value ram??
My current xms2 (4*1gb ddr800) oc's quite well. Currently running at 868mhz 5-5-5-15.

 

[Timothy Miller]

Overclocking RAMs

I keep pushing Crucial. Someone's going to think I work for them. But shortly, I'm going to make a report on my overclocking of some Crucials. There were basic value RAMs that cost $40 apiece for 2GB sticks of DDR3. I'm managing to push them WAY beyond SPD timings with only a slight increase in voltage.

You pointed out my understanding of the topic. I figured you might want to know where I'm coming from. Currently, I'm working on a Ph.D. in computer science, specializing in computer architecture. Before that, I worked for 6 years as a chip designer. I've also designed a DDR memory controller (the "chipset" side of the memory system) for the Open Graphics Project, which I founded.

I don't want you to think I'm bragging, though. I'm finding y'all in this forum to have some VERY valuable knowledge. I know a fair amount about the semiconductors, but there's tons that isn't well documented or is best learned from experimentation with real hardware. For instance, I'm trying to OC a quad-core, and I had some learning to do about threshold/gtl voltages. I had no idea what I was doing until I started asking questions here.

 

[Timothy Miller]

Oh, one other thing. I've build a few computers, but I don't have nearly the experience that many of you have with this motherboard and that RAM or whatever. If you disagree with me, I'll just assume you have some good experience or reason to justify what you say.

 

[Archer0915]

I keep pushing Crucial. Someone's going to think I work for them. But shortly, I'm going to make a report on my overclocking of some Crucials. There were basic value RAMs that cost $40 apiece for 2GB sticks of DDR3. I'm managing to push them WAY beyond SPD timings with only a slight increase in voltage.

You pointed out my understanding of the topic. I figured you might want to know where I'm coming from. Currently, I'm working on a Ph.D. in computer science, specializing in computer architecture. Before that, I worked for 6 years as a chip designer. I've also designed a DDR memory controller (the "chipset" side of the memory system) for the Open Graphics Project, which I founded.

I don't want you to think I'm bragging, though. I'm finding y'all in this forum to have some VERY valuable knowledge. I know a fair amount about the semiconductors, but there's tons that isn't well documented or is best learned from experimentation with real hardware. For instance, I'm trying to OC a quad-core, and I had some learning to do about threshold/gtl voltages. I had no idea what I was doing until I started asking questions here.

I really appreciate the posts as they are or at least seem to be from experience (I like that) and not from a third party. About the Mushkin What is your opinion or personal experiences with that brand as until DDR2 they were all I used and I never had a problem with their ram. Actually I did use Kingston HyperX 400 one time and had to relax the timings on my Mushkin. needless to say I took the kingston out of that system.

 

[18 is # 1]

I think i was a little vague there....
I ment are dominators better than xms2's??
My motherboard says its compatible with the 1066 xms.... Dont know about the dominators. hence my question, is there much difference if any apart from the heatsinks??
Cheers guys

The Dominators are more highly binned ICs. They both use PSC ICs. Look here:
http://ramguy.com/v3/showthread.php?t=57334

I keep pushing Crucial.

Perhaps you wouldn't if you were familiar with their DDR2 reliability issues in the last 2 years.

 

[Timothy Miller]

Nothing's perfect

Perhaps you wouldn't if you were familiar with their DDR2 reliability issues in the last 2 years.

I'll keep that in mind. What was their response? When I've had problems, their customer service was quick to respond and quick to ship me replacements. Certainly, it's not out of the question that Micron would have a bad manufacturing run. I've been impressed with their DDR3s, and I have some of their DDR2s that have worked just fine. But I'm MOST impressed by my experience with their customer service. But it's all relative, since I had a terrible time with MSI and OCZ customer service.

It's also likely that I'm just really really lucky.

 

[djlst]

Ended up going the dominators....
Thanks for all the help and ideas guys!
Basically it came down to corsair having my m/b on their compatibility list whereas crucial didn't.
Cheers again!

 

[djlst]

Got the dominators!
Been having a wonderful hair pulling time messing with bios to get them from 800 up to 1047 and keep my cpu at roughly 3.2ghz. Higher than 800 timings can only be achieved via overclocking with my board.
Anyway stoked so far, they run so much cooler than the XMS2 C4's did.

So if I wanted to try and speed up the timings on these, where is a good place to start??
I tried them at 4-4-4-12 with 2.3v but no luck.
Any help appreciated.