I'm down to the final 4!

[Cerberus2k7]

Well, I was going to try and make this a poll, but I don't know how. Anyways, I asked around and I have 4 choices for RAM and I wanted to know what you guys think is the best choice.

Geil Golden Dragon
OCZ
Corsair XMS
Mushkin

 

[ZachM]

To get a poll you have to contact a moderator.

Give us some info on what system you are going to put this in. How much do you want to overclock the RAM? What's your motherboard's max Vdimm? What FSB do you want to run? Do you want to run the RAM 1:1 with the FSB?

 

[bchur83]

Of those choices, I would go with the Mushkin due to better timings, and potential better overclocking.

 

[Matt761]

Of those choices, I would go with the Mushkin due to better timings, and potential better overclocking.

Yes i agree go with the mushkin.

 

[mattspalace]

IMO your choice of memory would depend on how you plan to run your system.. All of 'em are good choices though..

I would also throw Kingston Hyper-X in that mix, as some of it runs very very well.

 

[Cerberus2k7]

Well, I will be running an ABIT AI7 mobo, a P4 2.4c, Sapphire Tech 9800Pro 128RAM. I'm not sure on the detailed specs of the mobo, nor its capabilities in the real world, i'm just looking for a solid board for a solid price, and the AI7 seems to be just that.

 

[mattspalace]

Are you going for max fsb or lowest latency? I'm guessing that you'll probably run either a 3:2 or 5:4 ratio with that, so I'd go with PC3200 or PC3500.. PC4000 wouldn't really be a good choice for your setup. Although with a 5:4 ratio it might not be too bad, but you'll be stuck with pretty high latency settings as most PC4000 won't do tight timings.

Oh BTW, I have an AI7, so if you have questions - fire away..

 

[Cerberus2k7]

How does that ABIT EQ and FanEQ work? Are all the features the AI7 has pretty solid, or do they hardly work at all?

 

[mattspalace]

Yeah I'm pleased with mine so far. I don't use the Fan EQ or Abit EQ much so I can't say a whole lot about that..

I mainly bought it because it has active NB cooling (quiet too), and 3.2v available to the DIMM sockets, without any mods.

 

[Sophisticated]

Mushkin i say

 

[Cerberus2k7]

Then wouldnt I want to go with the Geil Golden Dragon, because that supports up to 2.7V and the AI7 can kick out 3.2V? Everything else is at 2.5, 2.6V.

 

[ciku]

geil is cheap and has good performance, i mean, it works fine with me

 

[Toaster Oven]

Another vote for the Mushkin. Rated voltage don't mean jack when overclocking. If you want the best performance, you'll zap any RAM you're running with the max 3.2VDimm the board allows. I've yet to hear about anyone frying their RAM with only 3.2 volts, so I'm not worried about cooking em.

The Geil Golden Dragon you lised is obviously the worst of the bunch and does not compare in terms of performance compared to the Mushkin 2-2-2 Special.

Abit EQ is currently the only program that will allow you to monitor temps and voltage on the AI7 as Abit has not released uGuru specs. It works fairly well for the most part but the CPU usage is annoyingly high. The FanEQ works great. The only caveat is I wish you could base the CPU fan speed on something other than CPU temps. That would make it more useful for those of us on water or phase change.

 

[Xception]

Yah what Toaster said. I use Abit EQ (best Forrest Gump voice) uhlawt and don't have any problems with it. CPU usage goes from 8% to 0% every three to five seconds depending on when eq is checking the sensors. O/C guru doesn't work on my board but it really don't bother me.

 

[Cerberus2k7]

Alrighty then, thanks for your input. OCZ, err...Mushkin it is!

 

[macklin01]

You mentioned stability. Just how high are you planning on clockign your system? I have Kingmax PC3500 in DC (2 x 512 MB), and it runs right up to 234 MHz 1:1 just fine at 2.6V. Not bad, considering it's only $85 / stick. Timings are a bit lackluster, but if you wanted to run at 5:4, you could improve that.

Just thought I'd toss in a "value" alternative. -- Paul

BTW, I use the fanEQ (as set in BIOS) on my AI7. I like it quite a lot, although I wish it would allow voltages below 8V on the fans. -- Paul

 

[Cerberus2k7]

Well, from everyone telling me how overclockable the 2.4c is, I just want to push it as high as I can, and also have moderate heat. And I hope that fanEQ works well, I could use the reduced noise when I sleep.

Also, what chips does the Mushkin use?

 

[Albuquerque]

Well now wait... If you've got a 2.4c, there's a good likelyhood that you can push some FSB's into the 280's and 290's. Why settle for running 5:4 or even 3:2 memory slowness, when you could run it 1:1?

Go back into the memory forums here, and about five or six posts down from this one is a "Komusa ADATA" memory thread with like four pages. We're talking about ram that will do 290+ (580 DDR) on 2.85v... With your AI7 and it's 3.2v VDIMM option, you could knock this stuff into the 300+ (600DDR+) arena!

And price? We're talking $69 for a 256mb stick, or $238 for a full gig (512 x 2 dual channel pack). That's exactly what I bought, see my signature...

 

[Cerberus2k7]

Ooh...My previous statement has been retracted... I just overlooked it because i've never even heard of the company.

 

[asdasd]

i also put a vote to mushkin. i got their level II 3500 to 244 dual channel at 2.93 volts. too bads its not my memory tho