Which RAM for medium overclock?

[corvetteguy]

OK, i'm buying a new system and Realized that i hadn't really put too much thought into the RAM, although i still think i made a good choice. My question is whether this RAM is worth the money? Here's the stuff i'm getting with it that matters.

AM2 x2 3800
ASUS crosshair motherboard
saphire x1900xt
zalman 9500 led cpu cooler.
Aerocool extreme engine 3t case.

Thats all the stuff to do with overclocking.

ALL PRICES IN CANADIAN DOLLARS

So this is the RAM i was going to get. Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit

This is some that seems better although i'm not sure if it has EPP with would be usefull to me since i've never overclcoked before. Mushkin XP2 PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL 4-4-3-10 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit Its also cheaper but only slightly.

There are also a bunch more versions from corsair and mushkin that seem almost exactly the same at various prices. So i'm not quite sure which to get. Corsair has a good rep and works well with asus boards but that mushkin looks great. I'm noy sure about the mushkin overclocking though, but the corsair seems to be able to get up to 1020mhz on stock timings.

Now i want to get a pretty good overclock to about 2.4-2.6 ghz with that cpu but am also worried about the multiplier. I know it works well with ddr2 800 at stock 10x but to clock higher i might need to lower it to 9, would the 4200 be a better choice then?

I just need some help sorting this all out. This RAM will need to last into AM3 even when it uses DDr3 because i want to drop in an AM3 processor and new graphics card in about a year and half.


EDIT: I just found this other RAM and it looks pretty good but its OCZ. OCZ Platinum Extreme Edition PC2-8000 1GB 2X512MB DDR2-1000 CL4-5-4-15 Dual Channel Memory Kit I'm wondering why this is so cheap and my mind tells me there must be a catch as all the other DDR2 1000 is over $500.

EDIT 2: I just found this and it is a lot cheaper base case 5, however i heard that unlike s939 amd is all about speed now, not tight timings, so will this do as good or close to the others for overclocking?

 

[Dahak]

try going with kingston value ram,or samsung.they are both not bad for moderate overclocking,yet they are bothe still within an affordable price range.even cheaper in ddr2 than ddr.goodluck.

Dahak

EVGA VF4 SLI MB
X2 4400+@2.4
2 7800GT'S IN SLI MODE
2X1GIG DDR400 MEMORY IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
520WATT PSU
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR
3DMARK05:11,582

 

[corvetteguy]

try going with kingston value ram,or samsung.they are both not bad for moderate overclocking,yet they are bothe still within an affordable price range.even cheaper in ddr2 than ddr.goodluck.

Dahak

EVGA VF4 SLI MB
X2 4400+@2.4
2 7800GT'S IN SLI MODE
2X1GIG DDR400 MEMORY IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
520WATT PSU
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR
3DMARK05:11,582

I don't think i'll go the value ram route, especially kingston cause they're pretyy shit. I'm looking to stay in the 250-400 CAD range and get some goo RAM that will work well when AM3 comes. I don't want uber RAM for no reason though, but i want to get my money's worth.

 

[Dahak]

well you asked and i answered.corsair is good.but buy the oc version of it then.you should have little difficulty overclocking with this ram.just be prepared to pay a pretty dollar for it as it is expensive.



Dahak

EVGA VF4 SLI MB
X2 4400+@2.4
2 7800GT'S IN SLI MODE
2X1GIG DDR400 MEMORY IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
520WATT PSU
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR
3DMARK05:11,582

 

[corvetteguy]

I wasn't flaming or anything, just sayin

 

[rwaritsdario]

Any RAM would do. And if you know how to overclock well, any RAM with the same stock timings and speed should overclock the same as well.
Corsair has a good reputation but you sure pay for it. Try going with Patriot or Gskill 6400 CL4, this usually are significantly cheaper.
Dont go with OCZ for Asus because they use different Micron chips, Asus boards dont like that.. lol

 

[EvilLost]

just a note as to why the OCZ memory was cheaper...its 2x512 not 2x1GB.

 

[Mondoman]

Any RAM would do. And if you know how to overclock well, any RAM with the same stock timings and speed should overclock the same as well.

I think you'll find that quality and overclockability vary with differences other than "stock timings and speed".

Dont go with OCZ for Asus because they use different Micron chips, Asus boards dont like that.. lol

Interesting. Do you have a ref for this? I had heard that it was just a matter of OCZ sometimes setting over-agressive SPD timings.

 

[rwaritsdario]

Dont go with OCZ for Asus because they use different Micron chips, Asus boards dont like that.. lol

Interesting. Do you have a ref for this? I had heard that it was just a matter of OCZ sometimes setting over-agressive SPD timings.

Not really, just hear say from the forums based on the different weird timings. You might be right though.

 

[rwaritsdario]

Any RAM would do. And if you know how to overclock well, any RAM with the same stock timings and speed should overclock the same as well.

I think you'll find that quality and overclockability vary with differences other than "stock timings and speed".


Check out the Core2Duo Overclocking Guide stickie. It explains pretty well why the brand doesnt matter. Some noobs dont know a thing about overclocking (and dont bother in researching) so they just go by w/e and if they dont get lucky they write awful reviews on newegg and the DIMMs end up looking really bad.

 

[Mondoman]

Yes, my Crucial Ballistix worked fine after Crucial sent me sticks with their latest SPD values.

wusy, just a minor correction for the Core2Duo Overclocking Guide:
The LGA775 version of the Arctic Cooling hsf is the Freezer 7 Pro (the Freezer 64 Pro is the AMD version).

 

[Mondoman]

...

Check out the Core2Duo Overclocking Guide stickie. It explains pretty well why the brand doesnt matter. ...

Thanks for the link! Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything there about why brand doesn't matter (or anything about brands at all). I agree that the main product lines of the major brands should be broadly equivalent; my concern is that a newbie who doesn't even know RAM brands could easily decide to go with some generic/JoeBobRAM/ValueSelect, since "brand doesn't matter."

 

[rwaritsdario]

I agree that the main product lines of the major brands should be broadly equivalent;

You just answered yourself right there.
Brands dont matter as long as timings and speeds are the same.

 

[Mondoman]

As long as "brands" really means "among the main product lines of the major brands", I agree. Like I said, it's "JoeBob" RAM or total no-name RAM that's the problem. Newbies won't know this, so I think it's important to note it for their benefit. I've been bitten by this before -- hence my gun-shyness.
Anyway, I think I've noted it enough here, so on to bigger and better things...

 

[corvetteguy]

Its funny what no name stuff can do sometimes.

GREAT CANADIAN NO NAME RAM LOL

This crap doesn't even have heat spreaders but it out performed everything else. Now this is only cas 5 RAM but still, if i could find any available i'd get it.