Just to make sure before I shuck out $100

[mbow902]

Sometimes being a newbie is irritating because you "know" the answer BUT you want that little bit of extra reassurance before making a purchase. That's why I'm glad that we have such a great community here at TOM's.


The Situation:
I'm upgrading the memory in one of my older machines--a Dell E510. The book calls for DDR2 w/ either 400 or 533 MHz memory. I am replacing (4) 512 sticks with (4) 1-GB sticks which is okay according to machine's manual.

My Question:
Even though the hard-drive will not realize the full potential in say 800 MHz sticks is is still okay to install them? Or is it better (though it actually cost the same or more) to by the 533 Mhz sticks?

My own answer:
If I can get 800 MHz for a good price I'll be fine...the Motherboard will top out at its max (which could be slightly over 533 Mhz and I'll probably get pretty good bang for my buck.

I'm considering Kingston or Crucial. What would you guys recommend?

 

[mbow902]

Okay...new question: Should I buy memory with a cas latency of 4 or 5? 4 is better right?

 

[jaquith]

You are talking about (2) separate items Computation Speed and Data Access Speed. If I took your HD and placed it in an i7 950 rig the data R/W speeds will not change; the bottleneck is always the slowest component. The only difference in 'speed' between the 400 MHz and 500 MHz is if you're constantly running low on RAM and 'dip into' your HDD's Virtual Memory; 400 MHz vs 500 MHz is NOT +20% and is more like 2-3% if that much, and 400 MHz vs 800 is NOT +100% increase an increase of 4-6% again if that much. Frankly, the differences are more to do with the CAS uniformity, and IC's used.

With Dell I would recommend Crucial - http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension%20E510

Example:
Comparison Module #1: Mushkin Redline 996805 6-8-6-24 1600MHz
Comparison Module #2: G.Skill Pi Series 7-8-7-24 1600MHz
Comparison Module #3: Mushkin 998687 8-9-8-24 1866MHz
Comparison Module #4: Corsair Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 8-8-8-24 1600MHz
Comparison Module #5: Kingston HyperX T1 9-9-9-27 1600MHz
Comparison Module #6: Mushkin Blackline 998677B 7-7-7-20 1333MHz
Comparison Module #7: Patriot Viper II Sector 7 9-9-9-27 1800MHz

 

[mbow902]

These are ones I'm considering...I'm leaning towards G.Skill for the price. These are all 533 MHz

1st Option
Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144157
cas latency: 4

2nd Option
CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model VS2GBKIT533D2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145527
cas latency: 4

3rd Option:
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model F2-4200PHU2-2GBNT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231044
cas latency 4

Would I be better off doing something else?

 

[jaquith]

Okay...new question: Should I buy memory with a cas latency of 4 or 5? 4 is better right?

Not necessarily so. As I mentioned CAS disparity and IC's used determine the speed.

So IF the SAME IC's:
Example 1: 5-5-5-20 vs 4-5-4-20 then I would go for the 5-5-5-20
Example 2: 5-5-5-20 vs 4-4-4-20 then I would go for the 4-4-4-20

 

[jaquith]

1. Kingston KVR533D2N4K2/2G 4-X-X-Y @ 1.8V // no listing
2. Corsair VS2GBKIT533D2 - 4-4-4-12 @ 1.8V // listed as VS1GB533D2
3. F2-4200PHU2-2GBNT - 4-4-4-12 @ 1.8V // contact vendor

If it were 'me' Crucial 2X2GB Part #: CT1278833
"Each memory slot can hold DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-5300 with a maximum of 2GB per slot.*"

Keep in mind, assuming 32-bit OS at best you will loose 0.5GB or only 3.5GB will be usable.

Before I would even 'think' about any of those kits, I would have to VERIFY that they are indeed compatible with your Dell Dimension E510.

Kingston - http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=25712&mfr=Dell&model=Dimension+E510+/+E510n&search_type=&root=us&LinkBack=http://www.kingston.com&Sys=25712-Dell-Dimension+E510+/+E510n&distributor=0&submit1=Search

Corsair - http://www.corsair.com/configurator/system_results.aspx?id=405911

G.SKILL {Configuration offline/Submit Ticket} http://gskill.com/contactus.php

 

[RetiredChief]

^ Concur
Your biggest performance jump will come from going from 2 Gigs to 4 Gigs (3 1/2 gigs usable as opposed to speed/timings. Xp will show less of a performance boast than window 7. If you are using integrated graphics, memory allocations are normally a shared thing.

Recommend going with the 2 x 2 vs 4 x 1 (as long as each slot will support a 2 gig module. As less probmatic.

On timing, it may be more a question of how the bios handles it (using spd vs a profile) In some cases a laptop may downgrade the speed and lower the timings.

Laptops can be VERY fussy when it comes to memory, so try to verify compatability.

 

[mbow902]

jaquith,
The Corsairs on your link seem to correspond to the ones I'm looking at on New Egg. Thanks so much for the help!

&
thanks Retired Chief

 

[mbow902]

Best answer selected by mbow902.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar