don't flame me, but the old question again ...

[Nerun]

hey guy's! i read a lot around on this board but didn't come to an up-to-date conclusion. so here is it:

i'm building a system (athlon/gigabyte-KT333), but i can't decide what RAM to use, although PC2700/CL2 would be my choice. i'd pick the corsair 2700/2 chips, but i read that they actually don't run at 2 but only at 2.5.

are there any quality-RAM manufacurers that produce 2700/2 that i didn't spot out?

what is (corsair's) extreme memory speed technology?

are 2700/2 worth it compared to 2100/2?

why do the girls in lilo&stich have that huge legs?

btw, i'm not planning to OC.

thx in advance!

<b><font color=blue>GzG, Nerun</font color=blue></b>
The more i ask in here, the more puzzled i get ...

 

[MagnusKnight]

I am using one Corsair XMS PC2700/2 module. These modules are spec'ed out to handle 2-2-2 1T. I have an ASUS A7V333 board and in the BIOS I have set the configurations to:
CAS Latency - 2
SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay - 2
SDRAM RAS Precharge Time - 2
Command Control - 1T
It is working fine for me so far, no BSOD. If you use two modules, you may not be able to run a CAS of 2 or a Command Control of 1T. There is more latency accessing two modules than one.
So it seems to me that the Corsair XMS models that say they can run at CAS 2, actually can. I have had no problems out of my module, and I am a heavy 3D gamer.
Hope this helps.

 

[Nerun]

thx.

i think i'll go with kingston 2100/2. their about €110 cheaper. for me, 5% performance gain aren't worth that price.

<b><font color=blue>GzG, Nerun</font color=blue></b>
The more i ask in here, the more puzzled i get ...

 

[Oracle]

Good going!
As thoroughly explained in another memory thread (2 dimms or 1) by my [now] good friend Bum_JCRules, it is unnecessary to purchase anything other than PC2100 if you don't plan on overclocking your FSB over 133Mhz (266DDR).

<font color=red>Floppy disk?!? What the heck's a floppy disk?!?</font color=red>

 

[Smokey]

Ahhh...I have a reason. Same reason why I bought a 7+ Volcano for my Athlon CPU...

So that you can use it on your next system (specifically, that HSF runs on BOTH AMD & Intel)!

Plan ahead. You may not OC now, and therefore PC2700 isn't helping ya (as Oracle said you're running at 133 FSB anyway).

BUT!!! Who's to say you won't want to in the future? What if a chip comes out next year with a 166 standard FSB? Is the small increase in up front costs worth the possibilities?

ALSO, he's talking about a KT333 chipset. I use an ASUS A7V333, and didn't plan to OC. I changed my mind. Now I have an unlocked XP2000 running at 166 FSB, but the PC2700 gave my the freedom to change my mind. Why would you choose not to OC a chipset that OC's so easily? Even with a locked CPU you could still bump the FSB to 150 with a good HS and run stable! To each their own...

<font color=purple>Pentiums are for wusses who are afraid of instability</font color=purple>

 

[Oracle]

I don't find overclocking interesting and worthwhile.
Why would you want to overclock and risk a failure on a system that already runs 200 fps on any given game (I'm exagerating, but you get the picture)!

What comes out in the future is still... in the future. In a year from now, something else will come along that's faster, better, hyper, super and... overkiller. Don't be fooled, the only things that can benefit from the extra power are gaming and movie editing and playback. If you don't buy the latest games and edit a five hour home movie, a Duron @ 1Ghz with PC2100 RAM can do the job one hand behind the back for years to come. I've been running a P3 Katmai @ 650Mhz with 256Mb RAM and a GeForce2 MX on my wife's computer for more than 2 years now and still does the job, even playing games like Black & White and editing small home movies.

For me, overclocking is just a waste of time and a risk of messing a pretty darn good CPU to begin with (be it a Northwood or a Thoroughbred).

Now a KT333 won't make a PC2700 run faster. It is still limited by FSB, unless you overclock (see my opinion on this above). They could call their chipset KT666 for that matter and you could use PC-whatever module, it is still going to run at FSB speed, again given you don't overclock. There's always a risk when running a system out of specs and I'm not a fan of that. So to answer Nerun, Thoroughbred with KT266A/333 and PC2100 CL2.5 is a good combination without the need for overclocking. Should you choose a quality PC2100 module (Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, Mushkin or others), you could set it to CL2 with confidence and still manage to sleep at night.

But that's just my opinion!


<font color=red>Floppy disk?!? What the heck's a floppy disk?!?</font color=red>

 

[ZeuSueZ]

I'd absolutly stick with the 2100 DDR and save 100+ $ - but again I'm just a young man studying for his Ph.D - so my PC budget is lacking =)

You have given the awanser yourself; 5% extra perforamence isn't worth 100+ $ eg, 105 instead og 100 fps in games like MOHAA, RTCW, UT2 or CZ =)

Real men don't do backup...
...real men cry ALOT!

Linux RoxX

 

[Smokey]

Just to clarify, KT333 can gain the extra benefits of PC2700 regardless of the FSB. You can run the FSB at 133 and the memory at 166 by changing the ration of 1:1 to 4:5 CPU/Mem, thereby utilizing the extra bandwith.

<font color=purple><i>Smokey McPot - Your Baby's Daddy</i></font color=purple>

 

[Oracle]

I know DDR333 can process data faster at whatever ratio settings you might push it. But if FSB is not overclocked, data will still be sent back to the memory controller through the 133Mhz FSB path.
The only gain is with CL. Given a CL2 setting on both modules and since the clock cycle is shorter with a DDR333 module than a DDR266, latency on DDR333 is thus inferior. Data will be processed faster and sent back faster, but the bus can only accept so much data at a time.
No matter how many tickets sold at Central Station, the train can only carry so much passengers. Others will have to wait for the next one.


<font color=red>A platform is not an oil rig.</font color=red>