Memory advice needed

[camtr]

I am building a new computer, I have a new antec sonata case that comes with the truepower 380 watt power supply. I also have a 9800 pro video card, and a seagate 160GB SATA hard drive. I have a Sony crx320a cd-rw/dvd-rom drive and plan on also getting a dvd-rw drive. I just ordered a 2.8c 800 mhz processor. I have decided that the Asus p4p800 deluxe motherboard is probably what I will get and I am deciding on ram. I am looking at getting 2 sticks of Kingston HyperX 512MB PC4000 DDR. I can get this ram for $200 after rebates.

My questions are 1. Will this Ram work on this motherboard? 2. Is this ram over or under kill for that board? 3. What would your opinions be for other ram if the above is not a good choice, and 4. Any advice or opinions on this system.

This system will be used for video editing and also for games. I am on somewhat of a budget and do not want to really spend anymore for ram unless need be. I have never overclocked but have decided to give it a shot with this system. Thanks for any help.

 

[jammydodger]

It depends on how much of an overclock you want to get out of the CPU. What kinda cooling are you using? If you want to take advantage of that RAM you will have to overclock your CPU to 3.25Ghz, this shouldnt be too hard if you have good cooling and your motherboard can take it.
But it is'nt certain and might not be 100% stable. If I were you I would get some Geil RAM, in my experience it is cheaper than kingston and it works fine in my Abit AI7 (Intel 865).

I would also recommend the Abit IS7 motherboard, it is damn cheap and one of the best boards on the market (thought I would say it before Crashman had a chance). With the money you save on that board and the RAM you might be able to get yourself another 160Gb drive and set up a RAID0 array via the ICH5R. This would be very usefull for video editing.

Video editing is memory hungry but I think 1Gb will be sufficient for the moment (I have yet to find matched 1GB modules anyway, and if they do exist they will prob cost more than my whole computer). 1GB will be enough for games for a good while.

P4c 2.6@3.25
512Mb PC4000
2x120Gb 7200.7 in RAID0
Waterchill KT12-L30
Abit AI7
Radeon 9800Pro

 

[camtr]

Thanks for the reply.

I do not want to use anything other that the normal air cooling provided by my hardware. I would like to get as much overclock out of my cpu as feasible. I was looking at the asus board because of the automatic overclocking feature and other good things that I have read about it. I will consider the IS7 board. If I was to go with the IS7 exactly what Geil Ram would you get? Thanks much.

Any other opinions out there?

 

[ZZSpaceman]

PC4000 will give you all the headroom you can use with a 2.8 GHz processor & air cooling. In theory PC4000 will get you to 3.5GHz (250*14). You probably will be lucky to make it past 3.3GHz. At $200 the price is very good. Kingston's memory timings aren't great 3-4-4-8 but you probably wouldn't notice much of a real world difference with 2.5-3-3-7 anyway.

I have an ASUS (P4C800-Delux) and an ABIT (IC7-MAX3) board. The ABIT board is only two weeks old and using mostly hand me down components, so I can't make a completely fair comparison. Still I'm inclined to recommend the ABIT. The ASUS board was stable at first but got temperamental with time. I eventually had to turn off the PAT & Turbo. With the PAT & Turbo off it is stable to 3.0 GHz with a 2.4 GHz processor & 1GB PC3700 HyperX RAM.

The ABIT is currently running my 2.8GHz processor up at 3.1GHz (haven't tried to go higher yet) with 512MB Kingston PC3200 Value RAM. Hope to upgrade memory soon. I also used this memory on the ASUS board for a while to 240 MHz, again with the PAT & Turbo off for stability. Put memory heat spreaders on too.

ABIT seems to produce higher memory benchmarks at a lower FSB and the system just feels a little faster. It doesn’t have the lazy mans OC feature, but ASUS is really conservative with the memory settings (reduces the memory Bus to CPU clock ratio) and you will most likely decide you don’t like this mode. In my opinion ASUS has a little better manual. I also like ABIT’s cooling on the voltage regulators. It's a very nice feature. Only time will tell. Good luck.


ZZSpaceman

 

[Crashman]

PC4000 works with nearly any board that accepts PC3200. Basically it's "PC3200 for overclocking", it's nearly identicle but tested at a higher speed for your overclocking desires. It's rated maximum clock speed is 250MHz, aka DDR500, which matches perfectly with a P4 at 250MHz clock rate, aka QDR1000.

OK, so your 2.8 might go 3.5GHz at 250MHz bus. It probably won't on air cooling, but having PC4000 means you'll have a bit of headroom. It's likely to go around 3.2-3.3GHz on air cooling (maybe 3.4-3.5GHz on LOUD air cooling).

I'd like to suggest the Abit IS7, it has more features than the P4P800 and cost less at most locations. Anandtech rated it a best buy, over the P4P800, in their large motherboard comparison last summer.


Or you could get an Athlon 64 settup and make everyone envious...

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[camtr]

Thank you guys also for the posts, Looks like I will stear away from the asus board and go for an abit.

ZZSpaceman if I read it right you are recommending the IC7-MAX3 over the abit IS7? I will spend the extra cash if the board is worth the difference. . Thanks.

 

[camtr]

Crashman: I kind of wish you did not throw in the Athlon 64 comment, I have never used or checked into anything other then intel cpu's and my new computer parts decision was getting close. I have now however started to look into Athlon 64 and see some benifits, however I know next to nothing about Athlon 64.

I do not want to spend alot of money but could afford a athlon 64 3000 and could probably afford an athlon 64 3200 cpu. This brings up a few questions. 1. Would this be a good thing to do? 2. How would those compare to an overclocked 2.8c cpu? 3. What motherboard would be good? 4. What would you recommend for ram? (brand, speed, ect)

From what I have read so far it would appear the athlon 64 has more future uses, runs cooler, and I would not need to oc it, is this so? Thanks

 

[Crashman]

Anandtech showed the A64 getting good gains from increased bus speed, as compared to smaller gains from simply increasing the multiplier. The best chipset for A64 right now is the nForce3 250, but the only board I'm familiar with (from reviews) is the MSI K8N Neo. It looks like a great solution, a K8N Neo with an XP3200+, overclocked bus, using good memory with reasonably low latencies.

I'd look long and hard for OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 2. The stuff can clock up to PC4000 speed, and works with lower latencies when you downclock it. So it's nice and flexible.

It's up to you, but if your research is done you might choose the P4 system anyway, it would still be great, and you wouldn't have to toss out all your research there. As for me, I'm only on a P4 because that's what I needed for some reviews (which netted me free hardware!).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[ZZSpaceman]

The IC7-MAX3 is a very nice board but it might have more bells and whistles than you care to pay for. Basically if you can afford it (surprisingly the best price I found was 199 @ Frys) and you want the additional features it's a good option. If you don't plan to push your OC as far as you can and you don't need the extra features save the money. I hear the IS7 is a fine board. Go to ABITs web site to compare the features. Here is a link to a review.

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTA5


ZZSpaceman

 

[camtr]

Thank you for the posts, I think I will stay with the Intel for this build and probably do Athlon 64 next. I will either get the IS7 or the IC7-max 3. Memory undecided on yet also.