which ram?

[gwyn]

hi all
what ram would you recommend for this system?

Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester 90nm
Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB SATA 8MB

I was thinking about crucial pc3200 but then i though this would'nt be much good for oc, so now im thinking more about pc4000 but im not sure.
what would you all recommend?
thanks

 

[RichPLS]

Crucial 3200 low latency ram runs good at stock and you simply raise the timings and it overclocks well too. Good choice.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[gwyn]

is it worth going for something like crucial ballistix pc 4000?

 

[RichPLS]

Yes, but you probally can't clock your processor that high, so you will run it lower.

The quality RAM made today overclocks very good, but the higher speed rated ram usually will not run stock speeds at the lowest timings, and likewise, the lowest timing ram won't usually reach the highest speeds.

I prefer low latency and then overclock from there.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[gwyn]

so pc3200 will work fine in this settup, it will also oc ok to. the reason im asking is someone told me that athlon 64 need atleast pc3500 if your thinking of ocing. Is this incorrect?

 

[RichPLS]

Well, Crucial PC 3200 will overclock past 3500, that is just the spec for the latencies that the rated timings are for.
It will run up to 225mhz at 2-2-2-5 timings, higher you have to go to CAS 2.5

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[Crashman]

I prefer the opposite: There's always a chance that with Cas 2-2-2-5 2.8v RAM, for example, they system may have trouble reaching POST (default 2.6v). On the other hand, my 2.5-3-3-8 PC4000 will boot fine at 2.6v, and I can lower the timings from there.

<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>

 

[gwyn]

so to get pc4000 to run with an A643000 at defalt speed I will have to reduce the speed of the ram but it will future proof the pc a bit more. What sort of timings would I have to set the ram at. Also is there anywere that explains memory timing in more detail, as i dont understand much about it.
thanks

 

[Crashman]

You could leave the RAM at the default timings since the lower speed adds stability, or try dropping the timings. Crucial Ballistix PC4000 for example will allow the 2-2-2-10 timings Anandtech shows are optimal for the A64, when clocked at PC3200 speed.

<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>

 

[gwyn]

thanks for the help
i think pc4000 is the one to go for as it gives me room for upgrade later