Liqourice

Can't decide what memory to get. Is there any point in getting DDR3 1600 instead of 1333? Should I pay that bit extra for CL7 or will CL8 or CL9 be good enough?

I've lost to much track on what's good... Wouldn't mind a recommendation for a single brand/type.. as long as it's Corsair or OCZ. Those two and Kingston are more or less the only brands I can find in Sweden.

Neshi

depends what you want to do.. I'm not as familiar with DDR3 as with DDR2 but I guess the principal is the same. You should try to keep a 1:1 ratio with the CPU for best performance. (or so it was a while ago.. dunno how good the memory controllers and such are by now)

So basically there was no point in buying higher clocked ram if you werent overclocking the CPU as the FSB of 400 would result in a DDR2 of 800, which is a 1:1 ratio. If you were overclocking the ram by increasing the FSB, the memory would increase as well, and to keep the ratio a higher clocked ram was needed (or you would overclock the memory as well).

Really don't know about DDR3, if 1333 is the standard or 1600. I guess the difference would be seen in benchmarks, but in real life? I doubt it, it might shave some miliseconds of or something..

About the brands, I would go with OCZ, have owned them and they were great! Cheaper than the other brands were I live.. I always get the feeling a part of the price for Corsair or Kingston is for the brandname..

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If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

Liqourice

Found some Crucial 1600 that wasn't to expensive. Don't know anything about Crucial really, is it a decent brand?

SeraphicSorcerer

Pretty good, but what's the CL? (Cas Latency) AMD Loves low latency memory, they thrive on it, you'll be getting much better performance the lower timings you can get, I got the OCZ Reaper Memory (See Sig) It screams on it.

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Liqourice

I ended up ordering Cricual Ballistix 1600 8-8-8-24

They'll have to do for starters. I might get something else later on, that's the best I could find for a decent price. I tried to find some CL7's but there were none in stock anywhere and I want to get my new stuff ASAP to get going. CL6's are just to expensive for now.

But it's the same thing here as with the gfx card. Just to get things going I got those as well as a 5770 until I can find the gfx card I want and better memory.

BlueMak

Perhaps it is just me, but ever since the DDR RAM appeared, I haven't noticed any noticable difference (not some benchmark I don't care about) in speed between RAM stats and overall PC performance. Same for the brand. The more and more I think the best thing to do with RAM is to buy the cheapest you can buy and a lot of it. Better to buy more than "faster".

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

SeraphicSorcerer

I disagree, Especially when it comes to Phenom II, Overclocking the NB + Lower latency has been proven to give significant gains for AMD based systems.

@ Liqourice Your memory should be okay, you be able to run it at 7-7-7-24 @ 1333 speeds which should be fine.

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BlueMak

I am not talking about overclocking. I never do it.
If you play a game or general windows stuff and you see a noticable difference in performance between two identical systems, one with faster specs RAM than the other, then...you have better eyes than I have.

__________________

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Liqourice

Yes, that's what I figured I could do. Now, I won't be overclocking to the limit anyway, just as much as I feel comfortable with.

Liqourice

Bleh.

I really don't like these Crucials. Best I can do with them is 7-8-8-24 @1333, 1600 is a no go completely. I've tried to get them running at 1600 in every possible way but it just doesn't work. System becomes so unstable that it's insane. Tried with 9-9-9-32 and 2.1V and still it fails, don't dare to try any higher voltage.

So, I'm gonna RMA these. Just don't know what to get instead. Was looking at some CL7 OCZ Black edition, supposedly ment to work well with the 965BE... but I have no experience with OCZ at all.

Judas

personally i tend to like to go for the paster rated memory even if i plan on running them at a notch or 2 below as generally you can tighten up the timings pretty damn good with that memory.

For example i can purchase some Kingston 1333mhz 8-9-9-24 for about $110 CAD, however i can purchase crucial 1600mhz 8-8-8-24 for $120 CAD and then run it 1333mhz with a timing of 7-7-7-20 which is VERY noticeably faster

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Liqourice

Well, my Crucials ARE 8-8-8-24 1600 but I can't get them to run at those timings you mention... not to forget that 1600 doesn't work at all.

Neshi

if even 1600 which is the advertised speed doesn't work, definately RMA them.

The experience I had with OCZ is nothing but good. If you can get a good set of OCZ ram, I would go for it.

__________________
If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

Life is just too damn short for if's and maybe's

SeraphicSorcerer

I agree, I've had good results with OCZ Reaper 12800 Memory

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Liqourice

Reaper aren't avaliable it seems but it might be just the same as the Black Edition ones, just named differently.. But since they are named that way they're supposed to work well with the PII's so I'll go for that.