Ram opinion please!

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 3:36 pm

Looking to upgrade my ram right now i have the following combo. i have 3 dimm slots on my mobo. I have 1x512 (corsair xms) and 2x256 (corsair cheapo). Going to want to upgrade to at least 1.5 gigs. so i have to ditch the 2x256 to open up some room. I found this mushkin on newegg and it seems like a good deal. that way i will have an additional slot for future explansion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820146190

whatcha think? sound like a good idea or should i dish out a bit more and get the 2x512 xms? thanks

knightmare · Post by **knightmare** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:16 pm

I'm not familiar with the mobo, but will having 3 slots filled, still run in dual channel ? I'm not a big fan of mixing ram, but both my rigs have mixed brands, with no problems.. get 2 sticks, leave the 3rd slot open... sell your spares on here @ SG.

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:30 pm

well i have another computer that may or may not get the spares. Actually thinking about selling it.....

If i sell it i will probobly put one of the 256 in there.

The mobo is the abit nf7-s 2.0 . i saw they had some patriot ram 2x1gig for like 160. i could toss it in but not sure if thats overkill for my computer. Kinda wondering if i need more than 1.5 gig.

What are your thoughts on that? Will many games take advantage of over 1.5 gig? i hate to put money into something that isn't gonna show much gains.

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:36 pm

best ram!

http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs ... T12864Z40B

and with it you get a free king kong game!

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:53 pm

Sava700 wrote: best ram!

http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs ... T12864Z40B

and with it you get a free king kong game!

lol, seems a bit high in price for a gig stick. I can hit almost 2 gig for that price...minus the kong of course!

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:24 pm

But did you pick out that Mushkin RAM as compatible with your Abit motherboard? Or just gonna cross yer fingers and hope it works problem free?

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:41 pm

RoscoPColtrane wrote:lol, seems a bit high in price for a gig stick. I can hit almost 2 gig for that price...minus the kong of course!

well with crucial its lifetime warrenty on all there ram. And I checked for the ones that go with your mobo. Slightly high price but you get what you pay for.

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:07 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:But did you pick out that Mushkin RAM as compatible with your Abit motherboard? Or just gonna cross yer fingers and hope it works problem free?

its ddr3200 184 pin right? Isn't that all i need for compatability?

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:17 pm

RoscoPColtrane wrote:its ddr3200 184 pin right? Isn't that all i need for compatability?

No you SHOULD look at what is tested to work on your mobo, most people dont.

usually mobo makers will have a list of some chips or something that will work best.

Look at Crucial, OCZ, and G.skill. If you can find out that your mobo lieks TCCD chips I'd grab some of that from G.skill, should be a decent price.

Also I would buy 1 gig sticks, so either 1 or 2 gigs.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:20 pm

Nah those days are gone, back in the days of SIM RAM, where "any old stick" would work 95% of the time.

I don't follow that approach any more, too many subtle differences in motherboard chipsets, CPUs, etc. "Most" of the time it will work, but there's an increasing number of times where sticking in "any old stick just because it appears to be the right type" will lead to a flakey system. That occasional lockup or application hang, be it once a day, once a week, once a month, or that strange error on Windows setup, or that occasional total blue screen or flat out reboot. Or this one particular game that crashes to desktop, or one particular application doens't work right, some export or reindex function of an accounting program, or...or.. Is it the RAM? I don't like leaving that question open, that's why most of the better memory makers these days have these selection utilities that will provide you with their exact part numbers of RAM tested and compatible with your system.

I've seen this happen too many times, I'd rather get the exact correct RAM for my system and not worry.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:30 pm

You want to either run 2 or 4 sticks, not 3. While 3 will sometimes work, its single channel and youll get really odd problems. This is on an A64 system im referring to. Crucial, Corsair, and Mushkin are the only ram for me

You really cant go wrong with these, OCZ im kinda errr about , because of the past. ALWAYS check the manufacturers compatiblity list with your motherboard, as this should always be the basis to go on. Most people dont, which I thinks too bad.

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:36 pm

kewl i will look into that then. right nwo im running 3 chips and have been for over a year! seems to be stable as can be. All are corsair like i said above not sure if that helps....

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:41 pm

RoscoPColtrane wrote:kewl i will look into that then. right nwo im running 3 chips and have been for over a year! seems to be stable as can be. All are corsair like i said above not sure if that helps....

With an XP, its not as much an issue because the memory controller isnt on-die, and its all single channel anyway. I was just lettin you know when you jump to the A64

Kiro2me · Post by **Kiro2me** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:41 pm

wee96 wrote:You want to either run 2 or 4 sticks, not 3. While 3 will sometimes work, its single channel and youll get really odd problems. This is on an A64 system im referring to. Crucial, Corsair, and Mushkin are the only ram for me You really cant go wrong with these, OCZ im kinda errr about , because of the past. ALWAYS check the manufacturers compatiblity list with your motherboard, as this should always be the basis to go on. Most people dont, which I thinks too bad.

Hi want a tip on DDR ram that is good for my ASUS A8N-SLI AMD socket 939 with a good timing to play games?

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:52 pm

YARDofSTUF · Post by **YARDofSTUF** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 4:02 pm

Kiro2me wrote: Hi want DDR ram is good for my ASUS A8N-SLI AMD socket 939 with a good timing to play games?

http://www.crucial.com

Kiro2me · Post by **Kiro2me** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:21 pm

wee96 wrote:huh?

Sorry didn't explain that good and is corrected.

Kiro2me · Post by **Kiro2me** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:25 pm

YARDofSTUF wrote:http://www.crucial.com

Wow thanks for that link that you gave me.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:03 pm

Kiro2me wrote:Sorry didn't explain that good and is corrected.

No problem...send me over some of those young puerto rican women....