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**Praetor** · 04-02-2005, 08:19 PM

Section 2 -- What to Look for When Buying Memory
Budget Machine

Generally shoot for PC3200 (even if your board supports only PC2700). The reasoning is (a) running budget PC3200 on a PC2700 board may allow for tighter timings and thus a wee bit more performance, (b) the price delta is not significant between one or two speed grades and (c) PC3200 allows for a bit more upgrading
There is almost no argument for buying anything faster than PC3200 memory for a budget system (unless the price delta is like $2 or something)
Heatspreaders are not required. There may be some exceptions but "budget memory" with heatspreaders means either (a) it's on sale or (b) it's not budget memory
Also don't bother buying "kits", it's just marketing and of not much use for a budget system
While a CAS Latency of 2.0 is nice, it's usually outside of the budget (or comes at a cost of capacity), look for CAS2.5 or CAS3.0 memory but go after the largest module you can afford first before you
Even though it should be obvious, I'll state it explicitly, don't buy Corsair XMS memory for a budget system

Server Machine
Naturally this really depends on the budget, capacity requirement and data integrity requirement and generally speaking, purchasing server memory favors "capacity and functionality over speed". For a 512MB module, the difference between registered+ECC and registered+nonECC is usually in the ballpark of $50 so for a server system that's not an unreasonable expense. Server mermory does generally require a case-by-case analysis though.

Stock Gaming Machine

CAS Latency of 2.0 is pretty much the de-facto standard. In fact a 2-2-2 standard is ideal however the other latencies dont play so much a factor as the CAS. Don't stress things too much if your budget can only accomodate CAS2.5 memory.
Again heatspreaders arent quite neccesary although generally gaming RAM will come with it
Since there's no OCing involved, PC3200 is the order of the day

Overclocked Gaming Machine

Stick to the big names: Corsair (XMS), Crucial (Ballistix), Geil (Ulta, Platinum, Golden Dragon), GSkill (Samsung TCCD), Kingston (HyperX), Mushkin (HiPerf, Level Two), OCz (Platinum, VX, EB, EL), PDP/Patriot (LL/XBL, Extreme Performance), PQi (Turbo)
There isnt much of a choice here with no-heatspreaders. Anything worth anything will have heatspreaders
Two producA few lines do stand out from the crowd however (and are readily available): the new OCz VX series, Corsair PC4400C25, Crucial Ballistix, GSkill 3200 UltraX, Kingston HyperX

04-02-2005, 08:19 PM	#4 (permalink)
Praetor Administrator Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Age: 24 Posts: 19,946	Section 2 -- What to Look for When Buying Memory Budget Machine Generally shoot for PC3200 (even if your board supports only PC2700). The reasoning is (a) running budget PC3200 on a PC2700 board may allow for tighter timings and thus a wee bit more performance, (b) the price delta is not significant between one or two speed grades and (c) PC3200 allows for a bit more upgrading There is almost no argument for buying anything faster than PC3200 memory for a budget system (unless the price delta is like $2 or something) Heatspreaders are not required. There may be some exceptions but "budget memory" with heatspreaders means either (a) it's on sale or (b) it's not budget memory Also don't bother buying "kits", it's just marketing and of not much use for a budget system While a CAS Latency of 2.0 is nice, it's usually outside of the budget (or comes at a cost of capacity), look for CAS2.5 or CAS3.0 memory but go after the largest module you can afford first before you Even though it should be obvious, I'll state it explicitly, don't buy Corsair XMS memory for a budget system Server Machine Naturally this really depends on the budget, capacity requirement and data integrity requirement and generally speaking, purchasing server memory favors "capacity and functionality over speed". For a 512MB module, the difference between registered+ECC and registered+nonECC is usually in the ballpark of $50 so for a server system that's not an unreasonable expense. Server mermory does generally require a case-by-case analysis though. Stock Gaming Machine CAS Latency of 2.0 is pretty much the de-facto standard. In fact a 2-2-2 standard is ideal however the other latencies dont play so much a factor as the CAS. Don't stress things too much if your budget can only accomodate CAS2.5 memory. Again heatspreaders arent quite neccesary although generally gaming RAM will come with it Since there's no OCing involved, PC3200 is the order of the day Overclocked Gaming Machine Stick to the big names: Corsair (XMS), Crucial (Ballistix), Geil (Ulta, Platinum, Golden Dragon), GSkill (Samsung TCCD), Kingston (HyperX), Mushkin (HiPerf, Level Two), OCz (Platinum, VX, EB, EL), PDP/Patriot (LL/XBL, Extreme Performance), PQi (Turbo) There isnt much of a choice here with no-heatspreaders. Anything worth anything will have heatspreaders Two producA few lines do stand out from the crowd however (and are readily available): the new OCz VX series, Corsair PC4400C25, Crucial Ballistix, GSkill 3200 UltraX, Kingston HyperX __________________ ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8 4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400 5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10 OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI Last edited by Praetor; 08-04-2005 at 06:36 AM.