Which ram to get out of these Three? For OCing

[Snake2715]

OK,

I wanted to just upgrade but now I am on a kick to upgrade for maybe a week or so test stability then go for the OC'ing.

My question is this as I have a gift card I am hoping to spend on ram. So I am kind of limited with selection and hopefully one of these three will work pretty good.

If not then I need to know and bite the bullet and spend some cash to get it right.

My first mistake is that I bought a Desktop AMD 2500. I should have bought mobile I guess. I will edit my sig to show what else I have or am getting so I dont repeat my self here.

Heres the memory I am deciding between.

Option1

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1061127110735&skuId=5959082&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01169

Option 2
I am not sure this will even work?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1064603551726&skuId=5958868&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01169

Option 3

http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&catoid=-10263&qp=037223713&oid=70463&m=0


Any info would be nice. If I had to buy then it would probably be Buffalo from newegg. I am hoping to get 1 gig of Ram with 2 sticks.

Thanks

[imbest123]

The second option would be best for overclocking by far. When you start overclocking tighten the timings on that ram a little if you want. I doubt you are going to reach 250Mhz for the bus speed on a normal 2500+ so that will give you a lot of headroom.

[Snake2715]

Ok,

I wasnt even sure if that would work. Thanks

I have also updated my sig to show what I am running.

[Brown Hornet]

option #2 get's my vote.to bad you dont have a gift card at newegg,that same ram is 15$$ cheaper

[Snake2715]

Well I have a gift cert at Circuit City and its only $129 there.

Check this out:

http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.jsp?c=1&b=g&u=c&catoid=-10263&qp=037223713&oid=87385&m=0#specs

[Redfallon]

try to see if you can find out the timings....look for CAS 2.5....

[imbest123]

Option 2 has CAS 3 but he can tighten that if he wants in the BIOS so its all good. With an AMD set-up I really suggest at least CAS 2.5 or at least ive been told there is a noticable difference with them.

[Redfallon]

yeah I tend to forget that AMD not running at 200FSB out of the box, and he could tighten those up.....guess I need to build me an AMD next....

[rcx21000]

Originally posted by imbest123
Option 2 has CAS 3 but he can tighten that if he wants in the BIOS so its all good. With an AMD set-up I really suggest at least CAS 2.5 or at least ive been told there is a noticable difference with them.

CAS2.5 & 3 make a huge difference (at least in benchmarks). I can either do 166MhZ RAM (83% of FSB @ 200MhZ) @ 2.5 or 200MhZ @ 3, and benchmarks show that it is 10% better! Even though real differences probably aren't that big, MD5CRK runs at ~.8 MegaMD5/sec faster @ CAS2.5 :D

You could just get the HyperX 500MhZ RAM, clock the 2500+ to 215FSB (big mabye, but if you are lucky, you might get even more. You could even raise the multiplier if yours is unlocked...), and thats only running the RAM at 430hZ. Then you can lower CAS to 2.5 :)

[Snake2715]

Hey guys your losing me. Sorry I am trying to read as much as possible and get caught up here but it hasnt happened yet.

So it looks as if the HyperX Kingston would be the best from the choices listed. I would then need to enter Bios and change some settings etc. no problem I can read and figure that out.

Now if I did tighten up the settings would it indeed be better than say this:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-150-563&depa=1

I guess I am trying to figure out what is the best. My uses mainly are gaming and net use. I dont have cable available in my area so for the time its just single player gaming.

I am guessing with some of the upcoming titles I will eventually need more than 512mb.

The other thing is am I wasting my time getting 3200 or 4000 ram? Or will 2700 do the same things since my FSb is 333 on my AMD 2500? I think thats right.

[Redfallon]

that buffalo RAM is highly recommended by Tin Canary, I've never used it, but hey, the price looks right. I believe Tin said they use the same chips as Corsair, etc...

[rcx21000]

Overclocking is raising the FSB, and the multiplier (if it's unlocked). You'll want to do both to get to highest speed, so you will want RAM rated higher than your CPU's FSB. Also, if the multiplier is locked, you can only up the FSB, making it so you need faster RAM (unless you want to overclock the RAM, too but PC2700 RAM won't go nearly as fast as the CPU can get to, unless it is veeeeeeeeery good quality).

[ric449]

Since there is no way you will fully reach the 4000MBps that memory can support, you can tighten the timings for definate. So option 2 gets my vote too.

[Tin]

most memory thats rated for CL3 will not do CL2.5, no matter which FSB or how many volts you are putting through it. either go with the buffalo CH5 or something similar. you should be looking at PC3200/3500 CL2/2.5 for an AMD setup.

[ric449]

I thought there was no more CH5 left?

[BARNEY]

The only CL3 rated mem that I know willl do 2.5 is Crucial - but not on all motherboards - but most if enough vdimm is present.

[i3OSS]

You posted a link of a "512" mb Kingston HyperX and a "256" mb Buffalo ram. like its said before, the buffalo uses QUALITY chips and WILL run at the posted speed with no problems, but you wont be able to push it too far. as for the HyperX, i believe it is made for overclocking.
also, ive read somewhere that using identical 256mb ram is the best way to go for ocing.

[mb26]

Originally posted by ric449
I thought there was no more CH5 left? perhaps thats BH5 your talking about

also, the buffalo ram, although it is CL2.5 pc3200, will reach around 244 fsb at CL2 if u put 2.9v through it. even at stock voltage it should reach 230fsb at CL2.

[ric449]

Sorry yes, I meant BH5. Those were the days......

[imbest123]

they are still around, you just have to do some searching.

[Tin]

Originally posted by i3OSS
You posted a link of a "512" mb Kingston HyperX and a "256" mb Buffalo ram. like its said before, the buffalo uses QUALITY chips and WILL run at the posted speed with no problems, but you wont be able to push it too far. as for the HyperX, i believe it is made for overclocking.
also, ive read somewhere that using identical 256mb ram is the best way to go for ocing.

the CH5 will do 250FSB depending on how much voltage you can put through it ;) 256mb sticks usually do better because they dont require as much voltage to run as a 512mb stick.

[Redfallon]

Originally posted by Tin Canary
most memory thats rated for CL3 will not do CL2.5, no matter which FSB or how many volts you are putting through it.

My Crucial PC3200 was rated at 3 and it would run 2.5 at FSB 200, anything more and it had to be 3, it maxed out around 235FSB stable, and my board will only give it 2.85....don't feel like throwing out a 3 year Asus warranty to do a vmod right now ;)

[Snake2715]

Ok Ok

Let me ask this. What is the difference form 2.5 to 3?

I mean is it a noticable difference or are we talking something very small? Or is it a small difference at stock speeds but once you overclock it becomes a multiplier?

[ric449]

When you look at CAS latency you need to understand that CAS is not everything. There is other latencies too. CAS is only column address strobe, the amount of time it takes to select the column address of the memory. As with all latencies, lower is better.

[Snake2715]

OK,

I have had no luck until i ran into this memory would either of these work well? CAs seems to be at 2. But I want to ask before I buy

Links:
Genereal Info:
http://www.kbytememory.com/pages/gaming.htm

3500:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1074787988047&skuId=6308177&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01169

3700:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1074787988106&skuId=6308202&type=product&productCategoryId=cat01169


Also if this is ok for the time should I just get 512 and not worry about 1 gig?

[Snake2715]

Ok doing some searching K-byte is not the answera pparently.

I am thinking That I am just going to have to spend the dough.


So is the buffalo the stuff to still get?

I am kind of confused with everyone mentioning BH5 and whatnot.