Help me make a purchase decision

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

However, I just want to point out that the benefits of going from DDR400 to DDR500 might be more noticeable performance jump than 1GB to 2GB if you are not a super gamer benchmark freak.

Ditto to that. Even for a gamer the 2Gb is not worth it all that much, yet. You will probably be happier with a 1Gb kit rather than a 2Gb it. That's up to you, but i'd consider sticking with 1gb.


gvlblake, that memory in the test, any possibility of looking under the sinks and peek a look at that date code? =P

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by polobunny

Ditto to that. Even for a gamer the 2Gb is not worth it all that much, yet. You will probably be happier with a 1Gb kit rather than a 2Gb it. That's up to you, but i'd consider sticking with 1gb.


gvlblake, that memory in the test, any possibility of looking under the sinks and peek a look at that date code? =P

It was Capper's memory, he wrote the review, sorry...

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

It was Capper's memory, he wrote the review, sorry...

A'right i'll try to ask him if he still has it, and can check that. I'm seriously pissy over my ram seing as how I can't get it over 255 when almost everyone seems to hit 260 without a problem.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

All great questions.
HERE is a review of the Corsair TWINX2048-4000PT (DDR500) 2GB Memory Kit you referred to. If you read through the review to the performance benchmarks, you will see that it definately has better performance than DDR400 memory with tighter timings.

Let's back track a bit. DDR500 in and of itself is not faster than DDR400. In order for that to be true, one must overclock their system to take advantage of the headroom that DDR500 provides (a frontside bus up to 250MHz, compared to 200MHz on DDR400). If you're not overclocking, both the DDR500 and DDR400 kit will perform identical (save for slight differences depending on the latencies of each kit), since both would be running at a 200MHz frequency. Blake knows this, but I wanted to clarify/expand for anyone reading that isn't familiar with RAM terminology. :)

To Django, I have a few comments specific to your setup:

• 1) Looking at your platform (A7N8X / Barton 3000+), I would really have to question a DDR500 kit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your Barton 3000+ is running a 333MHz frontside bus, correct? That's the equivalent of DDR333, which means that even if you plan to overclock (which you specifically mentioned you're not), DDR400 already provides some headroom for doing so. At that speed however, most Bartons are pretty much all tapped out, so even if you changed your mind, there's just not much overclocking headroom left. The chances of a DDR500 kit being even remotely taken advantage of is going to be pretty slim. Regardless, the bottom line is that for your system and what you're planning (or not planning, as the case may be) to do, DDR500 provides absolutely no benefits over DDR400.
  
  2) Based on the above, your most cost friendly upgrade path would be to simply slap another 1GB stick into your motherboard. You have three available slots on your motherboard, and the neat thing about the nForce2 chipset is that you can fill all three and still run in dual-channel mode, provided both memory banks (not slots) have equal amounts of RAM in them. For example, you would put your existing 512MB sticks in 1+2 (which represent memory bank one) and a 1GB stick in slot 3 (which represents memory bank two). This would give you 2GB total, running in dual-channel operation.
  
  3) The exception to the above is if you plan to move to a socket 939 platform down the road. If so, a 2GB DDR500 kit would represent some forward thinking on your part, as it could be transferred to a new, overclocking friendly rig capable of taking advantage of the headroom.

Originally Posted by polobunny

Ditto to that. Even for a gamer the 2Gb is not worth it all that much, yet.

Depends on the games being played. BF2 certainly benefits from the additional RAM, and other known RAM hogs include WOW and F.E.A.R. This trend towards RAM hungry games appears to be the direction the industry is headed, and on older platforms (such as a Barton rig), the difference between 1GB and 2GB is even more pronounced. On my kid's Barton 2500+ (running at 3200+), for example, the additional RAM made the difference between playable and basically unplayable (for my tastes) in F.E.A.R. You could still get away with it, but the stuttering/freezing was just too distracting before beefing up the RAM.

[Django]

OOOOUUUUCCCCHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

just did a memory check for my Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo on both Corsair and Crucial site.
The DDR 400 PC3200 2GB from Crucial is $120 per stick!!! Corsair TwinX 2GB is for $178. Naturally I am gonna go with Corsair. Why do I want so much memory?? I use AutoCad everyday, do drawing for a living. before I upgraded from a measly 256mb RAM my pc would lag so badly using Autocad along with other apps running at the same time. Now that I have !GB things run smoother. But I got a new version of CAD and now I am back to square one, it's plain laggy again. Was told that the memory needs to be expanded further to speed things up.

[One4yu2c]

Django, look here:

Corsair XMS 1GB Stick PC3200 - $76 shipped (after $25 MIR)

You really shouldn't be looking at 2GB kits, since you already own 1GB...

[RangerXLT8]

Originally Posted by Django

OOOOUUUUCCCCHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

just did a memory check for my Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo on both Corsair and Crucial site.
The DDR 400 PC3200 2GB from Crucial is $120 per stick!!! Corsair TwinX 2GB is for $178. Naturally I am gonna go with Corsair. Why do I want so much memory?? I use AutoCad everyday, do drawing for a living. before I upgraded from a measly 256mb RAM my pc would lag so badly using Autocad along with other apps running at the same time. Now that I have !GB things run smoother. But I got a new version of CAD and now I am back to square one, it's plain laggy again. Was told that the memory needs to be expanded further to speed things up.

2gb memory would do wonders for autocad. The way things are going, games like BF:2, FEAR, GRAW, ect, then add in Windows Vista down the road and it makes me wonder why any enthusiast WOULD NOT want 2GB.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by RangerXLT8

2gb memory would do wonders for autocad. The way things are going, games like BF:2, FEAR, GRAW, ect, then add in Windows Vista down the road and it makes me wonder why any enthusiast WOULD NOT want 2GB.

Depends on how much time you keep your hardware. I barely keep mine 3 months so I guess that's not much of a matter.

[RangerXLT8]

I was quoting django and in his case I believe it matters. :)

[Django]

Originally Posted by One4yu2c

Django, look here:

Corsair XMS 1GB Stick PC3200 - $76 shipped (after $25 MIR)

You really shouldn't be looking at 2GB kits, since you already own 1GB...

One4yu2c, thanks for the heads up and clarifying this whole DDR500 mess. Yes my board has three slots and two of them are occupied with the 2 - 512 sticks. Well after reading the replies, getting that single Corsair 1GB stick is definetly cheaper.