[PROJECT] "The blank.box"

[screwballl]

good stuff.... I need to step into a SATA based optical drives someday myself

[wtcnbrwndo4u]

Originally Posted by screwballl

good stuff.... I need to step into a SATA based optical drives someday myself

They're like a whole $2 more than the IDE versions. Not a bad idea.

[JazzyJake]

Last i checked the actual memory modules on corsairs ram were made by the company that owns cruicial, and the ballistix and dominator modules were identicle. leaving the heatsink up to question.....in a cube we've got a q6600, an 8800gts, a 500gb caviar, that 620w corsair PSU mentioned above, and 2gb of ballistix tracers and it's cool to the touch...i'm not too worried about the ram sinks
but that's just an FYI, if anything it means you've got quality ram coming your way

[Stormcrow]

The ICs on all Dominators are almost always cherry picked Micron D9's, in the case of that DDR2-800 kit either D9GMH or D9GCT, which are both extremely good top of the line modules. Looks like that kit also has a 2.0 revision using Promos (Boo!) chips, you'd definitely want to contact Newegg to see which ones they are carrying.
As Jazzy said, Crucial is the selling end of Micron, and the Ballistix line always features the cream of the crop IC's..with the DDR2-1066 binned DIMMs guaranteed the best D9's they have.

[polobunny]

Originally Posted by wtcnbrwndo4u

They're like a whole $2 more than the IDE versions. Not a bad idea.

But like $25 than staying with your IDE drive. :P

[Parker]

Originally Posted by JazzyJake

Last i checked the actual memory modules on corsairs ram were made by the company that owns cruicial, and the ballistix and dominator modules were identicle. leaving the heatsink up to question.....in a cube we've got a q6600, an 8800gts, a 500gb caviar, that 620w corsair PSU mentioned above, and 2gb of ballistix tracers and it's cool to the touch...i'm not too worried about the ram sinks
but that's just an FYI, if anything it means you've got quality ram coming your way

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

The ICs on all Dominators are almost always cherry picked Micron D9's, in the case of that DDR2-800 kit either D9GMH or D9GCT, which are both extremely good top of the line modules. Looks like that kit also has a 2.0 revision using Promos (Boo!) chips, you'd definitely want to contact Newegg to see which ones they are carrying.
As Jazzy said, Crucial is the selling end of Micron, and the Ballistix line always features the cream of the crop IC's..with the DDR2-1066 binned DIMMs guaranteed the best D9's they have.

Wow, thats a mouth full of info!
Thanks guys!
This kit should be good
The parts should come in on Friday or Saturday, can't wait!! This weekend is going to be so fun!

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

The ICs on all Dominators are almost always cherry picked Micron D9's, in the case of that DDR2-800 kit either D9GMH or D9GCT, which are both extremely good top of the line modules. Looks like that kit also has a 2.0 revision using Promos (Boo!) chips, you'd definitely want to contact Newegg to see which ones they are carrying.
As Jazzy said, Crucial is the selling end of Micron, and the Ballistix line always features the cream of the crop IC's..with the DDR2-1066 binned DIMMs guaranteed the best D9's they have.

Aren't the new Ballistix sticks "single sided"? What are the advantages/disadvantages of single sided RAM and how do they compare to dual sided RAM?

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Yellowhello

Aren't the new Ballistix sticks "single sided"? What are the advantages/disadvantages of single sided RAM and how do they compare to dual sided RAM?

The new bin of Ballistix are, they use higher density modules and only one side of the PCB. I haven't checked mine yet, I believe they are double.

Single-sided RAM is more sought after, as each bank on either side of the DIMM can only be accessed one at a time. Meaning to access data stored in the chips on one side of the DIMM, the system has to switch to that side and can't access the data on the other side until it switches back; it can only read and write to one bank at a time. This creates latency of course, although minute with how fast RAM is nowadays but people still want single-banked RAM for no loss of performance. Although how much of a performance loss might be a nice article write-up...

In any event, some boards flake out when multiple sticks of single-sided RAM is installed, they can't handle the increased density of the ICs and you'll sometimes see 2xDIMMs Single-Sided or 4xDIMMs Double-Sided...this is rare though, I've heard of some current Asus and Gigabyte boards in the budget bracket with this but I'm not sure.
Some boards (again, old issue that happens rarely) also crap bricks when you try to mix single and doubled sided RAM in dual-channel, even if they are the same make/model/type down to the letter just using different densities. Value RAM is notorious for this, since the manufacturer uses whatever modules they can find the cheapest to run within the listed specs the densities are prone to change more often.

[WhiteEagle]

Looks like a great build Parker. Can't wait to see the final assembly!

[owcraftsman]

Wow wish I had friends like that you hit lotto man good deal!
You've got a good build going there I can't wait to see the results on the ES OC. I kinda wish you had spent a little more on the memory and steeped up to PC8500 or above but you should be fine the Corsair 6400's are essentially the same just little better at the upper FSB range. In any case it will be interesting to see what you can do with that unlocked multi.

Back to a previous Q you had about WC'ing and is it adequate? I have found this tool very helpful in making those type decisions.


The official thread for:
System Flowrate Estimator Spreadsheet V2.5

Give it a whirl.

If you don't have MS Office 2003/07 you'll need the Excel Viewer

You can get that here

The download link for MartinsFlowRateEstimatorV2.5.zip