Help with new ram

[Banditman]

I am about to upgrade from my one stick of pc2700 1 gb to pc3200 2 gb (1 gig x 2) (pc3200 max mobo will support).

I am on a very tight budget so I was looking at this:
Newegg.com - WINTEC 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

People have had very little problems with this brand and has even said that it OC's nicely.I was also thinking about getting heat spreaders for them and was looking at these:
Ultra Alumimum Memory Cooler (DDR or SDRAM) - Black - 2 Pack at TigerDirect.com
But not enough reviews on them to purchase. What do you guys think. Anything better? I was thinking about OC'ing it to match my FSB of 1000 mhz. After installed, they should run at 800 mhz. Do you think I will get 1000 mhz out of them?

[gvblake22]

Gah, I hate recommending DDR RAM when you can DDR2 for just as much, if not even cheaper. But if I had to buy a 2x1GB kit of DDR400, I would probably go with this G-Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBNS kit... for $119 because of the lower CAS latency. I would normally recommend CAS 2 for DDR400, but that jumps up to about $150 for the 2x1GB kits and it's really not worth it. As for overclocking, I don't think you are understanding the concept of DDR speeds. DDR400 RAM runs at an actual speed of 200MHz. So overclocking to 800MHz is impossible on DDR memory. Even getting to 300MHz on DDR is quite impressive, so I wouldn't expect any more than 50 - 75 MHz out of either of those kits. And typical heatspreaders like that really aren't going to make any difference so don't bother. If you're looking for better performance, maybe you should continue to save your money and just get a new DDR2, Core 2 Duo system on the cheap.

[Banditman]

Oh, ok. Well crap. My bad. I was wrong about my ram. I thought I purchased pc2700 but in fact purchased 1 gb pc3200. Just shoot me . It is running at 200 mhz now. The timings are set at 3 3 3 8.
It was late when I wrote this and was very tired. For some reason I was thinking the DDR400 ran at 400 mhz thus when paired would run at 800 mhz. DOH!

[gvblake22]

There's nothing particularly wrong with that Wintec RAM you pointed out, I would just go for something with lower latencies. But CAS 2.5 isn't much of an improvement over CAS 3, so if you are just looking for a reasonable 2x1GB kit of DDR400, that Wintec kit should work.

[Banditman]

Hey Blake, from what I "understand" about ram timings, lowering the timings would increase the overall speed of the ram even if that includes dropping the frequency to get the tighter timings. Is that correct?

I was just messing around with the ram and got rig to boot at 166 mhz with 2 3 3 7. If i bumped up the voltage just a notch, would I get 200 mhz 2 3 3 7 without frying the ram?

I know this isn't the overclocking forum but am on a roll here :)

[gvblake22]

RAM speeds and timings is a delicate balancing act really. In order to have higher speeds, you need to loosen the timings (with the opposite also being true, tightening the timings usually requires an increase in voltage or lower speeds). In the case of that Wintec RAM, I doubt you will get CAS 2 out of it with any reasonable voltage. 1GB per stick is about as high of a density as DDR memory can go, so the timings have to be relaxed just for that. Plus add the fact that it is budget RAM and the IC's are likely not made for CAS 2 operation at those densities (otherwise they would sell it as such). You might be able to lower the speed to get CAS 2, but with DDR it's really not worth it. Anything slower than DDR400 is a bottleneck on virtually every Athlon64 processor, regardless of the CAS latency of the RAM.

[One4yu2c]

Originally Posted by Banditman

Hey Blake, from what I "understand" about ram timings, lowering the timings would increase the overall speed of the ram even if that includes dropping the frequency to get the tighter timings. Is that correct?

Clockspeed trumps RAM timings, and I would highly recommend against dropping the frequency to get your RAM to run tighter.

[Banditman]

Got it. Thanks