AMD Socket 939 Motherboard RAM

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nicole
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Nicole

Hiya everyone!

K... its upgrade time! I have already decided on a new dual
core amd processor and a 939 motherboard. Oh yeah, a Nvidia
Geforce 7800 too. I understand just about everything completely
in my new sys but what kinda RAM I should buy for my
motherboard. I think I lost touch of what to look for in RAM.
It use to be so easy 5 years ago! Heres a link to
Sharkyextreme's RAM Price Guide I looked at and said huh???

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/WMPG/article.php/3519291

I know I want really fast RAM since this will be a high end
system. Also 2 GB of it. Can someone reccomend some good
memory for my machine and how much/brand/speed I should buy?



THankies!
Nicole
 
Nicole said:
Hiya everyone!

K... its upgrade time! I have already decided on a new dual
core amd processor and a 939 motherboard. Oh yeah, a Nvidia
Geforce 7800 too. I understand just about everything completely
in my new sys but what kinda RAM I should buy for my
motherboard. I think I lost touch of what to look for in RAM.
It use to be so easy 5 years ago! Heres a link to
Sharkyextreme's RAM Price Guide I looked at and said huh???

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/WMPG/article.php/3519291

I know I want really fast RAM since this will be a high end
system. Also 2 GB of it. Can someone reccomend some good
memory for my machine and how much/brand/speed I should buy?
Click to expand...
Crucial Ballistix or Corsair.
 
As you are getting a Socket 939 system, you'll want to buy DDR memory (not
DDR2) in pairs, for the dual channel support. (I'm not sure that "dual
channel" memory actually exists, but the vendors are no longer charging
large premiums for the pairs, so you may as well buy them that way.)

I haven't used this personally, but if you want high-end, here's a recent
article - *not* a memory shootout, but instead a discussion of overclocking
the latest versions of the A64:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2469

Anandtech recommends OCZ PC3500 Gold Edition GX, and claims that it'll do
2-2-2-5 timings at DDR500 (PC4000). Anandtech also claims that you'd need
3.3V supplied the RAM to get that. (Whether other mainboards than the nForce
4 Lanparty UT boards from DFI can provide that, I have no idea. If memory
serves, default for PC3200 is 2.5V.)

Those are available from www.newegg.com in 1 GB pairs. For 2 GB total, it
might be better to buy 2 X 1 GB than 4 X 512 MB. I don't know whether OCZ
makes the large DIMMs with the same specs. If you don't plan to overclock,
and simply want low-latency PC3200 memory, you could consider this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227210

You could also search at Newegg for 184 pin DDR SDRAM in a 2X1GB capacity
with CAS 2 latency. (One of these is the link above.) You'll get 4 choices,
three of them from Corsair. (I hope that doesn't sound condescending. I
wrote it assuming that you know essentially nothing about PC memory.)

People tend to treat RAM like a religion, so you may get conflicting advice.

In my own system, with a "Newcastle" 3500+, I use a mismatched pair of
generic 512 MB PC3200 DIMMs. With a small voltage bump (2.7 V), I get
2.5-3-3-8 timings at 220 MHz (PC3500). The chips get a little extra cooling
as a byproduct of a Thermalright XP-120 CPU heatsink.

Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
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