Ram Question

[cjsavvy]

Question is do i go for 1 gig of PC3200 Crucial RAM, or do i go for 512megs of PC4200 Kingston RAM, with the possiblity of getting another 512 in a couple of months?

[Lamsey]

Go for the type of RAM that matches the Front Side Bus of your CPU.

[cjsavvy]

Its for an Abit NF7-S mobo and a 3200+ XP Athlon. I havent actually bought the pc yet - going to in a few weeks. What would be the best type of RAM to buy?

[Lamsey]

If you're buying a 3200+ Barton Athlon XP, I believe the FSB speed is 400MHz. Therefore, the most suitable type of RAM is PC3200, which effectively runs at 400MHz (200MHz x2).

Make sure you get two sticks, so that you can use dual-channel RAM capabilities.

[Livy]

since you have the cash for a 3200 athlon, why not splash out on the ram aswell.

corsair are meant to do high quality stuff

[ss87monte]

Don't go with a 3200. Get a 3000 and save yourself the money by overclocking it to a 3200+ or faster. The only real difference will be 333Mhz FSB as to the 400Mhz FSB.

[cjsavvy]

So i should buy as much PC 3200 as i can afford then? Is Crucial RAM any good?

[Lamsey]

Originally posted by ss87monte@13 November 2003 - 23:59
Don't go with a 3200. Get a 3000 and save yourself the money by overclocking it to a 3200+ or faster. The only real difference will be 333Mhz FSB as to the 400Mhz FSB.

Crucial RAM is very reliable, yes. Kingston and Corsair are other brands of high-quality RAM - these are also very good for overclocking.

With regards to the 3000+, I believe you can now get 3000+ chips with a 400MHz FSB - that might save you quite a bit of money and you wouldn't notice the difference in performance at all

[cjsavvy]

Just found a 3000+ with a FSB of 400Mhz for 160 pounds - thats a saving of nearly 100!! Thanks guys!! Is there no point going higher than PC3200??

[Lamsey]

Originally posted by cjsavvy@14 November 2003 - 00:14
Just found a 3000+ with a FSB of 400Mhz for 160 pounds - thats a saving of nearly 100!! Thanks guys!! Is there no point going higher than PC3200??

Not really - it's more efficient to have the FSB speeds and RAM speeds match. You wouldn't get much of a performance boost out of getting ultra-fast RAM.