mushkin VS corsair (DDR400 CL2 memory)

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earworm
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:07 am

mushkin VS corsair (DDR400 CL2 memory)

Post by earworm » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:37 am

its time to upgrade the memory in my system,
i wanna go for One gig of DDR400

i've been reading about corsair, kingston and a few other brands,
i first had my mind set on Corsair,
but now some people adviced me to look at mushkin,
since they seem to have real low latency memory

but i do'nt know, anyone got expierience with muskin?

and is there lots of difference between CL2.5 and CL2 latency?
and ehm, what does Cas Latency: 2-3-2 refer to? is it CL2 or CL3 ?
there sure is in price, but you think i'd notice the difference,

i do not overclock anything

this is what i'm looking at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... Track=true

thanx alot,
earworm

meglamaniac
Posts: 380
Joined: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:44 pm
Location: UK

Post by meglamaniac » Mon Oct 25, 2004 1:54 am

The numbers refer to times for specific operations. I think it's read, write, and something else I can't remember and not necessarily in that order either (sorry, aren't I helpful!) but google should give you the answer without too much hassle.

Anyhoo.
There is no point in you paying the premium for CAS2 across the board when you're not overclocking. Go for the standard Cosair stuff such as this - it will serve you perfectly well.

Addendum:
I would never buy something as sensitive as memory from ebay. Even the best suppliers like Corsair occasionally let dodgy modules slip through their QA, and it's a hell of a lot easier to get it sorted if you've bought from a proper store.

earworm
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:07 am

Post by earworm » Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:03 am

thanx,
well, i'm not buying anything this week, still looking up info,
and not gonna buy from ebay since like you said, you can't always trust it,

but ebay helps me to see what the bottom prices are for all kinds of ram

so i guess i don't even need Cas 2 , 2.5 or even 3 would do for a non-overclocker?

meglamaniac
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Location: UK

Post by meglamaniac » Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:35 am

That PC3200C2PT Cosair set I linked to is actually the lowest end of what Corsair does for PC3200 (aka. DDR400) RAM, and you can see it's still classed as CAS2.
However, most of Corsairs stuff comes with very good warrenties and if you ever need to speed it up the room to do so is there.

I wouldn't go above CAS2.5 if you're gaming, CAS3 might start dragging your performance down a bit.

Spod
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Post by Spod » Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:04 am

What CPU will this be used with? The best performance on AMD64 systems seems to be the Crucial Ballistix, which maintains lower latencies to higher frquencies. Maximum overclock isn't quite so good, but I don't think that will concern you.

There is something to be gained, especially on AMD64 systems, by running at the lowest latencies, even if you don't overclock. The Ballistix isn't cheap, but it's much cheaper than some of the other "premium" RAM out there.

earworm
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:07 am

Post by earworm » Mon Oct 25, 2004 4:54 am

i do'nt have a supercomputer,
just an athlon xp 2500 + (on an msi k7n2 motherboard)
i don't ever play games, just record music, which is a pretty heavy task too

i don't need top of the bill stuff, but if i spend €250 i want decent material so i won't need to buy new ram in 6 months from now...

Straker
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Post by Straker » Mon Oct 25, 2004 5:55 pm

if you don't have a ridiculously amazing PC, there's no point spending more money on RAM than you need to, you'll basically only be able to see the difference in benchmarks... even when it is able to make a difference you're still generally better off spending the money on upgrading something else.

only qualifier is that by "more than you need to" i still mean OCZ or corsair/kingston/mushkin etc, but their generic "performance"/value lines cost like a third as much as their highest-end stuff, and will perform as well for all intents and purposes. you can still use old PC2700 RAM in an A64 even and i doubt you'd notice outside of a game. :P

and A64s are really finicky in general, yeah lower latency in itself is better for A64s than P4s, but don't pick RAM based on this, check out your mb (or the ram) maker's forums first if you'll be upgrading anytime soon... it just depends on the motherboard and CPU revision. ie the old-ish OCZ ddr400 stuff using winbond BH6 chips is some of the best RAM ever made, and it barely even works on most A64s.

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