News Drop us an idea, win 6GB of DDR3 memory!

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2009/07/03/win-a-6gb-gskill-trident-memory-kit/1

 

Use the memory sticks to span a gap and then see how much weight you can hang off them. Last one to snap = the winner!

 

Maybe you guys should just post a quickie when a noteworthy kit comes out, providing specs and such. And maybe keep score of the coolness factor of the heatspreaders.

RAM definitely doesn't need full-size reviews.

 

The impact RAM has on an overall system is very small between similar kits - on a core i7 you aren't going to get that much of an improvement with a top-of-the-line 2000mhz kit compared to a 1333 kit in most applications (obviously excluding memory intensive apps).

When i look at ram i want to know it's overclocking potential - if i put a heavy oc onto my cpu i want to know if the ram will be able to keep up or if i'll have to lower the multiplier, and if it does keep up if it'll need additional cooling to the stock heatsinks (will i need an active fan blowing on them to keep em stable for a good few hours?)

 

Overclocking potential and sexyness of the heat spreaders - its always all about the heat spreaders..

 

For me, it's got to be Memory Mythbusters first.

Everywhere you turn, people are always asking things such as "Is speed better than timing?" "Does it matter if I mix and match kits?" "Is 1:1 REALLY better?" "Will XXXX speed memory provide me much more benefit?" - give us something to point at and go "Look!" when people ask!

After that, I'd love to see something on heatspreaders. Example - if I buy 4GB of cheapy 800MHz memory for, say, £20, can I go buy some of those 50p heatspreaders and get them higher than normal? Do heat-spreaders really make much difference on the high-end kits? Why do Corsair insist on their DHX Giant Heat-sink Blocking Spikes Of Death (tm)?

Tbh, I don't think it'd be too hard to get a test rig set up, then plug new memory in, run a quick synthetic test, a CPC benchmark, jot the scores down, and see if the brand makes a difference. Heck, sort me out with petrol money and a parking space (and a night with Antony Leather, that charismatic, virile stallion he is), and I'll come down and do it!

 

what about using a thermal video camera to see how hot the memory gets under load/OC'ing/idle??

 

maybe you could do a (few) article(s) explaining the innner workings of RAM and importance(?) of speed differences and their effect on real world performance and OCing. and the you show the article to your boss. then you can do what DragunovHUN said, eventually with some (maybe even subjective) experiences with slapping those sticks in a standard motherboard and overclocking them. nothing too elaborate.

 

Okay... so we all know that it only makes a virtually non-exsistant difference what speed memory you have.
So why dont you go on a proverbial quest to find out if its possible to get the memory to make a difference... and do it in space

 

Short reviews with comparisons to others comparing current specs, prices, heatsink performance and OC potential. The 'What to buy guide' tells must people what the best RAM is, maybe create a 'King of the Hill' or 'Buyers Guide' that isn't posted every month, but updated all the time on the site as a page, with different systems aimed at different tasks. As the 'What to buy' guides become out of date as soon as a review comes out that's better.

Just my idea anyway, now review that RAM!

 

The problem with basing the review around overclocking is that there's a chance our kit will overclock better than what's available to buy. We had a similar issue with one memory manufacturer in the past (I won't name them), where we said the memory could clock like the shizzle with tight timings and retail kits were rubbish in comparison. Meh.

 

You could do a page on Memory names. Back in the day it was easy to understand them. SD133 ran at 133mhz. What do they all run at now and why the long PC3-xxxxx names?

 

We could do, but would it really make a difference to whether or not you'd buy Brand X RAM over Brand Y?

 

If you see PCX-YYYYY, the X is the number that goes after DDR, and the YYYYY divided by 8 is the memory speed. Not sure why, but 8 it is. Meh.

So, DDR2-1066 and PC2-8500 = same thing.

Anyway, back on topic - a picture of a giant mountain of every piece of RAM in the office would be cool... And my original offer still stands!

 

Looking at ram for my high-end rig if both kits were of a similar price and spec i'd definately go for the cool one. For a HTPC build i built recently i wanted to get the coldest ram possible to keep temps inside the case as low as possible as i was putting in low rps fans and need the coolest components possible.

Of course if the RAM which was cooler was significantly more expensive or a lot slower then the temperature it ran at wouldn't matter much.

 

I'm not sure, after reading your memory reviews/round-ups, that there is anything more that you could do? Perhaps a small, accompanying video review would go down well.

Something like a montage of shots of it during testing, after installation. Just a thought; which could really be extended to a lot of things. It just strikes me that the atmosphere over at Bit/CPC is very relaxed/fun, therefore including that perception with (what might be to some) a boring review of memory, could maybe tip the balance towards 'exciting'.

THG used to do feature videos, but I reckon small video spots with each review could go down well.

Otherwise though, just keep up what you're doing: Bit's review layouts rock.

 

Just a guess, but maybe it's because 8 bits equal a byte.

 

just add boobs

 

Maybe, if memory gets very hot during normal use, it's going to be a bear to OC, but the main reason is..

You get some funky images to put up. Make it more interesting to read rather than a really dry discussion on timings that a noob like me gets totally turned off by.

;->

 

I reckon run the numbers. Take note to compare apples with apples, i.e.:
don't compare DDR2 kits to DDR3 kits unless that's the aim of the article.
Compare Fancy heatspreader equipped RAM with high price tags with others of the kind (e.g. Corsair high end vs Kingston hyper X or something of that ilk).
Think about who would buy suck RAM (is this mainstream market, or is this gonna be bought by overclockers).
Rate coolness of the RAM (as in how cool is it, not in a temperature way)
Run Gaming benchmarks and possibly some video compression/other really RAM heavy tasks only if you must.
Look at Operating tempereatures.

Keep the reviews short. No use for a 5 page review on a stick of RAM. Just tell users what they wanna hear: How does it compare to other modules in the same league, how does it OC, and why should you spend the price tag on it... in short: 2 pages, 5-6 screenshots of benchies showing IO speeds and some other things, a quick blurb into OC performance (temps matter here), a pic or 3 of the RAM itself, a note of warrantee and how cool it is. Compount the score. Blam.