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

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 3 Jul 2009.

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  1. LeMaltor

    LeMaltor >^_^

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    All I want to know about my ram is; is it stable and can it OC - if OCed is it stable and how much faster than standard will it be and versus other sticks

    Besides boobs I don't see what else you can do.
     
  2. MiNiMaL_FuSS

    MiNiMaL_FuSS ƬӇЄƦЄ ƁЄ ƇƠƜƧ ӇЄƦЄ.

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    I guess the key question is what do Bittech readers look for when they go out to buy ram? - that's what got to be int he review, anything else is just excessive.

    - Post when a note-worthy new kit comes out or a decent kit is spotted at significantly lesser price
    - summerise the performance (no need for bench marks when everythings so close)
    - Cost, thats a massive factor with ram...why buy crucial 6400 4442 when cosair 600 4442 is £5 cheaper?
    - Overclockability! the main reason for reading ram reivews and buying high end ram is to overclock, this is what we care about and why we read the reviews, and should be factored into the value.
    - Value vs overlcockability - this is the key to buying ram....eg Ballistix is £10 more but gives a much better overclock headroom. If possible keep this in some 'at a glace' value chart, perhaps in combernation with a popular e-tailer (OCUK?)
    -compatability checks with popular motherboards....and coolers, not everything fits with massive heat spreaders!


    In conclusion I want to know which is the best bang-for-buck of each ram type (DDR2/DDR3) at a glance, obviously this is hard to keep up to date, but a educated estimate that I wont go far wrong with would be very much appreicated!
     
  3. Combatus

    Combatus Bit-tech Modding + hardware reviews Lover of bit-tech Super Moderator

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    :eeek::eeek::eeek::eeek::eeek:
     
  4. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

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    +1 to centy, but I'd remind people that in the DDR3 world, what AMD and Intel want are two different beasts.

    AMD favors slower speeds with as tight as timing as possible, owing to the fact that something makes them actually suffer from raising the HTT under about 4.5GHz. On Intel, looser timings but raw speed win the day. AMD and Intel also both have varying voltage ranges-you really can't just bung AMD memory in an Intel board, unless you're not fond of the memory controller, but the AMD boards don't much care (a sign of a more robust controller if you ask me, but I'll test that if you get me an i7.) Heatspreaders are well good and all, but I don't even have them on my sticks and I have no issues. What IS important to me is the ICs on them-I shop by IC, not by name. I purchased my 8GB of Crucial ValueRAM because it's 8GB of matching D9s. They run like stink, but more importantly to me they're very tight timings even undervolted.

    There's a lot of important stuff that SiSoft Sandra and Everest can't tell you. What's the volt range for Intel DDR3 (1.5v,) what heatspreaders don't block a Prolimatech Megahelems (arsed if I know,) and just what was that monkey carrying (a bunch of bananas and a Dremel.)

    Memory as it were isn't the most amazing piece of tech-seldom has it gotten me MASSIVE score improvements, except for the time that I got my DDR2-3200 to about 1100.

    But hey, if people want me to answer these questions, I have DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 rigs, and I just need an i7 to round out all platforms. All I'm missing is an IR thermometer.

    (And that RAM, guys.)
     
  5. C-Sniper

    C-Sniper Stop Trolling this space Ądmins!

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    Just some suggestions being thrown into the pot,

    Heat dissipation, most ram sticks have heat sinks on them nowadays, see if they are really required and if so how much heat is generated and dissipated. Thermal images are always awesome
    Overclockability, see how far you can push them until you get read errors or they ignite from poor heat sink design
    Overclocking in general, see how they compare with a standard overclock on a CPU that would be commonly seen (i.e 3.4ghz on a Q6600, etc)
    In-depth IC information: A lot of people base their ram choice off of what ICs are on the memory. So by providing extra info people can see what memory has a weakness or strength.
    REAL memory intensive tasks: open up a CAD design with about 3000 parts and see how the memory handles it.
    Comparison graphs, because everyone loves graphs
    Motherboards with clearance conflicts: pop them in and if they fit without a hitch it passes, if the ram sticks can't fit due to XYZ, note it down and drop it in the review.
    A cheap memory comparison: Show just how much better the ram is compared to the valu-ram
    Overtime performance: build a machine that is used for all DDR3/2/N and run the memory non stop for 24-48 hours under Full memory intensive takes, i.e if you have 4gb of ram use all 4gb of ram and hammer it with random data and see how performance is affected.

    I think also that the price/performance ration should definitely be taken in to play.

    For Fun:

    Ram toss How far can it go and will it still work?
    Tension/Compression testing make a bridge from one of the sticks and see how much it can hold.


    Overall though, keep the sections short and moving to keep people reading

    Just my 2 cents
     
  6. hbk123

    hbk123 What's a Dremel?

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    How about a reivew on how cool each heatspreader is and what one looks best with a fully pimped system and
    also measure which one is most 'aerodynamic' by throwing them like a frisbee and seeing how far they get, becuase we all want to know how far our RAM can go!
     
  7. Fat Tony

    Fat Tony Minimodder

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    1. List compatibility with various mobo/chipsets
    2. Highest overclock achieved with test kit - and at what latencies
    3. Coolness (fonz style - not temperature style) of the heatsinks
    4. Price comparisions and availability
    5. More brands reviewed - I don't think I've seen them all reviewed back to back either
    6. Tested to destruction ? At what voltage do they break - just so we know
    7. Real world performance gains - from a benchmark
     
  8. Timbo3185

    Timbo3185 What's a Dremel?

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    First you should have a rating system,

    -Category 1 will be low budget ram, quick and easy upgrade options and simple to understand
    -Category 2 will be Performance ram but for non-overclockers, best performance for value and high quality ram kits etc with a bit more information but still simple to understand
    -Category 3 will be the High budget, high performance ram and more targeted towards Overclockers.

    The Category 3 will have more detail about the timings, voltage and frequency etc...

    These categories will make it easier for people to decide what they want without having to sort through a bunch of different ram without knowing instantly if it's for low end, mid-high and prime cut.

    Call them bronze, silver and Gold class for example.

    Personally I think that flashy pipes and big sharp designs should come last in the decision making for your ram, just because it looks good doesn't mean it's going to make your pc faster, Perhaps a sub category under each of the bronze silver and gold... something like Bronze PLUS, Silver PLUS and Gold PLUS... for example. informing people that this is the nicer looking of the category if you are seriously into pc makovers.

    Straight up in any review there should be a table or graph of some sort, detailing specifications, performance, value, warranty and more, perhaps a score out of 10 for each.

    For Performance Ram there should be a review detailing how well they run applications, similar to how you at Bit-tech already are doing, but condensed into 1-2 pages, usually i flip through 3-5 pages of graphs without really reading much text, only to see that the ram in the end did fairly average.

    For Overclocking ram, the information should be again the same as before but condensed, simple easy to read graphs and a score out of 10 or even a slider valueindicating that the ram can be tuned from "x.xx voltage" to "x.xx voltage", "Lowest timing value" to "Highest timing value" and the performance given as a graph to indicate loss or gain of performance aswell as stability issues or something else.

    I also think that comparison with AMD and Intel chips is important, if the same ram is compatible for both, show how the ram performs over other similar sticks on the same systems, to show how much performance is increased and compare to how much one cpu does over another.

    At the end of the review a overlook at the pros and cons of the ram, final thoughts, some recomendations for the ram...perhaps which motherboards or cpu's could benefit or work smoothly with the ram, Temperature measured by a heat gun or probe at the fins or to determin if this will be a problem for the system temperature...

    And Price is oviously one of the most important factors, maybe some thoughts about the value against performance and a two bar "volume style" graph showing price versus performance. out of 100.


    Hmm i hope i didn't miss anything out here, I hope this inspires for better reviews :)
     
    Last edited: 3 Jul 2009
  9. FeRaL

    FeRaL What's a Dremel?

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    Reviews comparing:

    Higher latency faster speed ram to lower latency lower speed ram... I want to see how latency and speed will affect overall performance. I don’t want to spend more money or higher speed ram is cheaper lower latency ram will perform better.

    Overclocking the all the processors that the tests are performed on to the same speed to see the systems perform with the ram. This doesn’t necessarily entail overclocking the RAM but it could for $hits and grins...

    Also, you could split the review into two versions, there could be a more technical version and then one that is more like an executive summary version that doesn’t get into the “nitty gritty” technical jargon etc… Throw a couple of bar chart in there with some commentary. It would be like a just “just the facts ma’am” a la Dragne, review, and the other one could be more of a “1.21 gigawatts? 1.21 gigawatts? Great Scott!” a la Back to the Future highly technical review.

    On a side note, I would like to see overclocking results of the compared CPUs to the overclocking results of the reviewed CPU in your CPU reviews. I want to see how these CPUs stack up to each other in an end game scenario of overclocking. I think that is one thing that is really lacking in the CPU reviews. We get to see how the reviewed CPU overclocks, but at the same time we don’t get to see how it compares to the other CPUs in the comparison overclock. I know we could just go look up the other reviews, but what is the point of the current review if we have to look up the prior reviews.
     
    Last edited: 3 Jul 2009
  10. MaverickWill

    MaverickWill Dirty CPC Mackem

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    I see you there... :D
     
  11. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    meh, memory are all the same, timing are unnoticeable, only size matters.

    simply post 8GB DDR3 MEMORY KIT in largest letter possible when they become less than £80 and i'll be a very happy reader.

    honestly, 6GB kits for i7 are not enough. 12GB or 8GB DDR3 should be out by now.

    edit: said 8GB for dual-channel socket 1156 and AMD, as those are going to be more popular when 4GB sticks are actually released.
     
    Last edited: 3 Jul 2009
  12. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

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    Picked up my 8GB for 106 USD shipped.
     
  13. MaverickWill

    MaverickWill Dirty CPC Mackem

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    Would that be those special 2.67GB sticks of triple-channel RAM? :idea:


    EDIT: Which one of the mods/admin actually set my avatar? And did it really take 4 PAGES to spot my smalltext?
     
  14. stuartpb

    stuartpb Modder

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    Seeing as you guys are struggling with the reviews, just send em to me and I will let everyone here know in one sentence what I think:D

    JK, I would like to know how overclockable the kits are, but that would be relaint on the manufacturers playing ball with you guys as pointed out earlier. Besides that and how they look, I don't really bother to find out really.
     
  15. Quavr

    Quavr Minimodder

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    How about just reviewing them on a few points
    how well it overclocks
    how well it performs from stock
    Temperatures + voltages aat stock and OC
    What it looks like in the case (good/bad)

    thats what i think we could do with the reviews for, but some of the other suggestions are also really good:rock:
     
  16. daredevil

    daredevil Deviled

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    Memory Review Suggestion

    Review should start with :

    1) Introduction

    Consisiting of Manufacturer Info and reviewed Modules Specifications - like package , size , heat spreaders ( yes/no ) , latency, supply , cost , warranty ...

    2) Packaging

    Some info on the packaging

    3) Compatability Testing on different hardware ( Very Important )

    Encountered several issues with DDR3 setups , mostly solved by emailing manufacturer of either RAM and motherboard

    Most of times - Setting of Bios DRam Rcomp ODT and voltage helps.
    On reviews compatability testing will be a plus point when buying particular brand of DDR for mounting on a specific make of motherboard.

    4) SPD timings testing

    5) Stability testing / burn tests

    6) Overclocking testing

    7) Performance

    8) Overall score
     
  17. mulberrycrush

    mulberrycrush Minimodder

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    Reviews for memory that give away the winning RAM! (Meaning the best RAM of the multi reviews)
     
  18. samkiller42

    samkiller42 For i AM Cheesecake!!

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    We don't need super 3000 page reviews on a single set, but maybe more of a group test, compareing 6gb match sets for the same price, kinda thing. Also, staying within the topic of reviewing hardware, could you please do some 'real world' testing, not just 'lab benchmarks' because i feel they almost mean jack.

    So, to sum up:
    A group test of memory at a certain price, and tell us what's best of out the group for the money.
    Real World performace, how it stocks up when used from day to day, not just in an air condidtioned lab (Also perform for other hardware, and maybe your monthly system builds)

    Cheers
    P.S, Please don't enter me into the draw, i already have 12gb of DDR3, therefore i allow some other bugger to win:thumb:

    Sam
     
  19. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    I don't know, but it's quite simply brilliant.

    It took me a while before I saw this post, so for a minute there I thought Anthony had pulled! Or at least had a not-so secret admirer :lol:
     
  20. friskies

    friskies What's a Dremel?

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    Your reviews are very thoruogh, my idea is that you test the RAM, rip the heatspreaders off and make a database with the name/model, overclockability and IC`s used and try to figure out how they are speed binned, kinda like they do at Xtremesystems but at a professional level. If you could pull that off Bit-tech would become THE place for memory reviews. That way we could know which memory gives us the most bang (overclocking) for the buck and has the best IC`s etc. A database like that could even have an impact on the RAM market itself, boosting sales for companies with good IC`s instead of companies promoting flashy heatspreaders. It will be a lot of work at first, but i assure you it will give Bit-tech`s memory reviews (and the site in general) that little extra somethin`
     
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