Im about to buy a NF7-S and 2x256 of pc3200 RAM for it. Now im tossing up whether or not to get a set of Corsair TwinX vs the same amount in Generic RAM. Rite now my 2600 Barton is sitting on a 184 fsb with 1 stick of 512 generic (its not any higher coz my POS GA7VT600 doesnt let me lock the pci/agp ratio) and it seems to be fine. With the new mobo i plan to hit a 200fsb at least so i was wondering if its worth forking out an extra $AUD 90 for the Corsair. I can think of much better uses for that 90 dollars (mainly liquid uses) so im hesitant to get the Corsair if theres not going to be a SIGNIFICANT performance increase and/or level of reliabilty over the generic ram. I've never really bothered getting fancy heatspreader be'decked RAM as it all seems a bit stupid to me. So convince me i'm better of getting the Corsair instead of a Slab of Bitter.
In my opinion, if you are aiming for performance-NO DUH!!!! The timings of the RAM cause a very significant increase in performance! There IS a reason why people love stuff from corsair you know
Why dont you get something between corsair and generic... Get a good set of geil or something thats good ram
Not a huge fan of corsair tbh, but it should give better timings than the generic ram, plus the sticks have been tested together in dual channel. Getting ram like the twinX should allow you to reach 220fsb , whereas the generic will be slower at stock and probably not O/C as well
heh heh i went to the swap meet today and got my mobo and ram. I ended up getting a gig of Kingston Valueram for the same price as the 512 of Corsair TwinX o_0. Oh mama this is sweet.
i havent had a gig of ram to see for myself, but I've heard that the NF7-S doesnt like having 1GB of ram too much. I think it can hamper your overclock.
You really have to consider what you will be using the PC for. If you will be surfing the web, reading emails and writing the odd letter, maybe doing the home accounts then by all means buy Generic. If on the otherhand you are going to be using memory intensive apps, compressing files, converting audio or video, playing games and off course benchmarking then you will benifit from tighter timings and higher FSB. If you are going to be working on a lot of image manipulation then timings are not just as important but the amount of RAM is.
Yep, it can either limit, or make the possibilities larger of the FSB, however, it does not affect the cpu multiplier. -Rob [DISCLAIMER] : THIS GUY IS JUST GOING BY WHAT HE THINKS HE UNDERSTANDS, CRUEL CORRECTION AND MAKING HIM FEEL STUPID WILL BE IN ORDER IF HE IS INCORRECT. HE IS IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU SPENDING GOBS O CASH ON CRAP STUFF DUE TO HIS INPUT. [\DISCLAIMER]
i went all out for 2x256 of twinx from corsair and regret it now, i wish i had picked up 1gb of slightly cheaper stuff
well the NF7 seems to love the RAM. I've got my 166fsb Barton 2600 sitting on a 200fsb no dramas. So my RAMS at its rated speed now, i could probably push it farther but i want it to burn in for a bit. I was thinking of getting ones of those Coolermaster/Thermaltake Heatspreader kits, anyone know if they actually work?
Personally I think anyone who spends mega bucks on fancy RAM is off their rocker. The price/performance ratio is just not worth it. I would go for a decent name like Crucial that won't break the bank- Unless you're obsessed with benchmarking I really wouldn't bother breaking the bank for uber-ram... Cheers Sam
Too true - plus every benchmark will only ever show a 2-5% performance increase on the top-end Ram as opposed to the cheaper end stuff. When there's £100 difference in price, you have to ask yourself if its really worth it (all you get is bragging rights on forums after all). _rahoul made the best choice - he's got a gig of pretty good ram (like Crucial ram, Kingston will overclock a little if you slack the timings and up the voltage a bit) as opposed to half that of the 'ooh, shiny' variety. Just make sure none of the crazy hardcore clockers around here ask him to post his Prime benchmark results - his 1 or 2 second slower speed just may convince the guy that he bought the wrong stuff To be fair tho - most high-performance Ram is out of the budget of the common PC user anyway. Only the looniest may apply.
i dont give a rats left testicle about my benchmark scores. All i care about is game performance, and getting a gig of the Corsair would've made 4/5ths of fxck all difference in reality.
Ram isn't really just split between the high performance ones and the cheap generic stuff. Getting generic ram isn't very good, I would go for something in between, if not for the better guarantee of performance, then for better stability.
what are your voltage settings if i may ask? i got the "same" cpu and mobo and ive settled vor 190 fsb for the moment ... it just isn't prime 95 stable at anywhere above 190 , even when i get 2,0 V settings...
If I were you, I'd spend that extra money on an additional 512mb valueram. 1gb of valueram is better than 512mb of high-quality ram.
