Corsair 3200 or 4000?

dancerdancer Blue Mountains, Australia
edited February 2004 in Hardware
Hi, i have a set of corsair Twinx3200C2Pro in my machine atm.

One stick has just gone bad, so i have taken it out.

I was curious as to weather it would be better to get 3200 with a lower latency or 4000 with a higher lat but faster fsb handling.

This is for my Abit IC7-G With Precot 2.8@3.2 (and will be going up).
As i want to overclock quite a bit and 1:1 ratio's i would assume would be better.

And would i be better off with a Twinx again (had 2 die on me now) or 2 sep sticks?

Any help appreciated in advance.

Comments

  • Al_CapownAl_Capown Indiana
    edited February 2004
    If you can afford it, then definetly go for it.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    My understanding is that the P4 is happier with the highest speed memory possible, timings be damned (within the limits of reason, of course), while the Athlons benefit more from tight timings.

    I may be mistaken, but I think your best bet would be PC4000.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    What geeky said, sans hesitation.
  • dancerdancer Blue Mountains, Australia
    edited February 2004
    Ok, Thanks.

    Here are the current prices available to me.
    Do i go TwinX or 2 Sticks of Non twin??

    Current Price of Mine (see if supplier will take it back?)

    TWINX1024-3200C2PRO 1GB Corsair TWINX-3200C2 PRO DDR RAM - Dual Channel Optimised Pair, Pro Series, Memory Access LEDs $380

    Now The Contenders:

    PC-3700 (467 MHz)

    CMX512-3700 512MB Corsair XMS-3700 DDR RAM $176.82

    TWINX512-3700 512MB Corsair TWINX-3700 DDR RAM - Dual Channel Optimised Pair $195.45

    TWINX1024-3700 1GB Corsair TWINX-3700 DDR RAM - Dual Channel Optimised Pair $359.09

    PC-4000 (500 MHz)

    CMX256A-4000 256MB Corsair XMS-4000 DDR RAM $121.82

    CMX512-4000PRO 512MB Corsair XMS-4000 PRO DDR RAM - Pro Series, Memory Access LEDs $246.36

    TWINX1024-4000 1GB Corsair TWINX-4000 DDR RAM - Dual Channel Optimised Pair $468.18

    TWINX1024-4000PRO 1GB Corsair TWINX-4000 PRO DDR RAM - Dual Channel Optimised Pair, Pro Series, Memory Access LEDs $490.91

    PC-4400 (550 MHz)

    CMX512-4400 512MB Corsair XMS 4400 DDR RAM $240.91

    TWINX1024-4400 1GB Corsair TWINX-4400 DDR RAM $481.82
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited February 2004
    1. Get a gig of ram. You'll be happy that you did.
    2. Dual packs vs. single packs... go with whatever is cheaper. I've never heard of dual packs doing much of anything, except costing more.
    3. Go with the highest speed your budget can take.
  • madmatmadmat
    edited February 2004
    You're going to need a pair of sticks no matter what you do. If you IC7-G does like my 9CJS does with one stick in it the power led will just flash erratically when you try to boot it with one stick in it.
    If it'll boot with one stick in it go for the single biggest stick you can get now and hope like hell that the actual architecture of the ram doesn't change when you get another stick because if it does you'll kiss dual channel goodbye.
    Good luck.
  • dancerdancer Blue Mountains, Australia
    edited February 2004
    i'm running with one stick of that twinx now. only 512mb though.
    I seem to have quite a few probs with dual Ch.

    I'll prob go for this one.
    TWINX1024-4400 1GB Corsair TWINX-4400 DDR RAM $481.82

    Thanks.
  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    If you can get 3700 cas2 that might be a better bet than 4000 cas3. If the 3700 is 2.5, go with the 4000.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Geeky1 wrote:
    1. Get a gig of ram. You'll be happy that you did.
    2. Dual packs vs. single packs... go with whatever is cheaper. I've never heard of dual packs doing much of anything, except costing more.
    3. Go with the highest speed your budget can take.

    Precisely, unless you go with matched DIMMs that have been tested together. You will STILL get the quality you pay for, just two DIMMs that simply are known to work together.

    One word about dual channel. If you do not have an HT capable CPU also, you might as well go with matched normal RAM. The banking strategies are different when my IC7-Max3 has a Northwood in it than when the same baoard has an HT aware CPU in it. The BIOS's Dual channel mgt is off with the non-HT Northwood I have in it now in motherboard CPU socket.

    Board can take a Prescott, but I do not have one in the board right now. Also, I have one CMX DIMM (Corsair) in each "channel" and Windows XP (non-64 bit) runs fine and does not use up more and more RAM over tiem with same load. Right now the P4 is running at over 3 GHz true, folding quite happily while I am surfing and picking up my morning email. It is doing a project 848_p53dimer848, at about 18 percent per hour. This is a 500,000 step WU. RAM is DDR333, run by SPD determination. AGP and PCI are running FIXED at base. Temps are in normal range, have been for 24 hours of soldi running.

    You do not need DDR400 unless you have a 200 FSB (base, pre-quad-pump) CPU. Northwood is a 133 nominal base, DDR133 is plenty. Get RAM that runs at 1\2 the pumped FSB, or one step faster if you want to OC a lot simply to keep the RAM from saturating from data coming faster than it can store it and then feed it back on demand.

    Let's take it simpler-- with a Prescott, half the pumped speed is 400. Use 400 or when it comes out and has been out enough to be reasonable in price, one step faster to 500. With a Prescott use DDR400 Dual channel BECAUSE the BIOS will turn on dual channeling when the HT chip is detected if BIOS is done right.

    With a Northwood, DDR333 is plenty, as the Northwood base is 133, two times that is 266, and 333 leaves you room to OC unless the RAM is junk in reality.

    I use DDR333 CMX with both my Barton 2500+ and my Intel Northwood. NO issues, no major flakes. I ran memtest86 to bench-burnin the RAM, zero errors- 6 hours of burnin, all tests running.

    One thing about dual channel that most enthusiast as opposed to pro level folks do not know, both channels need matched amounts of RAM capacity in them. Put 256 in one channel, 512 in other, you will get a mess. Put 512 in each, or 1 gig in each, it runs fine. Windows does not know it has dual channel, it thinks it has 1 GB or 2GB-- BIOS and the hardware handle the channeling. Windows XP Pro non-64 bit will think it has two CPUs with a Prescott in place, and the hardware will feed one pipe's bank through each channel. Windows will look at 1 GB or 2 GB total, and the hardware will manage what is done with the channeling.

    I will talk about Barton less, but same base rule applies. Jumping to one major step above 1\2 the FSB base is plenty.

    Oh, while I was typing, the P4 turned in the p848 and is now running through a p921_vpf912 at 15% per hour rate-- that WU, with the P4, typically accellerates some as it gets processed.

    John D.
  • dancerdancer Blue Mountains, Australia
    edited February 2004
    Yeah, ok.

    Edcentric:
    All the corsair after 3200 are listed on the website as cas3-4-4-8
    So i think the 4000 or 4400 is what i'll go with, depends what's in stock so i can get it that afternoon.

    Ageek:

    I do have a prescott!! currently running on a 242mhz quad fsb. (3.37ghz, Watercooled, Stock Volts.)
    And i do have HT on, and when i get the 2 sticks i will try them in dual ch mode.
    It's just previously i have had sticks not work properly even when they are matched pairs.
  • madmatmadmat
    edited February 2004
    It could be an issue with the board.
  • dancerdancer Blue Mountains, Australia
    edited February 2004
    Yeah so i just added a Max3 to the order.
  • madmatmadmat
    edited February 2004
    :kneel: Enjoy...
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