Need more OCZ RAM!

DogSoldier

Hey everybody. I’ve been running 2x256 OCZ Gold PC4000 (OCZ500512ELDCGE-K) at 260Mhz 1:1 2.5-4-4-7 reliably for over 2 years. (More info in my sig) But the memory is bottlenecking, especially noticeable in Photoshop CS2 and the game F.E.A.R. So I’m looking to upgrade to more RAM very soon. Now, I know I won’t get 2.5-4-4-7 timings with 2x1GB sticks. I’ve been looking at reviews for the following products and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with these modules- specifically, on the Asus P4P800 or 865P/PE chipset. AMD users comments are welcome as AMD rules, so it seems.

OCZ EL Gold GX XTC PC4000 2GB 2X1GB DDR500 CL3-4-3-8
NCIX Price is $264.19 Cdn

*OCZ EL Platinum XTC PC4000 2GB 2X1GB DDR500 CL3-3-3-8
NCIX price is $268.24 Cdn

OCZ Platinum EB PC4000 2GB 2X1GB DDR500 CL3-3-2-8
NCIX price is $375.88 Cdn

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?minorcatid=105&subminorcatid=8

*These are the modules I’m leaning towards.

Ryder

I don't think you could go wrong with any of those choices....any of them should run just fine on your Intel system. There really will be no 1 of them that is better than the other.

2.6 - 2.8V is all any of them will need and they all will have just about the same chances of seeing 260 on that system....255 - 260 is about average clocks for them.

Now your memory load is much higher with 2 x 1GB so don't be surprised if the memory controller craps out before 250 with those big sticks in.

Raise the AGP voltage to 1.6 or 1.7 and that will give a bit more juice to the memory controller on the northbridge.

edcentric

Dog,
Considering that you will loose a bit of timing with 2x1GB, have you considered going to 4x256?
Just a thought. I am not even sure that you can still get them. Maybe add a pair of 512's??

DogSoldier

Thanks RyderOCZ. 2.85V is as high as I'll get any RAM, that's the limit for this Board & BIOS. But I never knew you could juice the memory controller with the AGP voltage, that's new for me.

edcentric, nah.. I looked around. I decided that the overall performance gains, especially in multitasking with Photoshop and Illustrator will outweigh the hit on the timings.

I'm still leaning toward the OCZ EL Platinum XTC PC4000 2GB 2X1GB DDR500 CL3-3-3-8 as my solution

Ryder

edcentric wrote:

Dog,
Considering that you will loose a bit of timing with 2x1GB, have you considered going to 4x256?
Just a thought. I am not even sure that you can still get them. Maybe add a pair of 512's??

4 x 256 is still only 1GB. Plus with 2GB of ram you will gain 4 way interleaving which you didn't have with 2 x 256.
2GB at 250 3-3-3 is going to have more bandwidth than 2 x 256 at 260 2.5-4-4 by as much as 1000 MB/s (rough guess...would have to test it)

DogSoldier

Well, I was seriously looking forward to posting benchmarks of my new OCZ EB Platinum, but TigerDirect cancelled the order today because they are out of stock and I ordered the stuff a week ago. (Must be a new business model - take the orders knowing they don't have the inventory, bank the money and take the interest, then a few days later tell the customer "Sorry, but we're out of stock") So, I'm back to square one.... I'm looking at more options than OCZ, anyone have any info on other brands of RAM, say Corsair or Geil? Remember, I'm looking for performance at PC4000, not PC3200.

TheLostSwede

Just get them from another vendor instead.

DogSoldier

How easily those words must have rolled off your fingers...

TigerDirect is Canada's Newegg. NCIX is good too but they're prices are usually a bit higher, and in this case, $30.00 higher. I'll search around (again..) but I may have to settle for Mushkin XP Dual Channel 2048MB PC4000 DDR 500MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB) Higher timings at 3-4-3-8 but highly overclockable, and they work well with the 865 Intel chipset.

muddocktor

DS, both csimon and I are running the Redline XP4000 kit and they are good stuff, but expensive as all get out. It is comparable to the OCZ Plat EB 4000 kit with the same 3-3-2-8 timings at 250. Both Chris and I are running them in A64 machines instead of an Intel board, but I think they would be compatible. But I imagine that they will be even more expensive than your OCZ choices; they were when both csimon and I bought ours. We both went with the Mushkin because at the time OCZ couldn't get the chips for the Plat EB sticks (before Christmas).

BTW, the Redlines don't have a whole bunch of overclocking headroom either past 250 fsb, just like the OCZ.

DogSoldier

Hey mud, I looked at the Redline but decided to stick with OCZ. I almost opted for the OZC Gold (2 stacked MIRs of $70) but I had my stubborn nerdy heart stuck on the Platinum. So I looked again at NCIX and they have a $30 MIR and lower shipping (Even with UPS Air) so I should have 2 gigs of OCZ EB Platinum in my hot sweaty hands by Monday.