A Little Help In Choosing Some Memory?

Associate
Joined
27 Dec 2005
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Hey there

So i decided to do the jump and go to 2gig of Ram, but i have to say i am pretty lost....

ATM i am running a P4 3-Gig, Radeon X850XT and 512Meg (2x256) of Samsung DDR400 ( Dual Channel )

I have been looking at OCZ Value Ram, because tbh i don't want to spend more than around £170 but i got reading about CAS? and Latency? and timings? and i must say it blew my mind.

I'm not interested in overclocking i just wanna stick the ram in and get a smoother performance particuarly in games :)

So if anyone could give me a bit of an overview on CAS & Timings etc and reccomend some ram for me i would very much appreciate it.

Thanks

Alex
 
Associate
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You have a pentium 4 so you should be able to run DDR-2 memory. This runs at a higher clock speed.
The numbers, 2-2-3 are to do with access times.. Yopu want the first three to be low. Read the memory FAQ if you feel up to it.

What core is your CPU?
 
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Soldato
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Hi

Welcome to the forums :)

As he's only running DDR1 at the moment it's unlikely he'll be able to run DDR2 memory unless he has an unusual motherboard :)

As Broon as metioned, CAS, Latency and timings all refer to the access times for your memory. You basically want these to be as low as possible

Your £170 is plenty for some good DDR400 (PC3200) memory with tight timings (2-3-2-5).

I'd go for the G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200 (2x1GB) CAS2 Dual Channel Kit (F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-007-GS) for £152.69 inc VAT (currently on offer). See here
 
Associate
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Thank you for the correction goodfellow. :)

Also welocme NeoDragoN, forgot that the first time :D

Edit: You could always try shove some DDR 2 in there but it's probably not the best idea unless you have one of these
 
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Associate
OP
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27 Dec 2005
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Thanks for that guys, my motherboard is a couple of years old, my system was the medion system from Aldi when it had the 9800 XXL in it ( cracking system at the time at a great price ).

CPU-Z picks up the mobo as a MSI MS-7048, and theres not much info about on it on the net, so i am not even gonna try DDR2 with it :) The P4 is a northwood, real old now but still got the grunt :)

I think i am gonna go with what ajgoodfellow has suggested, good price for good ram it seems, i have also seen its praises in other posts on the forum.

Btw thanks for the little explanation :)

Alex
 
Soldato
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