Configuring RAM for a New System

[Starbuck1975]

I went over to the general hardware forum to get feedback on the components I have chosen for a new system, and several people referred me to Zebo's sticky thread on RAM.

In the past I have always purchased the most expensive RAM I could afford and simply slapped the RAM into my motherboard without doing any tweaking or configuration for it.

After reading Zebo's sticky post, it has raised my interest in going the budget RAM option...the problem is that I do not understand the benchmarks he performed, and any discussion about voltages, latency and other RAM jargon is outside of my realm of understanding.

I do not overclock systems, so that is really not a concern of mine.

So let's say I purchase some budget RAM instead of the fancy expensive stuff...once I get that RAM and slap it into my motherboard, what other configuration considerations are necessary to ensure I am getting the most system performance out of it?

 

[Starbuck1975]

Is my question too vague or is it not even really a consideration worth worrying about?

 

[drkclw]

My understanding is that Zeo's sticky shows how overclocked budget RAM performs somewhat close to overclocked overclocking RAM which usually close to twice as much.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
I went over to the general hardware forum to get feedback on the components I have chosen for a new system, and several people referred me to Zebo's sticky thread on RAM.

In the past I have always purchased the most expensive RAM I could afford and simply slapped the RAM into my motherboard without doing any tweaking or configuration for it.

After reading Zebo's sticky post, it has raised my interest in going the budget RAM option...the problem is that I do not understand the benchmarks he performed, and any discussion about voltages, latency and other RAM jargon is outside of my realm of understanding.

I do not overclock systems, so that is really not a concern of mine.

So let's say I purchase some budget RAM instead of the fancy expensive stuff...once I get that RAM and slap it into my motherboard, what other configuration considerations are necessary to ensure I am getting the most system performance out of it?

I see you say that you're not interested in OCing. AFAIK, when you try to run components beyond their specs, you're OCing them. So, we're talking about OCing inexpensive ram. There are two ways to do this:

1) Have the ram run at a higher frequency than spec. Ex. running PC2700 ram (166mhz) at PC3200 speeds (200mhz) or something higher than 166mhz. This usually requires a "loosening" of timings and a voltage (VDIMM) increase.

2) Running the ram at "tighter" timings than spec call for. Again, this usually requires a voltage increase.

Number 1 is the more common OC on ram AFAIK.

Your mobo will likely have 2 areas of adjustment. (1) For setting the frequency, this can be done by "SPD" (factory specs), "Auto" to keep it in synch with the cpu (best for AXP systems), or "Manual/Expert" where you put in a divider (ex. 1:1, 5:4).

(2) For setting the timings (ex. 2.5-3-3-7). There will be SPD (factory spec'd timings), Agressive or Turbo (slightly OC'd timings often) or "Expert" where you input the timings you want.

If you play around with the ram, get Memtest86 to test for the stability of any OC'd parameters you input, and a mem benchmark to see how much performance you have gained.

Hope that helps,

Fern