HELP!! What's a good RAM for P4P800 Deluxe board w/ a P4 2.6c or 2.4c?

[NauTiKa128]

Alrite guys I need your help.. I havn't looked into these things for a lonnng time so I'm kinda lost..

I'm planning to build a new system and was thinking about getting the ASUS P4P800 Deluxe board and a P4 2.6c or 2.4c..
These aren't outdated are they? in terms of technology? Any other suggestions on what to get?

Also, what are some good RAMs I can get for this combo? I'm thinking at least 512mb..
Now it says "4x DIMM support Dual Channel DDR400/333/266 Max 4GB" under the mobo specs.. Does that mean I HAVE to get Dual Channel rams? (what's Dual Channel?)

Hope you guys can give me some inputs on this.. TIA!!

 

[Regs]

1.If you're a gamer, AMD 3000 A64. Some, if not a lot, are waiting for the new 939 socket A64's coming out in the next month or two.

2. Corsair PC3500 or Kingston PC3500. If you want to spend some extra cash on the PC3500 XMS or Kington HyperX, why not?

And if you plan on getting a 2.4 or 2.6c pentium with a 800 Bus, you would need the duel channel. So just get a "Twin pack" of 256 MB DIMMs of Non ECC ram (unregistered), and you're set.


If you don't plan on overclocking at all, which would be ... insane not to, get the cheaper PC3200.

 

[Boogak]

If you plan on overclocking, I highly recommend the Mushkin PC3500 Level II. It's guaranteed BH5 chips which allow a higher FSB overclock on 865/875 boards. CH5 chips (which is what the majority of memory uses nowadays) seems to hit a wall at around 250fsb even running at 5:4 ratios.

 

[nitromullet]

from http://www.gup20.com/

"Right now both AMD and Intel have dual channel memory chipsets available (for AMD it is NForce2, for Intel it is i875 and i865). You get about 15%-25% increase in performance by using a dual channel memory system. It is easy to see why - a single channel of PC3200 memory has a bandwidth of 3.2GB/sec. If you use a dual channel memory system, and two sticks of PC3200, you get 6.4GB/sec of bandwidth."

That is a very basic explanation of dual channel...

You do not have to operate this mobo in dual channel mode, but I would suggest it. To run 512MB in dual channel, all you have to do is buy your RAM in 256MB pairs. Essentially, to run in dual channel mode, all of your RAM has to be the same configuration (same brand is recommended) and you have to have an even number. 1 stick or 3 sticks will cause the board to run the RAM in single channel mode, which is ok, but not quite as fast. I have Corsair PC3500 (4 x 256MB) running on the P4P800 Deluxe, and it runs great. I have been extremely happy with this rig. The P4 2.6C is quite fast, and not that expensive anymore. I haven't messed with an A64 3000+, so I can't compare the two.

--

Nitromullet

 

[NauTiKa128]

Thanks for the inputs guys..! I don't think I'm gonna be OC'ing.. So Corsair's good?

What about HyperThreading? Do I need to do/get anything special for that?

Thanks again!

 

[Farmer]

Just a motherboard that supports Hyperthreading. Any motherboard built for the P4C w/ HT that does not support HT should not even be considered as an option, IMHO. No, its not outdated. Its mainstream, pretty much what most mid-to-high end Intel based systems are using right now.

Mushkin has very high clock-rated and aggressively timed (2-2-2) RAM, but if you're not OCin and wont be in the future, you really do not need it. A twin pack of Corsair XMS DDR400 is good.

From a value standpoint, the only thing better than a 2.6C is a A64 3000+. If you do decide to go with the A64, keep in mind the current Socket 754 A64s only support single channel DDR, so if you absolutely must have that extra bandwidth (like Regs stated earlier), wait for the Socket 939 clawhammers to come out and grab one of them.

For the A64, 2-2-2 or 2-3-2 RAM would be ideal. Also, if you want to get 1GB of RAM, I suggest getting a matched twin pack of 512MB, even if you are not going to run dual channel. 1GB single modules are pretty pricey, and this way you'll be ready if and when you decide to move to a dual channel platform.

 

[NauTiKa128]

What does 2-2-2 or 2-3-2 mean?

OH! and where do you guys get your rams at? newegg??

 

[NauTiKa128]

Alrite guys.. so I've been lookin at the Corsair XMS rams on newegg..

Is it a good idea to get this? Is it worth it to spend a few more bucks for the "Low Latency" version? Because there's also this one.

If I do get these now.. Would it be OK to add another matched pair of Corsair 512mb or 1gb rams if I decide to later?

I really wanna get the matched 1gb but $255 is too much for me right now! =\

Thank you so much guys!

 

[slightlyhuman]

Ive hit 266fsb with my 3500 hyper x, still got room...

got my 2.4c @ 3.2

 

[Dug]

If your going to spend the money get the Mushkin.

Otherwise save your money and get Crucial 3200. It's timings have always been conservative.

I run 4x256 Crucial's at 283fsb with 5:4 divider (226Mhz)

 

[iclick]

Check www.mwave.com for their mobo bundles. For $9 extra they'll also attach the CPU/fan and RAM and do a POST test. If you get a mobo separately, consider Crucial (www.crucial.com) for your memory. I'm running the Gigabyte GA-8KNXP and have two friends using the P4C800, and all are running matched pairs of Kingston KVR400X64C3AK2/1G. I have 2gb (two above kits) and the other two are running 1gb (1 kit), and all are very stable.

 

[Johnbear007]

Im using Kingston Hyper-X pc 3200 Twin pack for 1 GB. get 1GB not 512 you will be glad you did if you are gaming. More and more games will start using 1GB and some like battlefield 1942 and star wars galaxies already do.