Help with RAM specs?

[mosdef]

I'm building a new system sometime during the summer, probably with a 700 MHz Duron. I was wondering what RAM was recommended? Price is not a huge factor, so I am interested to know what specs I should look for to know that I'm getting top of the line RAM? Also, specific brands and sites with good deals on RAM would be very useful.

 

[mosdef]

Here are more specific questions: Is ECC worth the price for a desktop system? What are CL2 and CL3, and which one is better? I am definately going with PC133. I would still like to know what brands are recommended and what sites offer the best prices? Thanks again.

-mosdef

 

[AMB]

You do not really need ECC - Error Correcting ???

CL2 is the faster out of the two

Crucial ia a good brand (In the UK it has one of the best prices) Also, Mushkin, Kingston, Crosiar are all good. There is not much performance difference between all the main manufactures if all the specifications are the same.

It may be worth taking a look @ http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.html?i=1213

 

[piku]

Yes dont go with ECC RAM unless its going to be used for a server. It's slightly more expensive and slightly slower.

 

[Ulysses]

"Desktop system" is a pretty broad category, but for most home systems with Windows 98 you should look for 128 MB of PC133 CAS 2 non-ECC SDRAM.

See:

http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/pctech/content/16/18/tu1618.001.html

http://www.whatis.com/ramguide.htm

http://www5.tomshardware.com/guides/ram.html

http://www.whatis.com/ramguide.htm#sellinks

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.html?i=1213

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/assessor/index.htm

http://www.mushkin.com/cgi-bin/mushkin.storefront

In short, ECC is overkill.

CAS 2 SDRAM (or CL2, as you called it) is certified to be operational at the CAS 2 CAS latency settings in your BIOS' Chipset Features Setup submenu. This setting is faster than if you have to set the CL to 3. I.e., the lower CAS setting in the BIOS is better, but not all RAM can operate at CAS 2, unless it's certified to do so.

 

[mosdef]

I'm a little confused... are you saying that CL3 can be "upgraded" via BIOS changes to CL2?

Btw, the system I'm looking at will have a 700 MHz Duron and a GeForce2 running Win98 (I don't really think any other specs would really matter), and I will be playing games on it.

Is $229.41 for two Kingston's with the following specs a good price?
128MB PC133 non-ECC DIMM CL3

Does the price/performance ratio suggest buying a CL2 or CL3? I looked at the sites but I couldn't really decide on this.

Thanks for all the help again!

-mosdef

 

[Sugadaddy]

You can set cas2 or cas3 in the bios. But if your ram isn't certified cas2, than it probably won't work. Get cas2 certified ram to be sure.

 

[Goi]

ECC memory is error correcting memory. Sometimes, very rarely, memory can get corrupted, and a bit may get flipped from 0 to 1 or vice versa via anything from hardware error to cosmic radiation. ECC memory has some extra bits that tries to detect these errors via these bits of information. Its not foolproof, but its SOME form of prevention. Because of this extra bits of information that it has to process, its slightly slower than non-ECC memory, but more secure. Generally, ECC is not needed for most computer uses, unless you're running some mission critical application.

CL stands for cache latency, which is the amount of time it takes to access information on the cache. CL2 takes 2 clock cycles to access, and similarly CL3 takes 3. Memory is rated as such, but your BIOS may allow you to override this setting. However, if you take CL3 memory and set it to CL2, it may not work because your memory simply isn't fast enough, there's no gaurantee, just like overclocking.