OC'rs challenge

[Novaric]

Ok, which set up will be better:

Scenario 1- What i have-

CPU running around 3.08 GHZ
1 GB of Geil DDR3200 (400mhz stock) running at @ 440 mhz and loose timings ( 2.5-3-3-8 i think) in Dual Channel

Scenario 2- Will cost me around 40 bucks

CPU OC'd fully from its 2.8c stock setting to somewhere around 3.5 ghz...maybe less depending on temps
512 MB of Corsair XMS3500 (433mhz stock) running as high as possible with loose timings to reach high CPU OC in Dual Channel

Scenario 3- 40 bucks again

Same setup, except less OC'ing and tighter timings

Basically i want to know if you think trading the 1 GB for 512 MB and more OC/better timings will be worth the price. I'm basically hoping to use this computer for intensive gaming, plus my daily web browsing, email, schoolwork, media and such for the next 3+ years.

 

[Corporate Thug]

i'd take the 2.8 C and oc w/ 512 of XMS pc3200 because XMS is of better quality and faster than the Geil, although the geil is 1 GB. quality over quantity. however, if you get a 3.0C you can prolly push it to around 3.5 as well

 

[VisableAssassin]

Originally posted by: shady06
i'd take the 2.8 C and oc w/ 512 of XMS pc3200 because XMS is of better quality and faster than the Geil, although the geil is 1 GB. quality over quantity. however, if you get a 3.0C you can prolly push it to around 3.5 as well

i dunno about better on the xms vs. corsair deal. yeah the base line geil can really suck but the golden dragon can hold its own. as you can read

here

he ended up selling his XMS shortly after he wrote that.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: VisableAssassin

Originally posted by: shady06
i'd take the 2.8 C and oc w/ 512 of XMS pc3200 because XMS is of better quality and faster than the Geil, although the geil is 1 GB. quality over quantity. however, if you get a 3.0C you can prolly push it to around 3.5 as well

i dunno about better on the xms vs. corsair deal. yeah the base line geil can really suck but the golden dragon can hold its own. as you can read

here

he ended up selling his XMS shortly after he wrote that.

i'm not sure if he referring to golden dragon or not. IMO, GeiL has a lot more work to do than release a line of ram to compensate for their spotty performance in the past. it's a starts, hope it continues that way. if Novaric is NOT referring to the golden dragon series, than its performance is irrelevant

 

[Corporate Thug]

more signs of GeILs spottiness: (from the same link)

"the Geil GD stuff is crap. same as all their other memory.

I had two 512MB sticks of Geil PC3500 and the best I could run them was at something like DDD427 with RELAXED timings before Memtest would start giving me errors within 20 minutes of starting the test.

so I then decided to try the GD stuff and it actually ran worse than the crap above which is pretty pathetic seeing since the modules wouldnt even run at their ratted (DDR433) speed w/o crapping out on Memtest.

finally, I decided to try a friend of mine's two sticks of Corsair XMS PC3200 and guess what? I could run them both at DDR440 with Memtest flying through them without one single error. thats actually 40Mhz higher than what they're ratted for."

 

[Novaric]

i'm not talking about Golden Dragon stuff. I'm just not sure about RAM and performance...is more better? less but faster is better? If i end up spending this 50 or so bucks to switch, am i going to be hurting my system's longevity or upping it?

 

[paladiin]

Well if this is a 1GB vs 512MB question, it really comes down to what you're doing with it. There was an article I read somewhere lately that said that Windows XP likes 1GB of RAM. And personally, I just can't use only 512MB any more. I play lots of games including running 2 instances of Everquest at the same time, and 512MB just doesn't cut it.

A few weeks back I had to RMA a stick of my 512MB XMS3200 so that left me with 512MB on my rig. It was pretty much torture. Sure my system ran, but it wasn't nearly the silky smooth experience I enjoy.

Until yesterday I also was running with loose timings (2.5,3,3,8) because I hadn't gotten around to doing that. It was pretty much a non-issue, since with 1GB my system was plenty smooth, even at that setting. Last night I bumped it to 2.5,3,3,6 and really didn't see any change.

So I'd go 1GB, but that's just me. You may not need that much RAM.

Or why not go 1 stick XMS3200 512MB now, and add another 512MB stick down the road? Sure, you'll lose out on a little performance now due to single channel, but in the long run having 1GB of the "good stuff" is the best choice.