RAM for DFI NF4 Ultra

[Waylay00]

Hello, I plan to get the DFI Ultra NF4 board with a 3500+ Winchester. Would Crucial Ballistix be the best bet? I am really leaning towards the Ballistix PC4000 Tracer (Yes, I like the LED's). I am not necessarily looking for the highest overclock, just an overclock of about to 225-250. I heard that Ballistix is great for overclocks with lower memory timings. Also, at DDR400, will I be able to run the Ballistix at 2-2-2-5. Anyway, first of all, would this RAM be a good match for this board? Thanks.

 

[Whitewolf]

If you want moderate overclock like 260 with tight timings (2.0-2-2-5/1:1/1T) get some OCZ Gold VX and use the high vdimm options of this board.
If on the other hand you want the highest overclocks get some TCCD memory preferably the OCZ EL Platinum Revision2 or the GSkill PC4400 LE
Crucial Ballistix can be excellent memory but not all of them perform great. You need luck with some of their latest batches as I've seen from many people on all the forums I visit. But if you really want the LEDs then go for them, they are obviously the only choice and you might get decent sticks if you are lucky!

 

[CheesePoofs]

Get the ballistix if you really like the looks, but for half the price you could get some value ram, and because athlon 64's don't get a noticable increase from more bandwith or lower latencies, it would run just as fast as the ballistix. Even if you overclock, running the memory using a divider will not be noticably different from runing it at 1:1.

 

[Demo24]

Iv got a stick of dDR500 ballistix waiting for the board to come in So Im gonna test my luck and hope it works good wiht the board cause I havent seen anyone do testing wiht it yet

 

[Waylay00]

Could you post results when you get it up and running DEMO?

 

[CheesePoofs]

Here's a memory comparison on the athlon 64 so that you don't have to wait . This is also proof that getting value ram will do little to hurt your performance. Just make sure you look at the real world tests and not just sysandra.

 

[Waylay00]

Yeah, I've got the money, and even though Value RAM will not hurt performance, I still want to be able to have that feeling of....you know, just that pride in high dollar RAM . Thanks though.

 

[TheInvincibleMustard]

Whitewolf and CheesePoofs have given you the answers you seek. Since in K8 architecture the memory controller is on the CPU, there is little performance hit by using value RAM.

Whitewolf -- have you seen any performance comparisons between TCCD and BH5 on this particular board? I've been looking ever since I heard that DFI apparently optimized (slightly) for BH5 on this particular board, but haven't been able to find a head-to-head comparison thus far.

 

[Whitewolf]

I still haven't seen a direct comparison between those two. All we have is the known impact on low latencies and high bandwidth as a general.
Oh and I just saw that at the xs forums OPB managed to do 294 @ 2.0-2-2-4/1T/1:1 with his Dfi. That's 8070MB on sandra at low latencies!
This is absolutely incredible, even for those mad people at this forum let alone for less mad users like me!
However OPB and others there usually have cherry picked cpus, mobos, modules and I want to see more of these from other regulars there to believe that dfi has optimized for bh-5. In the meantime I'll stick with TCCD that can guarantee 275+ speeds.

Linky

 

[Waylay00]

What RAM was he using?

 

[Demo24]

Originally posted by: Waylay00
Could you post results when you get it up and running DEMO?

will do I expect the board to come in around Wednesday or Tuesday. Havent gotten a tracking number yet but I should have results up oh id say by the weekend


and one thing to add. I wouldnt get value ram if you want to overclock. as value ram is unlikely to give you good clocks

 

[imported_Underpar]

do you think this ram will work well for an OC from 2.0 to 2.2?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-218-062&depa=0

2.5-3-3-8 I think are the specs. Can't beat the price, and have heard good things about them. Any comments?

 

[Showtime]

Not that I have the money, but I will be using my existing corsair value ram on the DFI ultra I just ordered. I just can't justify spending anohter couple hundred for minimal results. Grab a better video car with that money or go sli for later. I remember paying $200 for 512mg Corsair XMS2700 stick for my P4/845 combo, but even then I didn't get a huge boost from the tighter timings.

-show

 

[CheesePoofs]

Originally posted by: DEMO24

Originally posted by: Waylay00
Could you post results when you get it up and running DEMO?

will do I expect the board to come in around Wednesday or Tuesday. Havent gotten a tracking number yet but I should have results up oh id say by the weekend


and one thing to add. I wouldnt get value ram if you want to overclock. as value ram is unlikely to give you good clocks

The value ram its self wont OC much, but it won't hold back your OC or your performance when OC'd. As i said above, if you run the memory with a divider you can OC the CPU as far as you won't, and it won't be noticably slower than running it at 1:1.

 

[Waylay00]

DEMO, have you got the board yet?