Helping A Friend Get The Fastest And Best Ram
Vash_Fourty_Five_Lc
Join Date: 2003-06-01 Member: 16913Members
Join Date: 2003-06-01 Member: 16913Members
in Tech Support
<div class="IPBDescription">a.k.a. technology moves too darn fast</div> Okay, so here's the thing, me and my friend finished building up our computers, right on the verge of all this new technology coming out. Long story short, our 3 month old computers, are about 6 months obsolete. He's forging ahead and jumping into building a complete new system from the ground up, utilizing all the latest computer technologies, including getting a PCI-Express board, compliant PCI-E vid card and power supply, the latest DDR-2 RAM (400-533mhz) and the new Prescott core P4 CPUs.
The dilemma, we've decided to wait on a PCI-E card till we can find a more clear cut winner, and he's set on getting the Prescott cores, the only major problem we have is figuring out what top brand RAM he should get.
Now I know that the first names that people throw out for top-quality RAM is Kingston, Corsair, etc. but my friend has been researching a few brands that I haven't, and it seems alot of other people haven't heard of to much.
So the skinny on it is, he wants 512mb of the fastest current speed RAM with Error Checking and Buffering Registered. Some of the brands that he's come across that fit this bill include Buffalo and Infinion. He also noticed the top brands that fit this bill, but sometimes doubling in price.
His research on the two companies shows that Buffalo is a Japanese company (always a good thing in our books ) and Infinioin is a Germany company. He asked around on a few computer orientated forums and it seemed that alot of people haven't heard of the two. He frequents Japan quite a bit and always hears about Buffalo while browsing around. Which leads us to our dilemma.
We don't know if it's worth it to jump the extra bills for the Kingston or Corsair quality RAM, or if the Buffalo and Infinon is sufficent, or possible more so than the others. I'm hoping to help him out here by getting some feedback from any of the tech dwellers here that may have experience with the two brands Buffalo and Infinion. We hope to get everything squared away ASAP so my friend can start purchasing his items. Thanks in advance, as always.
The dilemma, we've decided to wait on a PCI-E card till we can find a more clear cut winner, and he's set on getting the Prescott cores, the only major problem we have is figuring out what top brand RAM he should get.
Now I know that the first names that people throw out for top-quality RAM is Kingston, Corsair, etc. but my friend has been researching a few brands that I haven't, and it seems alot of other people haven't heard of to much.
So the skinny on it is, he wants 512mb of the fastest current speed RAM with Error Checking and Buffering Registered. Some of the brands that he's come across that fit this bill include Buffalo and Infinion. He also noticed the top brands that fit this bill, but sometimes doubling in price.
His research on the two companies shows that Buffalo is a Japanese company (always a good thing in our books ) and Infinioin is a Germany company. He asked around on a few computer orientated forums and it seemed that alot of people haven't heard of the two. He frequents Japan quite a bit and always hears about Buffalo while browsing around. Which leads us to our dilemma.
We don't know if it's worth it to jump the extra bills for the Kingston or Corsair quality RAM, or if the Buffalo and Infinon is sufficent, or possible more so than the others. I'm hoping to help him out here by getting some feedback from any of the tech dwellers here that may have experience with the two brands Buffalo and Infinion. We hope to get everything squared away ASAP so my friend can start purchasing his items. Thanks in advance, as always.
Comments
I say give them a shot if they have a good warranty.
As for Infineon, they're actually a chip manufacturer primarilly from what I know. I don't really like the company (they admitted to price fixing <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->), but from what I hear they make decent stuff, capable of hanging with the big boys (I think OCZ might even use Infineon chips...). Not sure how their value lineup is though. Probably not much different than everyone elses. RAM is pretty generic these days. You either get:
a) elcheapo "you're lucky if it works" crap for super cheap
b) midrange "value" stuff that's rock solid until you try and overclock it (and fail)
c) ultra expensive over-marketed performance stuff that does no better than any other RAM until you overclock the hell out of it (voiding your warranty on the $300 you just spent)
So pick your poison. It all performs pretty much the same anyways. Go look at some benchmarks, and all you'll see is that similarly spec'd RAM performs almost identical, no matter what the brand. Part of it is because there really aren't that many chip manufacturers, but a hell of a lot of retailers. And part of it is that, in this day and age, RAM is pretty much just RAM.
So pick something and hope you get a ringer! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Hope that helped...
2 * 512 3200 in a memory pair is ideal. Memory matching is important, as is only using 2 ram sticks. Dual Channel memory slots make such a difference.
I'd recommend Kingston, Crucial, or Corsair.
All other points have been mentioned, but one more thing...
*Today's ULTRA expensive new technology is next month's middle-range cheaper option*
Wait a while before going PCI-e. Still developments going on in the Chipset world. (Perfecting PCI with PCIe boards for example)
decided to treat myself to some mid-range stuff (samsung chips) and noticed nothing different. (all ddr400 pc3200 btw)
decided to treat myself to some mid-range stuff (samsung chips) and noticed nothing different. (all ddr400 pc3200 btw) <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Mid-range is the way to go.
BN: "OMG 2gigs of RAM on eBay, mostly 256... £40... BUY"
BN 5-10 days latter: "**** only 2 of them work"
:|
(Still a goodish buy, but hey.)
Guideline: (October 2004, prices currently rising, and already high for this quater)
Pc2100 256 -> £12
Pc2100 512 -> £30
Add about £3 for every speed increase. (2700, 3000, 3200)
thfr Pc3200 512 == £40
1Gig will set you back between £70 and £90
"Crucial" "Kingston" etc stickers... add £5-7. Probably worth it.
*Best* Ram layout would be twin paired Crucial 1gig sticks, as fast as possible.
(Being the hypocrite I am, I use 2*256, 1*512 & 1*128. Weeeeee)