... Corsair DDR II RAM, 2 x 1Gbs 800Mhz, PC2-6400 <a href="http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=43N8&CategorySelectedId=11150&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11150,4294959239&InMerch=1" target="_blank">*</a> ...
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I have changed this over for some CL4 RAM, as it's actually CHEAPER on dabs! £195 for 2Gbs of CL5, £175 for CL4 <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> I've checked and made sure - the CAS Latency is the ONLY difference between the two.
The Skyrage for mentioning CAS Latency - had you not I would not have known that CL4 was better than CL5! (Which me and IRC goers suspect is the reasoning behind teh CL5 being more expensive on dabs.com)
I also bought the 520W Corsair PSU. Thanks CForrester!
<!--quoteo(post=1586071:date=Dec 9 2006, 05:08 AM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Dec 9 2006, 05:08 AM) [snapback]1586071[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> 3dmark is the defacto benchmarky whatsit, although you can also go with the Lost Coast benchmark if you want. Good show holding off on the 3d card for now; really no point in blowing $$$ on something that's going to keep you locked into DX9. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually I was thinking more CPU/overall system benchmarking - not just GFX card. My GFX card in this PC is pants, I'm aware of that already <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=1586702:date=Dec 10 2006, 10:47 AM:name=TychoCelchuuu)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TychoCelchuuu @ Dec 10 2006, 10:47 AM) [snapback]1586702[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> 3dmark has CPU benchmarking too, if I remember correctly. Sysmark is a professional benchmarking tool but I dunno if it costs money. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I believe it's called PCMark. Anyways, you could always try using many of the other CPU benchmarks, such as Prime95.
Well, the PSU that I got was a rather expensive, high quality one and I did do some extensive research before I got it. I could've always gotten a much cheaper version, but as you said, merely looking at the wattage is far from everything. In either case, it's got a very high efficiency and all that. Only drawback I had is that it was only slightly bigger than your average PSU.
As for CAS latency - it's more important than the bandwidth of the memory - in most cases if I understand it correctly anyway - I'm no expert in this area. Ordinary DDR memory is much slower but on the other hand, their CAS latency is usually around 2-3 which is really good - that's sort of why DDR memory is still widely used, since although their frequencies is much lower, they waste less cycles while searching, reading and writing.
Kinda why DDR2 is so overrated, but on the other hand I think that's changing thanks to faster processors or something like that...as I said, I'm not really an expert here - sort of just read up a crapload on this for the last few months.
Comments
So I ended up getting:
...
Corsair DDR II RAM, 2 x 1Gbs 800Mhz, PC2-6400 <a href="http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=43N8&CategorySelectedId=11150&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11150,4294959239&InMerch=1" target="_blank">*</a>
...
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have changed this over for some CL4 RAM, as it's actually CHEAPER on dabs! £195 for 2Gbs of CL5, £175 for CL4 <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" /> I've checked and made sure - the CAS Latency is the ONLY difference between the two.
The Skyrage for mentioning CAS Latency - had you not I would not have known that CL4 was better than CL5! (Which me and IRC goers suspect is the reasoning behind teh CL5 being more expensive on dabs.com)
I also bought the 520W Corsair PSU. Thanks CForrester!
3dmark is the defacto benchmarky whatsit, although you can also go with the Lost Coast benchmark if you want. Good show holding off on the 3d card for now; really no point in blowing $$$ on something that's going to keep you locked into DX9.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually I was thinking more CPU/overall system benchmarking - not just GFX card. My GFX card in this PC is pants, I'm aware of that already <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" />
3dmark has CPU benchmarking too, if I remember correctly. Sysmark is a professional benchmarking tool but I dunno if it costs money.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I believe it's called PCMark. Anyways, you could always try using many of the other CPU benchmarks, such as Prime95.
As for CAS latency - it's more important than the bandwidth of the memory - in most cases if I understand it correctly anyway - I'm no expert in this area. Ordinary DDR memory is much slower but on the other hand, their CAS latency is usually around 2-3 which is really good - that's sort of why DDR memory is still widely used, since although their frequencies is much lower, they waste less cycles while searching, reading and writing.
Kinda why DDR2 is so overrated, but on the other hand I think that's changing thanks to faster processors or something like that...as I said, I'm not really an expert here - sort of just read up a crapload on this for the last few months.