What RAM measurements matter?

padukes · Apprentice Joined: 27 Feb 2003 Posts: 232

Hi,

I just got a shiny new motherboard (ASUS A7N8X Deluxe) and I want to get some shiny new ram to go with it. So, I was wondering what specifically should I look for in RAM?

Is the speed rating (2700, 3200, etc.) the only thing that matters? How does CAS fit in? Is there anything else I need to know?

Thanks,
P

cram · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:27 pm Post subject:

If you're not planning on overclocking it really isn't necessary to go beyond pc2700, though I strongly recommend you get brandname RAM (Kingston, Corsair,OCZ,Mushkin) as the generic stuff just isn't reliable in many cases. Memory timings (CAS, RAS, etc) definitely do make a difference. A detailed explanation of what all these timings mean can be found at OCFaq.
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aaarggghhhh.
Good point Chewie.

badgers · l33t Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Posts: 680 Location: Madison, WI

Column Address Strobe (CAS) is significant for random reads and writes to memory. Not so much for large contiguous blocks of memory.

http://www.techwarelabs.com/reviews/memory/memory_timings/index_2.shtml

I have always used memory that ran cas 2.

but that is just my preference.
_________________
Abit KD7-S
Athlon XP2500+
166mHz FSB
512 Meg PC3200 Ram running at 166mHz
LiteOn DVD dual Layer burner(hdc)

2.6.17 Suspend2 kernel with no scsi support

badgers · l33t Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Posts: 680 Location: Madison, WI

http://www.lostcircuits.com/memory/ddr2/3.shtml
_________________
Abit KD7-S
Athlon XP2500+
166mHz FSB
512 Meg PC3200 Ram running at 166mHz
LiteOn DVD dual Layer burner(hdc)

2.6.17 Suspend2 kernel with no scsi support

Malakin · Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2003 11:56 pm Post subject:

With that motherboard you generally want your memory to run synchronously with your FSB so it depends on what CPU you're using. I'm going to guess it's an XP2500-2800, therefore you'd want to run your memory 166Mhz DDR (pc2700). Right now pc3200 is almost the same price as pc2700 so you might as well get pc3200. Any brand name stick of pc3200 shouldn't have any problems running pc2700 cas2.

In case you don't already know this your motherboard supports dual ddr so you can get an additional speed boost by using 2 memory sticks instead of one.

Another thing, after you put the ram in check the bios settings and force them to cas 2 if you have to. I can't remember exactly how the bios looks even though I'm typing this from the same mobo but there's a turbo setting as well, I'd crank everything up and then test it with memtest86 to ensure you won't have any problems.