PC2700 vs 'PC3000'

[SteveC]

Hi all,

Just wondering if it's worth paying the extra £30 for PC3000 corsair 512MB DDR CAS2 DIMMs over PC2700.

Corsair 512MB DDR XMS2700 CAS2 (MY-005-CS) Price: £110.00 (£129.25 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Corsair 512MB DDR XMS3000 CAS2 (MY-006-CS) Price: £134.40 (£157.92 Including VAT at 17.5%)


I have an Asus A7V333 running an XP1900+. The above RAM will be the only memory in my system.

[Gurm]

Not for my money. PC2700 is a gimmick, which makes "PC3000" a super-duper gimmick.

- Gurm

[Jake]

First of all you have to consider IF you even need this RAM.

Is your Athlon XP multiplier unlocked? If not regular PC2700 (Samsung) would be a better choice. It is also capable of high fsb speed at low latency.

If it is unlocked I would get the XMS3000 as it will be useful in a true DDR400 system when they reach the market. Also it will give you an "extra edge" of low latency when looking to squeze every last mhz fsb out of your A7V333 and Athlon XP.

Lastly:

for a crazy guy like you Steve with too much dough anyway... get a Vapo.

check these links to find out how to REALLY OC that bad boy:

https://www.vapochill.com

http://www.vapochill.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=762

http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=27085

I'll leave you to the rest. Icronticforums is one of the best places for extreme overclocking.

Regards,

Jake

[SteveC]

I have not unlocked the CPU (as of yet). I haven't got too much money! That's why I'm 'umming and arring' over the 30 quid. I might go with the XMS3000 RAM just incase I want to try mega OCing in the future...

[YngwieM]

With the XMS3000 you won't worry with memory speed anymore... especially when you unlock your processor.

[Greebe]

Nor do you have to worry if you have real PC2700 mem. And Jason it's not a gimmick. Can you boast the Mem performance I do? Run your mem at upto 186mHz? I doubt it.

[Gurm]

*sigh*

When I say it's a gimmick... I mean for normal people. If you intend to run future hardware on it, it's a super gimmick because you have no guarantee it will still be a top performer when the future hardware actually hits. It's like the PC150 I bought - there was never a PC150 standard, and if there had been there was no guarantee that THOSE sticks of memory would have adhered to it.

BUT if I wanted to overclock my 133mhz fsb, I could have run 1:1, yes. So perhaps "gimmick" is the wrong word for me to have used.

- Gurm

[SteveC]

Thanks for the input guys.

I just noticed that I can get:

Samsung Original 256MB PC2700 CAS-2.5

For a fair bit less than the corsair stuff (I could get three samsung 256MB sticks instead of one 512Mb PC3000 sticks)

Now what shall I do?

[Wombat]

PC2700 isn't a gimmick. It's not like PC150. It's an actual standard, formalized by JEDEC. That's why Crucial was so late with their PC2700. All the earlier stuff was PC2700 "compatible," but once the standard was formalized Crucial was able to release a "compliant" product.
Also, you don't have to overclock your FSB with most chipsets to run your RAM at faster speeds.

As for me, my 512MB DIMM of Samsung PC2700 should be here before the end of the week. And I plan on running my 1800XP at 166MHz FSB.

[Greebe]

What MB are you getting Rob?

[Greebe]

Samsung mem is getting great user reviews. And I for one can attest to it's quality and speed.

[SteveC]

OK, I'll order the 2 sticks of the samsung 256MB PC2700 (assuming it's in stock anywhere) tomorrow.

[Jake]

Originally posted by SteveC
Thanks for the input guys.

I just noticed that I can get:

Samsung Original 256MB PC2700 CAS-2.5

For a fair bit less than the corsair stuff (I could get three samsung 256MB sticks instead of one 512Mb PC3000 sticks)

Now what shall I do?

Yes, that is the resonable choice if you are going to "moderatly" OC. Good choice. I find that the Corsair memory while SUPERB, is only for the select few with money to waste. Still it's a nice dream.

As a matter of fact I have been contemplating getting a stick of 512 Mb Samsung for myself.

Regards,

Jake

[az]

Running FSB and mem async isn't the wisest thing to do though - almost all the performance increase of the faster memory is getting eaten up by latencies (and maybe other things?) because of the asynchronity...

AZ