Dual Memory Question

[Ironfly]

A couple of mobos I am looking at support dual channel memory. I will go with 1G.

Two sticks of name brand PC 3200 DDR 512MB can be found around $150-160. Dual dual channel memory, PC 3200 DDR (2x512MB) ranges in price from ~$170 for name brand 'value' lines to ~$400 bucks for top lines.

In FS terms, what difference can one expect from the low to high end options?

[NonCon]

If you don't plan to overclock, then not much. If overclocking is something you will do, go with the best quality you can afford.

KJ

[Ironfly]

Good to know, thanks.

[kc10]

If you plan on overclocking you might want to consider pc3700 instead of 3200. You should then be able to downclock the ram to 200(from 250) then OC the fsb and ram without stressing the ram at all. And possibly even run tighter timings and lower cas latency.

[Ironfly]

I realize many folks get a great deal of satisfaction with tweaking and optimizing, and the challenge of tuning one's system to reach its peak capability. Nothing wrong with that. But, can you translate tighter timings into viewable FS performance? My eyes will be the yardstick of measurement here, so if I will be able to see these improvements, I am interested. Thanks.

[kc10]

>can you translate tighter timings into viewable FS performance?<

Nope.:-lol
It's just one of those little things that add up in the end. But if you don't do the little things,there's nothing to add up,lol.
Actually don't concern yourself with that part. I only mentioned it as a small bonus when down-clocking the ram,which is really the main concern;if you were to OC the cpu, remember the ram gets oc'd too.So if you have ddr400(pc3200) and you oc the fsb to 220(880 fsb) then your ram will be running at 220 too (ddr440). If you have ddr500 and down-clock it to 200(ddr400) then in the same overclock as above, at ddr440 you are well under it's max, and under those conditions the tighter timings are usually attainable. And if you have dram timings set to "BY SPD" in bios, it "should" run the tighter timings when applicable because that info is in the ram's SPD chip.
Example:Crucial ddr400 (200x2=ddr400)
between 167 and 200... 3-3-3-7
between 147 and 166... 2-3-3-6
below 147............. 2-2-2-6

So when I had a 2.4 533fsb (133x4) I down-clocked the ddr400 from 200 to 133 then overclocked the fsb and ram to 156. The motherboard reads the info above from the SPD chip and sets my timings to 2-3-3-6.

But if you're not going to OC, which I hope not, then none of this info is important, but....knowledge is power,right?