Banginblaz

Ok, I have a dell 400sc with a 2.8 800mhz p4. (all the info here )

Great deal, I only paid 280.00

Anyway, the MOBO on it is non-overclockable, and wont let you change the mhz on ram, so I wanted to know what would be the best senario for ram speed. I am 99% sure I am getting 4x 256mb chips, for dual channel purposes. I feel I wont have to go above 1gig for a few years (not a heavy gamer, or CAD person).

The main question is mhz vs CAS.

The two choices I am looking at (so far) are:

DDR3200 with a cas of 2-3-2-5

and

DDR4000 with a cas of 3-4-4-8

so the 500mhz ram has slower cas, but higher number of cycles.

The other question is, since the mobo is locked, with the cpu be able to utilize ram over 400mhz? Or is it a waste?

thank in advance.

aussiehavoc

I doubt that the dell board will allow you to clock your memory higher than 400mhz, so you'd be better off with the DDR400 with tighter timings. Also, according to the FAQ you posted, the maximum memory timings the board is capable of is 2.5-3-3-6, so you may wish to save a little money and buy cheaper ram, as there would be no benefit from having memory rated faster than that.

I am also curious as to why you'd buy 4 x 256mb sticks instead of 2 x 512mb?
Dual channel mode only requires two sticks of memory to be used.

bendsley

As said above, Dell will probably not allow you to do too much with their board. They do this for a reason. So, I would tell you to stick with the DDR400.

As for the memory in dual channel, 512mb sticks take longer to access than than sticks of a smaller size. If you have 4x256mb then your access times should be quicker, and your performance should be slightly higher. Do not that you really would not notice any of this difference as it happens in fractions of milliseconds. But, if you ran a benchmark program, the 256 should come out on top. Also, make sure you buy only quality ram. Mushkin, Kingston, and Corsair and make really good ram.

__________________
"You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

Lasereth

If you can't OC, there's no reason to buy the PC4000. Anything past PC3200 won't be used...it'll actually slow your PC down if you buy PC4000 instead of PC3200.

I could recommend that you buy really good high-brand RAM, but if you're not gonna OC, it's not worth it. Just buy some value PNY or Kingston...nothing spectacular, just make sure it's PC3200.

-Lasereth

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Banginblaz

aussiehavoc- thanks for the timing limits, i completly missed that. as for 4x, instead of 2x, 512 sticks with those cas speeds are waaay more expensive.

bendsley- bingo! milliseconds or not, if I do do some encoding and such, those few seconds I save every hour are lovely

lasereth- ya, I wasnt looking high brand at all, in fact the ram I was looking at was this

Banginblaz

Changed my mind this corsair stick is $6.00 total less, and has almost perfect timing for my mobo.

Thanks for your help guys!