What kind of memory setup is better?

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malloc · Post by **malloc** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 8:33 pm

Hi i have 512 Mb of DDR ram (OCZ 3200 to be more precise), problem is i'm gonna do some heavy work on oracle beginning of next year so hearding about oracle's mem usage ravage and since i believe 512 Mb is getting a little too outdated i thought about getting some new mem.

I'm split between getting:
Corsair: 2x (2x512Mb) TwinX XMS3200 (2-3-3-6) CL
OCZ: 2x1Gb Performance Series (3200 also) (3-3-3-7) CL

My thing is what's better, having only 2 mem sticks running in dual-channel mode that have higher latency or having 4 sticks running also in dual-channel (2 + 2) wich have lower latency?
The price is almost the same (Corsair's are like 20 higher than the OCZ) so in performance terms (not only db work but also general desktop use) wich setup is best for me?

Thanks in advance.

Drk korrupted · Post by **Drk korrupted** » Wed Oct 20, 2004 11:16 pm

A lower CAS timing will generally be faster than a higher timing when the modules are running at the same speed. So if you aren't overclocking, I would go with the four sticks with the lower CAS timing. However, many people have stated that running your last timing in the series of 3-3-3-7 (don't know the specific name of it) at 10 instead of 6 or 7 on AMD64 systems. On XP systems this was also the case so you might try that on your current ram too for a slight speed boost. Make sure your mobo won't flip out on you for filling up all four slots however....my mobo (MSI K8N Neo Platinum) comes with a little book that tells supported memory and what slots are supported when running different memory configurations.

So, if you can support it, run four sticks at CAS 2. Corsair is great RAM (own some myself) but you also might be able to save a few bucks by getting a different name branded memory at CAS 2.

blueworm · Post by **blueworm** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 5:33 am

GET THE 2x1GB sticks.
Regardless of the latency differrence.
Because your system will force to DDR 333 if you use all four DIMM slots, with double sided RAM.
Be advised this will make your system crawl more than that slightly higher latency.

malloc · Post by **malloc** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 2:26 pm

Thanks for the feedback guys.
I think i'll go with the OCZ 2x1Gb, not only is that problem with the 4 sticks, i also saw in the corsair site that the mem i wanted to buy has a 2.5 CAS on AMD platforms ( CAS 2 is only on intel platforms) so i think i'll get a better deal out of the second option.