Buying some RAM, help me out here.

[Zodiac]

ok so i need some new RAM, i found these two that are well priced but im not sure witch to go with.

so i would appriciate it if you could take a second and look at the specs, and give me your thoughts.

option 1, from newegg.com : http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ion=20-144-508

option 2, from bestbuy : http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....oryId=cat01169

notice that with the 25$ rebate from best buy, both sticks end up being the same price.

thanks,

-zod :D

[Strygun]

moving to tech forum =)

[Zodiac]

thanks alot....

[Sentrosi]

GeIL has been hit hard with the fact that you can't really tweek thier ram alot. I'd go with either Corsair or Crucial. Both very reputable manufacturers.

[Zodiac]

how does this look? its by the company you recommended. its also a best seller. looks like a winnar

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...ion=20-145-059

[ZionsFire]

why not use tigerdirect? Unless you want it now.

[Sentrosi]

Link is being owned. Post the specs, not the link.

[Zodiac]

yea i noticed.

well the link is working now

but here are the specs

CRUCIAL MICRON 512MB 64x64 PC 2700 DDR RAM - OEM
184-Pin, CL=2.5-Unbuffered Non Parity 2.5V, CT6464Z335 Requires DDR supported Motherboard - Lifetime Warranty. OEM Model#: CT6464Z335 -OEM

[Zodiac]

thanks sentrosi

[Rbstr]

Kingston hyper X has faster latancey setting than the crucial or even OCZ in some cases. it is also a bit cheaper i have a bunch of valueram chips (made by kingston) in all the machins i deal with and they run great.

[Zodiac]

hmmm well i went to order and i noticed the RAM i want to buy says CL=2.5, while the RAM i already have says CL=2. I have no idea what that means but, will the two be compatible?

and i want to make sure that the PC2700 333mhz (i think thats right) im about to buy is backwards compatible with my PC2100 133mhz.

any ideas?

[Rbstr]

yes and no.
for best preformance you need compatable ram you can raise the latency on the new stuff or lower it on the older stuff but it my run unstable. what memory do you have in it now? its best to only have 2 sticks because the latency goes up at more than that and you go a single data rate with one stick. Buy a GB(2x512) of high preformance sticks preferably CL2 at whatever Speed you need(HyperX, OCZ and Cosiar make paired bundles)

You realy should install identical pairs of the same speed and latency(akaCL). If you were to put in the 333 it might not run but if it did it would go at 266(ddr is doubled) like you other ram.

and if you have a pentium system get ddr400 becuase it is syncronus with the FSB and that = better preformance.

TGH had an article about it a while back

[Zodiac]

ok i understand the CL thing now. So the CL is the real thing i need to worry about, but there will be no problem with going PC2100 (133mhz) + PC2700 (33mhz) right?

[Rbstr]

Well dirrerent CL's do work they just aren't as stable or give as much prefomance i have no idea if different speed memories will work together. As i use 3 types of memory here SDRAM RamBus and DDR so i can't test it out. I don't think trying will hurt anything unlike putting a firewire thing in a usb slot(guilty as charged)

[Zodiac]

thanks for all your help.

gonna order in the morning.