DAW Build, RAM question

G

gsrouse

New member
Hello all,

I am currently choosing parts for a DAW system, used strictly for audio.
Priorities are stability and speed (within a budget).
I will not game on this computer, and have no plans to overclock. With that in mind, Im trying to decide between Kingston and Corsair DDR 400 RAM. After researching it, it seems Corsair barely out performs Kingston. I've always known Kingston to be a trusted name though, and I would honestly go for stability over speed. Which ever way I go, I am looking at the 1GB Dual Channel Kits, which I dont believe Crucial offers.

Another decision I am trying to make is between their value series and higher end models. I definitly like the price of their value series, but if going with their Extreme or HyperX series will actually bring a noticable performance difference, then I will spend the extra money.

Are these higher end series worth the extra money for audio processing?

-----------------------------------
Parts I've chosen so far:

Antec 4U Rackmount Case w/400W PS
ASUS P4C800-E DELUXE MB
Intel P4 3.0C
High Tech ATI RADEON 7000(VE) Dual Head Video Card


Thanks,
Scott
 
Actually the quality of the memory doesn't determine the speed, but it allows you to set the timings more aggressive. You will want CL2 not CL2.5. The price difference isn't that much but it's worth the money. If you're getting it from New Egg, I got some Kreton Blitz extreme PC3500 CL2 memory recently. It works great and is inexpensive stuff at around $100 per 512 MB.
 
Kingston HyperX 3700
top speeds of 333MHz to 434MHz on high-end systems
Heat spreaders...low voltage
Tested with ASUS P4800 series
 
If you're not OCing, buying expensive RAM is not worth it. Just go for what will work with tight timings at your chosen speed - most DDR400 (PC3200) will do just fine at CAS2. You should look at RAM that guarantees 2-2-2-6 timings at DDR400 for best results.
 
If you're not going to overclock, it's extremely important that you get PC3200 rated for CAS2 (such as Corsair XMS-LL series), presuming you want to run as CAS2 (you do, preferably). The memory that runs at extremely high frequencies, such as the aforementioned Kingston HyperX, will NOT run at CAS2 latencies even though it'll be clocked lower than its rated speed. This is contrary to basically everything most people know about memory, but DDR is really weird about timings in that regard.
 
Actually I've tested lots of different DDRs, and generally if you underclock you actually can reduce the cas latency. For example, on all the bartons I've built for office machines lately, I bought PC3200 CL2.5. I run them at 166MHz or PC2700. I leave all the other timings set to default for that module but I set the CAS Latency to 2.0. Works fine. I've also bought some PC2100 CL 2.5 that I used to run 2,3,3,6 at 150 MHz.
The Kreton BLitz Extreme memory is fairly cheap stuff at $50 per 256 MB module. 512 MB availible as well. It can memtest (and run XP) flawless 2,2,3,6 at 200 MHz at 2.6v. (I run 190 to keep the voltage down on my CPU though) The Kreton memory is rated 2,3,3,7 at 237MHz, but I've never tried it up there since I'm limited by my Barton which would proabably want 2.0v to crack 210 FSB. I would definately buy this memory again since this computer simply does not crash. Probably can't go wrong with higher end Kingston or Corsair but I just wanted to mention the Kreton Blitz Extreme since I'm very pleased with my purchase and it's not that expensive...
 
DAFFYDRUNK said:
Actually I've tested lots of different DDRs, and generally if you underclock you actually can reduce the cas latency. For example, on all the bartons I've built for office machines lately, I bought PC3200 CL2.5. I run them at 166MHz or PC2700. I leave all the other timings set to default for that module but I set the CAS Latency to 2.0. Works fine. I've also bought some PC2100 CL 2.5 that I used to run 2,3,3,6 at 150 MHz.
The Kreton BLitz Extreme memory is fairly cheap stuff at $50 per 256 MB module. 512 MB availible as well. It can memtest (and run XP) flawless 2,2,3,6 at 200 MHz at 2.6v. (I run 190 to keep the voltage down on my CPU though) The Kreton memory is rated 2,3,3,7 at 237MHz, but I've never tried it up there since I'm limited by my Barton which would proabably want 2.0v to crack 210 FSB. I would definately buy this memory again since this computer simply does not crash. Probably can't go wrong with higher end Kingston or Corsair but I just wanted to mention the Kreton Blitz Extreme since I'm very pleased with my purchase and it's not that expensive...
Click to expand...

Ah, but running PC3200/CAS2.5 at PC2700/CAS2 is different than PC3700 (or higher) at PC3200 CAS2. Trust me when I tell you that it simply does not work stably, at least for any of the memory that I've tried in the dozens of systems I've built. This includes Kingston HyperX of various flavors, and Corsair XMS of various flavors. I've heard rumor that OCZ makes a high-speed memory that they also guarantee will run at PC3200 CAS2, but I've not tried it. I'm skeptical, but it's certainly possible.

Also, the memory you're talking about has significantly better timings than MOST of the high-speed (DDR500/550) memory sold. For example, all of Corsair's XMS memory of DDR500 or better is rated at 3-4-4-8, likewise with Kingston's DDR500 HyperX. A cursory glance at other's manufacturer's specs seems to indicate that at those speeds, they're all rated the same.
 
To some other very good and constructive points already presented here, I would just add :

Although production cycle of brand memory names does involves somewhat better testing and less tolerance then say off the shelf memory, it is rarely guarantee for best speed results with
your or any other particular board.

General rule if one aspires best efficiency between memory and board is to take as many chips you dealer has, to test the same with any available ram tester software and to check one by one, which one is really best candidate for your Mbo, this is simply the best way to know really which one is here to stay.

No matter how fast the drives (even with U320 SCSI) no one can deny that well matched ram and Mbo will always present visible boost in performance, this is really the place where you really hold all your process data after all.

On both PC and Mac I have found that Infineon memory works best for me, while on last machine for particular ABIT board I have no idea what kind of no-name memory I used, but it yielded simply better speed under testing then other present chips.

Test, test and test, to get the best !
 
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