[ringfinger]

Hey guys... as you probably all know by the 'Best Socket T Mobo' thread thats been here for weeks I'm building up a new Intel machine on a P5WD2 Premium mobo and still cannot decide on the best RAM to get. To me, it makes sense to get 800MHz RAM as the board natively supports it and plus thats the FSB on the P4 650 I'm getting. I'm thinking about either the Crucial Ballisitx BL2KIT6464AA804 2 x 512 @ 4-4-4-12 or the Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X1024A-6400 @ 5-5-5-12. Both almost the same price. Suggestions?? Trials and tribulations?? Other brand better?? Thanks guys! Newegg.com's PC2 6400

This post has been edited by ringfinger: 19 September 2005 - 11:23 AM

[ringfinger]

Alrighty then..

[rjz]

I would get the ram from crucial. There ram rarely fails me. Did you already buy it?

[ringfinger]

No I haven't yet. All I lack is the RAM and the Raptor. I think I have made up my mind on the Corsair though. Unless for some reason I can get proof that the Ballistix is better than the XMS2. Although I'm still not sure on the timings. In some places I see 5-5-5-15 and in others I see 5-5-5-12. And is there really that much of a noticable difference between a 3 and 5 CAS latency?? The age old latency vs. speed battle!

[rjz]

Not unless you are doing a lot of games or a real high speed server.

What is the computer used for?

[ringfinger]

Gaming, DVD production, video editing, lots of applications. I need a fast machine.

[rjz]

Then tae the better ram. Video editing will need it. Check out the specs for avid systems and other ones like it.

[ringfinger]

rjz, on Sep 25 2005, 07:05 PM, said:

Then tae the better ram.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

??? And the better RAM would be? The Ballistix?

[rjz]

I would go for the crucial. I have allways been happy with them. Corsair is more f a store brand. I wish there was a good way to tell the difference. 1 thing you could always do is ask a video edit. I am assuming your are using something like avid? Don't forget to cool your ram. If you had simular systems you could always test them with a benchmark but, that would be expensive. Also if your bios supports it you can make ram adjustments.

[nmX.Memnoch]

The Crucial Ballistix has tighter timings and so will have lower latencies. This translates to slightly faster RAM. They also have a lifetime warranty, which I personally have never had to use. I use Crucial RAM in nearly every system I build. I even use it in my mission critical servers at work due to their proven reliability.

As for the Raptors...you may want to do some reading up on them. I have a pair of 36GB Raptors in my system and while they are fast I believe a pair of NCQ capable drives would outperform them. Raptors are also not native SATA drives...WD uses a PATA to SATA converter on the drive PCB.

[ringfinger]

@rjz ... This will actually by first system I've built. I am a college grad in network security and cryptography, but never have really gotten hardcore when it comes to hardware. So far I have purchased: ASUS P5WD2 Premium mobo, P4 650 3.4/2M/800MHz, Antec performance TX640B case and a Plextor PX-740A burner. I got a 19" Samsung LCD along with a Radeon X300 SE for $300 from a friend all brand new. The only things I lack like I said are the RAM and HD.

@nmX ... I have been going back and fourth like I said, I know the Ballistix has tighter timings and will most likely be the better buy since they are both almost exactly the same price. As far as the Raptors, I didn't know they weren't a TRUE SATA drive?? Is there performance loss due to the PATA/SATA conversion?? This is another thing I have been debating on as my mobo supports TCQ (Tag Command Queuing) which is supposed to give better performance than NCQ drives. So, its either the Raptor or a bigger size TCQ drive.

So all in all, I am really still only stuck on which HD to get.

[nmX.Memnoch]

ringfinger, on Sep 26 2005, 12:03 AM, said:

@nmX ...

nmX is my clan tag.

ringfinger, on Sep 26 2005, 12:03 AM, said:

I have been going back and fourth like I said, I know the Ballistix has tighter timings and will most likely be the better buy since they are both almost exactly the same price.

I'm not sure if you're aware but they even have PC2-8000 now. Run it at the 6400 speeds and you may get better than the 4-4-4-12 timings.

ringfinger, on Sep 26 2005, 12:03 AM, said:

As far as the Raptors, I didn't know they weren't a TRUE SATA drive??  Is there performance loss due to the PATA/SATA conversion??  This is another thing I have been debating on as my mobo supports TCQ (Tag Command Queuing) which is supposed to give better performance than NCQ drives.  So, its either the Raptor or a bigger size TCQ drive.

Definitely go with a couple of NCQ/TCQ drives. You'll get more bang for your buck.

It's hard to pass up a Western Digitial 250GB SATA "II" drive with 16MB cache for $122 shipped.

[ukino]

u need 2 1G rams...hahah

[ringfinger]

nmX... I was aware that there is now PC-8000, I think that the 6400 will due just fine for me, no need to get too insane. So you think I should go with the 250GB Caviar huh? You think 2 of these will be faster than a Raptor if in Raid0 on my system?

Quote

u need 2 1G rams...hahah

???

This post has been edited by ringfinger: 26 September 2005 - 07:57 AM

[nmX.Memnoch]

Well...being that the Raptors are SATA150 (150MB/s) and the Caviar SE16 is SATA II (300MB/s)....yeah, it should be faster. The 16MB cache will also help quite a bit.

Plus, the largest size Raptor you can get is 74GB.

[ringfinger]

Yeah, I knew about the size constraints but I figured for a system drive it would be faster. I was thinking use the Raptor as the system drive and then buy a couple WD SATAII 250's later on and Raid0 them and use that for storage.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Here ya go...compare the numbers in these two reviews. This should help you make up your mind if you really want to pay the price premium for a 74GB Raptor.


Western Digital Raptor WD740GD Review

Western Digital Caviar WD2500KS Review

I am not sure if the 250GB drive review was done on a system with a SATAII controller that supports NCQ/TCQ though. However, at the beginning of the article they state that the WD2500KS doesn't support NCQ anyway.

Be sure to check out the Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 line as well. I've read good things about them as well. We have some here at work for our workstations but haven't installed them yet.

This post has been edited by nmX.Memnoch: 28 September 2005 - 11:19 AM

[ringfinger]

Bah... screw it. I'm going for the Raptor and will buy some others later. Just makes more sense to me, and I'm willing to pay for speed and reliability. So the Raptor and the Ballistix sounds like a good combo to me!

This post has been edited by ringfinger: 28 September 2005 - 12:05 PM

[nmX.Memnoch]

I did some more reading today on the Raptors (was looking up some info on another drive). Apparently there's more of a difference between the 36GB and 74GB models than just the sizes. From what I read WD actually included TCQ on the 74GB version.

[ringfinger]

Hmm... well thats good to hear.