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[Seth C]

This sucks. Right now I'm using a P3 450 so this would be a huge upgrade for me. I can either drive up to Best Buy/Staples/whatever and pay $100 for some RAM, or I can order it from Kingston and only pay $60 but then I'll have to wait 3 days to use the new computer. :/

 

[Slo]

Get a single 512 MB stick of either PC2700 or PC3200. You'll eventually want to buy an identical stick to bring you up to 1GB.

$84 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-479&depa=0

And if you can afford it, get the matched pair right now.

$179 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-480&depa=0

 

[Seth C]

Thanks. I can get it cheaper direct from Kingston. I just don't want to have to wait. So far I've held off going to Best Buy. I WISH the best price I could find online was $85 or so. Then I wouldn't mind paying the extra $20 and waiting for the $15 rebate at BB.

 

[Slo]

Dude, if you can get a stick for $60 then you can buy 2 for $120. I'd definetly go that route instead of throwing your money away at Best Buy. Three days is nothing in the long run, and you'll be glad to have a GB of ram.

 

[Slo]

Would you mind linking me to that deal? I'm not seeing it on Kingston's web site.

 

[Seth C]

http://www.shop.kingston.com/0604kvrt/

It's $74.99 (free shipping) but with a $15 mail-in rebate. Two per household.

 

[SKluck]

Not bad, OMX had a deal earlier this week, $40 after $20 rebate, so $60 out the door. PC2700.

That 400mhz Kingston is pretty shitty though, Cas 3? PASS.

 

[Mason]

I just got an Athlon 2500+ too. I got a stick of Kingston 512 MB PC3200 in case I want to overclock it to 3.2 ghz, but right now I have it set to run at 333 mhz. I would suggest the same.

 

[Slo]

Sorry, this promotion is now over.

 

[Seth C]

Well hell, it was supposed to run till the 30th. Now I'm going to just go buy some at Best buy for $85 after rebate!

 

[UtadaBarkley]

I think you would seriously benifit from waiting, and finding a deal online... but you're too impatient, lol.

 

[Diablos]

Not sure if your board supports dual channel, but if it does do not take advantage of it. There is no noticable performance increase by using dual channel memory with an Athlon CPU. None. I can tell you personally because I went from single to dual channel.

The Athlon's bus path is 64-bit; dual channel is 128-bit. Save yourself some cash and buy one stick of PC2700 512MB or 1GB memory.

Actually to be on the safe side, if you can get PC3200 (sometimes it's cheaper because of popularity and things of that nature), that would be good. Sometimes DIMMs and certain motherboards don't like each other too much, and when you run it at the typical speed and timings (the memory that is), it's unstable. Having one step up helps, because you can then decrease the timings and speed and get stable performance.

My A7N8X Deluxe hates my Kingston 512MB DIMM at PC2700 speeds. Thankfully my CPU's FSB is 266MHz, so I only need PC2100 speed.

 

[SKluck]

My score went from 5100 to 5400 in 3dmark2k3 when I added another 512 stick in dual channel... But I'm willing to bet that increase came from double the ram, not the dual channel.

So yeah.. DC is pretty useless.

 

[Seth C]

And now My Athlon 2500+ is up and running at 3200+ speeds.

 

[Diablos]

SKluck, true dual channel performance would have a lot more of a performance increase than that.

You got it to 3200+ speeds? Did you mess with the FSB, too? That's pretty unstable... you fuck with all the other timings when you increase the FSB.

 

[Seth C]

SKluck, true dual channel performance would have a lot more of a performance increase than that.

You got it to 3200+ speeds? Did you mess with the FSB, too? That's pretty unstable... you fuck with all the other timings when you increase the FSB.

I increased the FSB bus to 200/400Mhz, which is what a 3200+ would use. All the timings should be fine. The system is rock solid, and running very cool.

 

[Diablos]

What board do you have? What's your VCore? And what are your temps? Just curious.

 

[Seth C]

What board do you have? What's your VCore? And what are your temps? Just curious.

It's a cheapo ECS board that came with the package, N2U400-A. The VCore hasn't been adjusted at all. The CPU runs between 30 and 40C.

 

[Diablos]

Shit, if you're taking the CPU from 2500+ to 3200+ speeds then you should bump up the VCore.

What heatsink/fan?

 

[Seth C]

Shit, if you're taking the CPU from 2500+ to 3200+ speeds then you should bump up the VCore.

What heatsink/fan?

Why bump it up? That would just increase the heat it produces. It's using the standard AMD issue heatsink and fan.

 

[Diablos]

O_O

 

[mattx5]

It's using the standard AMD issue heatsink and fan.

Why don't you just pop the thing in the oven while you're at it?

 

[Seth C]

Why don't you just pop the thing in the oven while you're at it?

Because people over-react and the thing is running at freaking 90F tops? Shit, I can hold on to the heatsink as long as I want. It's room temperature. But yeah, I should waste money on another heatsink and fan.

Where's my rolleyes?