Whats the difference in these mem's?

[dirtymafia]

I'm just wondering if there really is any difference between these sticks of memory. Is the only difference as to what they are rated? Cause in terms of performance from the reviews of the cheaper ones people are claiming the same clocks w/ same timings as the more expensive.

G.Skill Extreme Series 2x512 PC3200 - rated 2-2-2-5@200mhz ~$152
GeIL One series 2x512 PC3200 - rated 1.5-2-2-5@200mhz ~$189
G.Skill Extreme Series 2x512 PC4400 - rated 2.5-3-3-7@275mhz ~200

All TCCD memory
And hell with the 2 cheaper ones I get a heat spreader on them. Which always looks cool.

 

[djbbenn]

Well the difference is they are rated for different speeds and timings. The Gskill PC4400 would be better for overclock, while the other two are fairly simular. One just supports a lower Cas which is not of much use.

-Dan

 

[dirtymafia]

Well what I'm asking is is there any difference besides what they are "rated" at. In terms of overclock ability is there really a difference. If there is not I don't really see a need to pay $200 when I can get the same performace out of $150 ram. Is there really any advantage to getting the higher rated memory? Is the only reason so that I won't void warranty or something? How would they know what I was running the memory at anyway.

 

[Thermopylae_480]

It looks like the G.Skill PC4400 RAM is already overclocked or is just at higher speeds. I can't tell which. You may be able to get the cheaper mem modules up to the 550MHz of the PC4400 depending on your motherboard. It could be that the G.Skill PC4400 is the same as the G.Skill PC3200 just with looser timings and a faster clock. If you go with the PC4400 though make sure your motherboard will support memory at those speeds, either by default or through an overclock.

 

[djbbenn]

The PC4400 is rated up to a 275 FSB, which is as almost as good as you can get for overclocking. It will only run at PC3200 when it's at 1:1, but if you overclock you can go up to a 275FSB with it and it will be stable at the rated timings and voltage.

The other two are rated for PC3200, and timings are very simular except the CAS on the geil one. If you have an AMD system, the 1.5 cas is usless unless you run an RDX200, and even with that board it's not proven that it would do anything.

All will overclock, but the PC4400 will be the best for it. If you not overclocking, the G.Skill Extreme will probably be the best choice.

-Dan

 

[Aevum]

they all look like samsung TCCD based memory,
except those geils,

Geil one has two flavors, W and S

S means Samsung,carries Samsung TCCD chips, does DDR400 at 1.5-2-2-5, (1.5 is usless, few motherboars support it and no real bandwidth or latency differance), gives you DDR 600 at 2.5-3-3-7, but it does it with 2.95v

W means Winbond, comes with Winbond UTT-BH5 chips, gives you DDR 400 at 1.5-2-2-5 and DDR550 at 2.5-3-3-7, the differance is that it does it with a nice juicy 3.6v, so if you dont have a DFI lanparty NF4, forget about those memories,

you can usualy tell its the winbonds since the Samsung Geil one´s rarly sell below $220-$230, anyways, if you want to try some winbond BH5, i recommend you get Geil Ultra-X PC3200 2-2-2-5, their cheap, and you might get lucky and get samsungs (there have been some reports of geil Ultra X pc3200 with samsung TCCD insted of Winbond BH5),

the PC3200 G.skills have normal PCB, the PC4400 have brainpower Rev2 PCB, their both TCCD, but the PCB plays a part here, i think that the PC4400 would be better for overclocking, while the PC3200 g.skill would be the choice for running stock speeds with the lowest latencies

 

[bim27142]

which is suppose to be better, geil one or geil ultra-x series?

i'm just using geil value though...

 

[Aevum]

Geil one S is better becuase your garanteed to get samsung TCCD chips on a brain power Rev2 PCB, garanteed to reach 300mhz/600 DDR at 2.95v,

while the Ultra-X use an older PCB and theres a pretty good chance you could get winbond BH-5 chips, which give more or less the same results as Samsung TCCD chips, except that insted of doing so with 2.95v, they do so with 3.4-3.6v, and there aint alot of motherboards out there that dish out that kind of current, which means you will probobly have to voltage mod the board,

and also, from what i´ve seen around, even if you get Samsung TCCD chips on your Ultra X sticks, the older PCB design means you will probobly only get around 270-280mhz and with worst latencies then the Geil One S sticks

 

[YeaBaby]

All TCCD chips are capable of 270 - 280 with apprpriate timings. Some get to 300 +. The Brainpower PCB is nice cuz it reduces signal inteference on the ram chip itself, but IMHO Id go for the cheaper set or the Geil One cuz your gonna hit 270 - 280 at least with either set.

 

[Aevum]

just make sure you get the Geil One S, not the Geil one W, and if the g.skills are cheaper, get those, those fancy memory heatsinks are worth 10 bucks max in any decent computer shop, termaltake makes them,

Geil one W carry winbond BH5-UTT chips, same results as Samsung TCCD but require 3.4-3.6v to get there,

Geil one S carry Samsung TCCD chips, those are the ones you want if you absolutly need 300+ mhz memory,

but im not sure its worth the money differance, you need mighty fine tunning to get past 280mhz FSB, and the whole idea of fast memory is running 1:1 or atleast have a decent divider when you reach that 300+ mhz fsb, its nice to have a high FSB, its even nicer when you get 7gig/sec memory bandwidth to support that FSB hike