(my other post got messed up, if this is a duplicate please disregard)
I have an Asus P4B with an Intel 1.7 proc in it overclocked to 1.8
I am wondering what is the fastest RAM I can get for this mb and what
is the best combination to get to 1 GB. Does it make a difference
between 2 512 sticks and 1 1 gb stick?
TIA,
The absolute fastest memory can be found by looking in Pricewatch.com
Select "Computers", then type "PC150" into the search box.
There is only one page of hits, but the vendors claim to be
selling PC150 CAS2 SDRAM. That would be the fastest memory
of this type.
Crucial has standard PC133 CAS2 for the same price as the
company on Pricewatch, but at least you can depend on the
Crucial memory to work.
I have 3x512MB CAS3 generic in my old P4B.
Stick with 512MB modules, as a search in Pricewatch is turning
up only 1GB registered (wrong kind) and 1GB unbuffered stacked
chips. The stacked chips have too much bus loading, and while
you may get one 1GB module to run, it could very well be flaky.
I know you can find 1GB DDR unbuffered that are not stacked,
but I don't know if they ever made chips of that density for
SDRAM. SDRAM is the generation previous to DDR, and SDRAM
(unbuffered) is what the P4B uses.
As for slots, if you are overclocking the RAM by any degree,
try slot 1 and slot 3 for your two 512MB modules.
I would have no reservations about the Crucial stuff, but
for the Pricewatch vendors, you need to ask a lot of questions,
like "who makes the modules", so you can do some research on
them. In any case, you would want a money back guarantee from
a Pricewatch merchant, and I cannot imagine any of them
doing that for you. At best, you might get stuck with
in-store credit and be charged a restocking fee.
The cheapest 512MB unbuffered PC133 SDRAM on Pricewatch is a
bargain, but as CAS is unstated, it will be CAS3. Since you
asked for the fastest memory, a CAS2 memory is faster (lower
latency).
If you buy the PC150 CAS2, and it seems to be a dud, you
can at least set them to CAS3, to try to get some stability.
But running at CAS3 will be a partial defeat of the purpose
of that RAM. You could also take the Crucial PC133 CAS2,
and overclock it by raising Trcd, or if that doesn't work,
raising CAS to 3 as well.
A P4B kinda starves the processor for memory bandwidth,
at least that was the advice I got when I purchased mine.
The only reason I got the board, is I already had the RAM,
and needed a way to use it.
One of the other comments you received, is probably sage
advice. Buying RAM for this board now is a waste of
money in the big scheme of things. I mean, if you are
struggling to overclock it, that implies it is not fast
enough for you, and I expect you won't squeeze enough out
of what you've got, to justify the dollars spent. My 1.8
would probably have overclocked to 2.4GHz, but I doubt
I could tell the difference if I did that (an application
like Photoshop certainly wouldn't run any faster). Getting
a board that takes DDR RAM might help a bit, but then you
would be tempted to get a faster processor and so on. That
is why I moved to a P4C800-E, dual channel DDR, and a
new processor.
Too bad no one made dual channel SDRAM boards
HTH,
Paul
