Ram question - CAS3vs.4; 2 gig sticks, ECCv. Non-ecc

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff
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J

Jeff

I'm looking to build a new machine and haven't decided on the memory yet
other than to probably go with either the Corsair dominator 2x1GB DDR2 800
in CAS3, which is a bit on the expensive side at $463 for the pair, or the
Corsair XMS2 in CAS4 with all other specs the same at $262. I'm already
using the latter in an existing machine. ...not sure that the $200 premium
for the dominator version with the lower latency is really worth the price.
This is mostly for a business type machine that might be running multiple
pieces of software at the same time, some of which might be processor
intensive. ...and software that might use a good bit of ram to store data
for analysis tasks. ...no games. ...but perhaps I should not be looking at
either but instead looking more at ECC and/or registered ram to minimize the
possiblity of data errors, that once made will be stored for eternity.
....I'm still a bit fuzzy on the differences and advantages of ECC and/or
registered ram versus ram without those specs. ...it also might be wise to
consider 1 or 2 2gig sticks so that I could get 8 total gigs in the future
if I end up with a 64 bit OS that can handle this. ...but 2 gig sticks
aren't all that common and I don't know where to look for them (more common
in server type ram?)

Given this minimal description about the use of my machine, what type of
real-life benefit would I get from the CAS3 vs. CAS4 ram (e.g., will this
only be noticed on high-tech games that I don't intend to use) and would
that $200 best be spent on a better processor or in other ways? Should I
consider ECC ram, and are good high-performance 2 gig sticks even available.

....probably looking at one of the AMD X64 5200+ processors if that matters,
and will likely run XP in 32 bit for about a year until switching to 64 bit
vista when I can get a discount price on it.

Jeff
 
Jeff said:
I'm looking to build a new machine and haven't decided on the memory yet
other than to probably go with either the Corsair dominator 2x1GB DDR2
800 in CAS3, which is a bit on the expensive side at $463 for the pair,
or the Corsair XMS2 in CAS4 with all other specs the same at $262. I'm
already using the latter in an existing machine. ...not sure that the
$200 premium for the dominator version with the lower latency is really
worth the price. This is mostly for a business type machine that might
be running multiple pieces of software at the same time, some of which
might be processor intensive. ...and software that might use a good bit
of ram to store data for analysis tasks. ...no games. ...but perhaps I
should not be looking at either but instead looking more at ECC and/or
registered ram to minimize the possiblity of data errors, that once made
will be stored for eternity. ...I'm still a bit fuzzy on the differences
and advantages of ECC and/or registered ram versus ram without those
specs. ...it also might be wise to consider 1 or 2 2gig sticks so that I
could get 8 total gigs in the future if I end up with a 64 bit OS that
can handle this. ...but 2 gig sticks aren't all that common and I don't
know where to look for them (more common in server type ram?)

Given this minimal description about the use of my machine, what type of
real-life benefit would I get from the CAS3 vs. CAS4 ram (e.g., will
this only be noticed on high-tech games that I don't intend to use) and
would that $200 best be spent on a better processor or in other ways?
Should I consider ECC ram, and are good high-performance 2 gig sticks
even available.

...probably looking at one of the AMD X64 5200+ processors if that
matters, and will likely run XP in 32 bit for about a year until
switching to 64 bit vista when I can get a discount price on it.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Your post covers a lot of territory, and a lot of what-ifs.
To answer it properly would take a lot of work.

If you are doing a business application, then you aren't fooling
around. Buy some ECC memory.

DDR2-667 CAS5 2x1GB kit, with ECC ($279)
http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT2KIT12872AA667

In the SuperPI chart here, between DDR2-533 memory and DDR2-800
memory, the application returns an answer 2.7% faster. So a slower
memory won't be the end of the world.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2916&p=5

And for some info on ECC on the Athlon64/X2 for AM2, look here.
Section 4.6.5 on PDF page 146, shows the ECC capabilities. In one
Asus motherboard BIOS I just looked at, not all the settings are
exposed.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/32559.pdf

Paul
 
Your post covers a lot of territory, and a lot of what-ifs.
To answer it properly would take a lot of work.

If you are doing a business application, then you aren't fooling
around. Buy some ECC memory.

DDR2-667 CAS5 2x1GB kit, with ECC ($279)http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=CT2KIT12872AA667

In the SuperPI chart here, between DDR2-533 memory and DDR2-800
memory, the application returns an answer 2.7% faster. So a slower
memory won't be the end of the world.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2916&p=5

And for some info on ECC on the Athlon64/X2 for AM2, look here.
Section 4.6.5 on PDF page 146, shows the ECC capabilities. In one
Asus motherboard BIOS I just looked at, not all the settings are
exposed.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_do...

Paul
Click to expand...

only talking about ram getting over 2gig of ram is huge overkill
unless you are dooing a big big big visual program with thousands of
points that you need to look at, over 2gig is overkill
 
only talking about ram getting over 2gig of ram is huge overkill
unless you are dooing a big big big visual program with thousands of
points that you need to look at, over 2gig is overkill
Click to expand...

On occasion, I deal with data containing a few million cases with the
potential to go to 300 million or possibly more. Some of programs load this
into ram and it will run out at even 4 gigs requiring the use of a 64 bit
system and around 8 gigs. I don't do this frequently enough to worry too
much about it, but it would be nice to handle anything that comes along
without moving to a different machine. So far, for home use, my 2 gigs seems
to be more than enough even with multiple programs open including video
editing software and virtual PC which is relatively ram intensive (so yes,
you have a good point and I would generally agree).

Jeff
 
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