I have two sticks of 512 pc3200 184 ValueSelect ram from Corsair. I am thinking of getting another gig. I could get another two sticks of VS ram for around 90$ or two sticks of XMS ram for 100$. It seems obvious what I should do, but are these sticks gonna be compatible if I get two XMS sticks? (yes I have 4 slots). But as far as the downclocking or whatnot. I have MSI neo4 mobo, AMD 64 3200 939.
Valueselect or XMS upgrade?
- Thread starter FoxyLoxy
- Start date
- Status
doodle dee
In Runtime
- Messages
- 177
the two sticks should be compatible, but you realy wont be utilyzing the higher performance xms in your current system. The good thing is that if you plan on doing a new build soon, you can always use the xms in the new build. But then again, who knows what prices for mem will be at that time.
The_Tobes99
In Runtime
- Messages
- 405
but the next AMD socket uses DDR2
Thats kinda what I was thinking as far as being able to use it next time. Well the price is only 10$ more, and I get heat spreaders so it seems pretty obvious to me if they are completely compatible. Also resale might not be much but it will most likely be better than VS.
Corsair XMS are speedbinned with slightly tighter timings than value select and have a fancy heatspreader and name stamped on them, but for the most part, they are still the same poor quality ICs
Consider the following...other than SiSandra or any other benchmarking utility, you won't notice any real world difference between 2-2-2 timings and 3-3-3 timings at all whatsoever unless you're measuring load times in milliseconds or something similar. Memory latency have little impact on overall bandwidth and much greater impact on stability therefore if you are buying tighter timings you are buying them to loosen them for higher frequencies
Furthermore, your BIOS configures all memory to run at the same settings, there if your current valueselect runs at 3-3-3 it most likely cannot operate at 2-2-2 without stability issues, therefore your XMS that most likely can operate at 2-2-2 most be set at 3-3-3 to conpensate for any instability issues, negating any marginal performance gains you may see from lower latency
Heatspreaders are not an issue as unless you are overclocking your RAM isn't going to be generating any dangerous heat anyways, and heatspreaders won't really even cool down your memory substancially anyways, in most cases once you get up to 2.9vdimm you want to start actively cooling memory
You also have to consider if you really need 2GB or not and the simple fact that in my experience more memory really on increases response time when you close a game and open something up like photoshop...but other than that, it doesn't really effect much else unless you're aiming at a higher end workstation. There are still no games that don't run without more than 1GB of memory and VRAM is more important for gaming than system RAM anyways
Consider the following...other than SiSandra or any other benchmarking utility, you won't notice any real world difference between 2-2-2 timings and 3-3-3 timings at all whatsoever unless you're measuring load times in milliseconds or something similar. Memory latency have little impact on overall bandwidth and much greater impact on stability therefore if you are buying tighter timings you are buying them to loosen them for higher frequencies
Furthermore, your BIOS configures all memory to run at the same settings, there if your current valueselect runs at 3-3-3 it most likely cannot operate at 2-2-2 without stability issues, therefore your XMS that most likely can operate at 2-2-2 most be set at 3-3-3 to conpensate for any instability issues, negating any marginal performance gains you may see from lower latency
Heatspreaders are not an issue as unless you are overclocking your RAM isn't going to be generating any dangerous heat anyways, and heatspreaders won't really even cool down your memory substancially anyways, in most cases once you get up to 2.9vdimm you want to start actively cooling memory
You also have to consider if you really need 2GB or not and the simple fact that in my experience more memory really on increases response time when you close a game and open something up like photoshop...but other than that, it doesn't really effect much else unless you're aiming at a higher end workstation. There are still no games that don't run without more than 1GB of memory and VRAM is more important for gaming than system RAM anyways
- Status
Similar threads
