What Memory for Gigabyte M57SLI-S4?

[James Crysis]

Hi,
I'm planning to put together my first computer build fairly soon. I've been doing my research on all the components but still am not 100% sure what RAM will work with the motherboard I want to get. I was thinking about getting 4GB of OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 System Elite Dual Channel RAM (1GB sticks) or 4GB of G.SKILL DDR2 PC2 6400 RAM (2GB sticks, more expensive than the OCZ stuff).

It says on the homepage for the Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 that it can only handle 1.8V RAM. The OCZ RAM is 1.8V but I was reading some reviews and people were saying that they had to manually change the OCZ RAM to 2.1V to keep it stable. The G.Skill RAM says it is 1.8-1.9V. Will either be fine or could you suggest something else? (I live in Australia and am ordering everything from one store so I am limited to a small range and don't have a very large budget. See the link below for prices of the RAM, I can't go much higher than the prices there). If you need to know anymore information on any other components I'm getting just ask and I'll post up the whole build.

LINKS:

Gigabyte M57SLI-S4:
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=2539&ProductName=GA-M57SLI-S4

OCZ RAM:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_6400_system_elite_dual_channel

G.Skill RAM:
http://newgskill.web-bi.net/bbs/view.php?id=g_ddr2&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&category=3&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=94

Australian Online Store:
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&bid=4&id2=111


Any help and suggestions are greatly appreciated,

Thanks!

 

[Rob Williams]

The most important thing about selecting memory is simply making sure you are getting enough. If you are planning to use a 64-Bit OS, you should pick up 4GB of RAM, no question. A nice 2x2GB would suit you well. While 2GB is still sufficient for the most part, more is definitely recommended, since it kind of future-proofs your rig and helps Vista run better (if you plan to run Vista).

With regards to voltages and the like, I wouldn't worry too much about it all... there will be no real complications. DDR2 stock voltages is 1.8v, which is why you see that figure scattered about. Higher voltages just refers to overclocking... I don't think you can get a motherboard that wouldn't support a voltage range for a particular kit, unless you are going really low-end.

Being in Australia, your choices are kind of limited when having a budget mindset. So what you might want to do right now, to save money, is go with a 2GB kit (2 sticks of 1GB each) and then if you want, upgrade later. You could purchase the same kit and boost yourself to 4GB.

Out of all listed, these would be my choices:

http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=111&bid=4&sid=20588 ($96)
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=111&bid=4&sid=21129 ($100)
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=111&bid=4&sid=19671 ($100)
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=111&bid=4&sid=26040 ($113)

Each of these are good choices because they offer sufficient DDR2 speeds and a CAS latency of 4 (lesser expensive kits either lack in frequency of have higher latencies). If you really don't care about having the best performance, you could not worry so much about the latencies and go with CL5 kits:

http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=111&bid=4&sid=27552 ($60)
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=111&bid=4&sid=28634 ($76)

With that kit, you could always try overclocking it to hit lower latencies, but it's unlikely it will happen. Regardless, it you do want 4GB... just purchase two of the same kit.

That all said, is there a reason you are choosing to go AMD? Depending on your budget (perhaps you should let us know your complete system plans), it might be wiser to go with Intel, since their processors have been the better performers for a while.

 

[Kougar]

You should be more than able to adjust the memory voltages inside the BIOS, so the only thing to worry about is that the memory will boot with only 1.8v. I've had a few Gigabyte boards that just can't boot some RAM with only 1.8v, however with that particular RAM it should also not be a problem.

I don't know of any reasons to pick one of those particular brands over the other one (I'm a Corsair fan), either should be fine. I am not that familiar with NVIDIA chipsets and AMD systems though.

 

[James Crysis]

I have 32-bit XP so I guess it would be better just to get 2GB and upgrade later if I want to.

My system build is as follows:

AMD Athlon™ 64 6000+AM2 Processor Retail Dual Core AM2

DDR2 2048MB(2x1G)PC6400 Elite 5-5-5 OCZ(OCZ2SE8002GK)

Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2, nFORCE 570SLI, ATX, PCIEx16, DUALDDRII, SATAII, GBeLAN, RAID

Galaxy GeForce 9600GT PCI-E OC 512MB DDR3 256-bit, 700/1800MHz

Western Digital 320G SATAII 7200 rpm HDD

Antec Nine Hundred Tower Gaming Case

(I have a spare PSU at home so I won't need to buy one)

The components in RED are the ones I'm not quite sure about yet and are most likely going to change.


The reason I chose AMD is because I wanted performance without the large price tag. Although now, after a bit more research, it's probably better to get a less powerful Intel processor because of the quality and the huge range of motherboards that I can get if I go Intel.
I'm looking at the E6750 2.66ghz.
I'm also thinking I could go with some of the cheaper RAM (the stuff you listed) and maybe get a fairly cheap motherboard and get a quad core Q6600 2.4ghz, but I don't know much about their motherboards so I have no idea what to get.
I should be able to afford either of those two choices but if I get a quad core I need the motherboard to be fairly future proof as well as fairly cheap.

M/B's:
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&bid=4&id2=106

Intel Processors:
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&bid=4&id2=13

 

[James Crysis]

I did some more research and decided I would go with the quad core Q6600, an ASUS P5K SE motherboard and Team Elite 800mhz RAM.

Thanks for you help Rob and Kougar My build is now complete

 

[sbrehm72255]

All good solid picks, the system should serve you well I would think. I'm getting the urge to jusp on a quad now as more and more people are getting them these days.

You might want to think about one of the new Yorkfield Quads if they are going to be out in your area in the near future, they should be priced fairly close to what the Conroes are now going for.

Something to think about.

 

[James Crysis]

Hmm probably not, I'm thinking about ordering it in the next week or so and thinking about waiting nearly kills me
Would it really made that much of a difference anyway?

 

[sbrehm72255]

Some from what I read depending on what you do with the rig. I've heard that the new cores can improve overall performance by up to 15% over the Conroes, again depending on the type of app.

But I don't think that you'll notice a big difference in everyday use from a end-user standpoint, a couple of FPS here and there during gaming you won't really notice.

If you're into benchmarking, you will see the difference in your finial scores though.

 

[James Crysis]

Nah I don't think I'll overclock at all. Maybe ill experiment a little but it's not really my thing.
I'm going from a Pentium 4 to an Intel quad core anyway so no i don't think I'd notice a difference

 

[sbrehm72255]

Your going to be seeing a huge performance jump going from your pld P4 to the Quad, that for sure.........

I think that you'll be more than pleased with the over all performance gains...............

 

[Merlin]

Nah I don't think I'll overclock at all. Maybe ill experiment a little but it's not really my thing.

YEah....uh huh, you'll get the hook just like everyone else does....lol
Looks like a great system for ya.
How's the weather in N Z ?

Spring is starting all over in the south part of the USA

Merlin
( Atlanta, Ga ) USA

 

[Kougar]

*coughs politly* Be sure to wear a safety helmet and goggles...

I was blown away simply upgrading from a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 (OCed) to a meager E6300. Now that I use a Quad, if a program errors and saps 100% of one core I can't even notice.

 

[James Crysis]

Actually I've just changed my mind again
I've really been wanting a G9 mouse so I decided that if I get an E6750 instead of a Q6600 and get an MSI 9600GT instead of the Galaxy (the MSI is probably better than the Galaxy anyway, if not pretty much the same), I should be able to afford a G9 as well. I've actually been researching the Q6600 a bit more and I don't think I will ever use its full potential anyway because I'll just be playing games mostly.

Merlin I live in Australia, not NZ, so I wouldn't know what the weather is like over there lol. Here in Australia it should be coming on to winter soon, but it still doesn't get anywhere near as cold as where you live, not in the part of Australia that I live anyway.

 

[sbrehm72255]

I'm running a E6750 (my wife will be getting it sooner or later) and in general its a great CPU, seeing as you said that you won't be OC'ing all that much (most have a FSB wall that limits OC'ing, at least mine does), you should be very happy with the overall performance of it.

 

[Rob Williams]

I have a real good friend in Australia who is always sure to frown whenever I tell him how cold it is over on these shores ;-) Didn't one part of AUS get snow recently, like -very- light snow? I might be thinking of somewhere else. I know Texas had some a few weeks ago.

 

[James Crysis]

Certain parts of Australia get lots of snow every year (not Christmas time, that's summer), I'm fairly sure there are quite a few skiing resorts down there but the only one I've been to is in NZ

 

[Rob Williams]

Skiing in Australia? Damn, I guess you do learn something new everyday.

 

[sbrehm72255]

Skiing in Australia? Damn, I guess you do learn something new everyday.

Yup, ain't that the truth................

Did you know that there are also snow ski resorts in Hawaii as well, on the big island.

http://www.coffeetimes.com/snow.htm

 

[Kougar]

I was going to say they ain't no ski resorts in Texas... but then I remembered several companies built their own indoor ski mountains somewhere around the DFW area...

 

[James Crysis]

Haha kinda off topic now. Only the first few posts were on memory, then we went to computer builds, then motherboards and processors, weather, and now ski resorts!
I guess if you want to carry on the thread I'll try to keep it more on topic... do you think my setup will be enough to run Crysis on medium-max settings?