Mix Crucial with Kingston

NAiLs · Post by **NAiLs** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 1:58 am

I need to buy 1GB of RAM for my game server within a week and missed the auction on EBay that I was bidding on. I can't justify spending $220 for something from Crucial when I can get it for $100-150 on EBay brand new and from trusted users. Especially when this game server is pretty much funded out of my pocket... that's tough! $70 is a lot of money to me right now.

My question is, I can get a 1GB stick of Kingston PC2700 for about $100-130 on EBay also, will this work well with my two 512MB sticks of Crucia PC2700l?? Dual Channel enabled.

Non ECC, Unregistered.

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:05 am

no, all your memory modules need to be the same size for dual channel. so if you want to upgrade to one gig, then you need another 512 or buy two 512 matches sticks.

NAiLs · Post by **NAiLs** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:55 am

Oh that sucks. I didn't realize that. The system currently has 2x 512MB sticks of Crucial PC2700. So, in order to keep dual channel enabled, I'd have to buy a 512MB stick. Ugh. Maybe I'll pickup two 1GB sticks and sell the two 512MB sticks.

Is the system performance, especially on a 32 player CS:S server, enhanced greatly with dual channel enabled?

Post by **Apoptosis** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 9:23 am

First off what motherboard is this going in? Can't be sure it's dual channel till we know the board that you are using. Off the top of my head the last time we talked I thought you said that it was an Athlon XP 2000+ Socket A processor. So you may have an older board like a VIA KT333 chipset that only runs in single channel with three DIMM slots. I used to run 2x512's on my KT333 back in the day cause it was cheaper than getting a gig of memory.

Before you run off and buy more memory for your server check out the memory usage on the server. If it's not running above 90% usage I wouldn't upgrade unless you plan on installing bigger maps or adding more players. I'd expect that dual channel is playing a role in the performance you are seeing. If your board is running dual channel I'd stick with it then.

Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5 can be found here for just $138 shipped two day mail.

If I were you I'd cash out on that CL3 crucial stuff and get some CL2.5 Corsair memory. You can get 2GB (4x512MB) for $276 shipped via 2-day air from ZipZoomFly. If you buy anything though make sure you do it through the above link! I'll make my few pennies as a consulting fee!

NAiLs · Post by **NAiLs** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 9:02 pm

Nate, I purchased a different board and CPU. It has an ABit AN7 with an XP 2800+ w/ 512KB Cache. The memory is Crucial CL2.5 last I checked.

The board has 3 DIMMs and I am almost positive it's dual channel enabled. It was a fairly new MB when I bought it.

According to beez, the server is using 900+MB of RAM currently.... which is insane! So I think 1GB is going to be a very nice upgrade to this puppy.

I'm probably gonna buy 2 1GB Kingston or Corsair modules and sell the 2x 512MB modules that are in there.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 9:18 pm

yeah since that is only a 2 DIMM dual channel board you can only use two dimms, so it looks like you are getting 2x1024MB modules. That will give you a tad over 2GB of memory for your server.

2GB PQI Power Memory: $352.50

or if you want to take a long shot and save money try two single sticks. At CL2.5 or CL3 I don't think you'll have any issues.

1GB PQI Power Memory: $155.50 each or $311 total

PQI has been around years and are a good company that I've enjoyed working with. They are also priced way under everyone else right now. I'd go PC-3200 in case you upgrade the mobo & CPU in the future. If beez can let you bring in another server let me know and I'm more than willing to provide you free hardware such as this to make a Legit Reviews game server if you and you're admins will run it/host it! ;)

NAiLs · Post by **NAiLs** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 12:37 am

I think I may just go with that PQI PC3200. I'll probably get the 1GB sticks 'cause I don't have a ton of cash to throw around. An extra $40 for their "turbo" RAM with the same latencies isn't worth it to me... unless it does absolutely much better?

And yes, I'll get them through dealtime!

Post by **Apoptosis** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 1:56 pm

Turbo memory has heat spreaders and the Power memory doesn't. Both have 3-3-3-4 timings and lifetime warranties. Performance should be identical & at 3-4-4-8 timings matched memory doesn't matter because that is as loose as you can pretty much get.

Good news! The memory went from $155 each to $154.32! You saved money by waiting! $307.38 is your total now

NAiLs · Post by **NAiLs** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 9:26 pm

Apoptosis wrote:Good news! The memory went from $155 each to $154.32! You saved money by waiting! $307.38 is your total now

ROFL!!

$\:D/$

Thanks for your input, bro! I greatly appreciated it!!

**Looked at NewEgg... I had the windows open yet. It actually dropped from $155.50 + $4.33 shipping to $149.99 + $4.33 shipping. That's a decent drop. I just saved $10!