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

Jeff wrote:

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



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
.