That expensive compy

hop · Post by **hop** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 5:04 pm

What if you buy high end technology products without researching them?

www.hardware.info search for DDR2 sli-ready memory modules and look what they can be "overclocked" to. Even gives you where to buy them, but you can check out tweakers pricewatch for many more stores and their prices.

If it doesn't work as you expect you ask for support from the store you made your purchase at and/or return them for some other modules. Better yet, ask in advance, if they don't know then go to another store.

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 5:23 pm

I'll ask PC Megastore

I did a lot of research, really, but no one seems to agree on what RAM is compatible with the Striker Extreme.. (it's a bit picky on RAM)
Anything faster than 800MHz is also definitely not on the QVL, which is holding me back a bit

hop · Post by **hop** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 7:10 pm

The DDR2 ram speeds are stock values that indicate what RAM speeds of modules are recognized by the BIOS and run stable and correctly.

Then you can overclock to whatever rate your memory becomes unstable.

You can do this yourself or you can buy into the marketing ploy that is SLi-Ready RAM/mainboard which sort of does it for you (not nessecarily better than you though). It's like retail overclocking.

AMD currently goes up to 800MHz stock RAM which you can overclock only a little due to memory bus limitations (overclocking is harder because the HT rate must not exceed 1000MHz or it actually becomes slower due to saturation and whatnot) but Intel lets you overclock like mad with crazy RAM and FSB frequencies as long as you can cool it and throw enough power at it, especially with DDR3.

That Striker Extreme thing supports DDR2 800MHz ram stock. It's SLi feature may overclock that with regards to the FSB and RAM module provided timings to 1200MHz. Depending on the exact module you get (see hardware.info for OC ratings). You could do this (and more if things don't blow up) yourself with the right bios settings.

You should get a better (DDR3) mainboard for an Intel system especially with that budget and especially with the aim of putting 2 GF8800s in SLI.

OCZ and Corsair are obviously also good, but "gaming", "sli", or "overclock" ram are just marketing ploys.

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Tue 02 Oct, 2007 7:50 pm

Ok I'm stupid. Please explain what you're saying here.
Does it mean: 'get DDR2 800MHz RAM and OC to 1200MHz'?
Does it mean: 'get DDR2 1200MHz and see whether it works'
If not, then I don't get it, and if you really mean that, then you just can't be serious..
As I've said before, the Striker Extreme is very picky with RAM, it's not like it will always work with anything you put into it

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Wed 03 Oct, 2007 9:00 am

Now I'm confused

PC Megastore wrote:Bij de Striker Extreme is het niet mogelijk om DDR2 1200Mhz geheugen te gebruiken, het moederbord ondersteunt tot 800Mhz DDR2.

Voor de geheugen modules die u kunt gebruiken zie: http://www.pcmegastore.nl/catalog/defau ... 16_174_456

badboychris (on nvidia forums) who has pretty much the same computer as I will have, has 800MHz DDR2 himself wrote:some of them RAMs that supported are not on the QVL but they still work with the board. The Striker Extreme supports up to DDR2 1200MHz

hop · Post by **hop** » Wed 03 Oct, 2007 1:34 pm

King Harold wrote:Ok I'm stupid. Please explain what you're saying here.
Does it mean: 'get DDR2 800MHz RAM and OC to 1200MHz'?
Does it mean: 'get DDR2 1200MHz and see whether it works'
If not, then I don't get it, and if you really mean that, then you just can't be serious..

Both.

Before this marketing sillyness you got RAM rated for your mainboard (or rather a mainboard rated for your RAM requirements - if you do it right) for example your mainboard supports DDR2 PC6400 RAM, so that's what you get. Then you can overclock that RAM to, say, 934MHz. You're now running PC6400 (800MHz) RAM at a speed not officially supported by your mainboard. That's sort of the idea with overclocking.

Key here is that the PC6400 RAM module you bought was /rated/ as PC6400. They're all a bunch of massproduceed chips bought by Kingston and such, tested, then rated for a certain speed. This is why overclocking is possible in the first place, the tests are overly thurough and thus allow a high quality module to pass at rate A while every day use may let it pass at the higher rate B.

Now with this nonsense the RAM is rated for what it can eventually run as as well, and the results of that rating are stored in the RAM module itself so that SLi-Ready mainboards can read that and "overclock" for you. Normally with overclocking you would find this maximum speed yourself, which is better because it is then aimed at your particular system in your particular environment.

SLi-Ready RAM on a mainboard with support for it can be set in the BIOS to run at the maximum performance it has been rated to offer. The mainboard does of course have a /rated/ maximum speed it will handle this way (probably due to FSB limitations amongst other things).

So you can get PC6400 SLi-Ready RAM and automatically let it run at stock speeds, or enable the overclock setting and have it run at one of several overclocked speeds up to the maximum has been rated as, for example 1084MHz - providing the mainboard allows that frequency for SLi RAM. If you had magic PC6400RAM that could be cloked to 1300MHz it would still only go up to 1200MHz on your mainboard. That's what I think based on my readings, since I haven't recieved anything on my bankcaccount from you to actually try things out. ; )

Also, thanks to the additional information in the module SLi RAM is automatically configured to run at the right stock speed, which you normally might have to set manually. For example, my friend's PC6400 RAM was set to run at 677MHz by his BIOS even though he has the exact same modules as I do, which run at 800MHz - this setting had to be set manually. The average consumer used to have his memory running lower, because they don't know about setting the clockspeed in the BIOS, so now it's done for them with the additional feature of easy overclocking.

To anyone who knows what he's doing it's just 20% convenience and 80% marketing ploy, no actual better performance or anything.

So SLi is:
- automatically configured stock speed
- ZOMGOVERCLOCK button

No SLi is:
- manual configuration for stock speed
- manual overclocking

As I've said before, the Striker Extreme is very picky with RAM, it's not like it will always work with anything you put into it

Mainboards aren't picky. You just got an unclear image because anybody who doesn't know anything can go on a forum and say things about technical matters that are explained very clearly in press releases, presentations, and reviews - none of which they've ever read of course.

Of course I can't be 100% sure because I haven't tried it myself and most likely will not for many years to come, but at least 99% confidence that actually makes sense is better than random contraditions, right?

If this is still unclear I would advice to e-mail Asus or OCZ/Corsair and ask how the speed ratings on SLi-Ready RAM work. Or ask your local quality hardware dealer (then you can whine to them if it doesn't work ;)).

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Wed 03 Oct, 2007 3:52 pm

Wow ASUS really deserves a "worst website" award..

the stories about the Striker Extreme being picky are floating around the net can not be completely made up, can they?
Even some reviews mention it..

Corsairs "list of compatible memory" includes 1250MHz RAM and other "weird speeds" as well

As you know, I love whining, so I'll definitely ask the local hardware dealer

hop · Post by **hop** » Wed 03 Oct, 2007 5:05 pm

There are no wierd speeds in overclocking, only in marketing because big rounded numbers sound fancy. It's not like the size of the RAM modules being in 64-128-256mb etc.

Stories about a piece of hardware being "picky" are just that, rumours and stories. Mostly from people who shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a computer.

RAM modules are very compatible with any mainboard, the speeds it selects from the BIOS are a second matter but even that can't go wrong with some good ol' manual configuration. Really, unless you bought really obscure RAM or something that simply doesn't fit the specs then it should work.

As my management class teacher says; never believe rumors and always ask the exact story behind something. "picky" says nothing.

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Wed 03 Oct, 2007 7:28 pm

Well a "weird number" to me is for example 1111MHz, and that was seriously among the choices.
However, since Corsair probably isn't just sucking this list out of its thumb, I'll trust that everything listed there will work (I don't mean to say that others wouldn't, but these certainly should)
If the speeds and voltages etc won't be selected correctly, I just hope that it will keep running long enough for me to change them

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Thu 04 Oct, 2007 3:34 pm

They canceled my processor! OMG!

(stock depleted..)
that will cause massive delay..

hop · Post by **hop** » Thu 04 Oct, 2007 9:09 pm

Get the dual core one.

Where did you order that you don't even get them the next day?

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Fri 05 Oct, 2007 6:15 am

4allclients, they probably would have if it hadn't been sold out between the time I ordered and the time their money arrived (took 2 days)

King Harold · Post by **King Harold** » Fri 16 Nov, 2007 12:53 pm

all complete and working now, I'm writing this from the new computer

It's as fast as I intended, and it makes me happy, though I still have to copy my own projects and some programs from my old computer onto this one (which is going to take a while..)

edit: I know it has taken a while, I had to nudge PC Megastore a few times because they took a month to deliver the case, harddisk, dvd drive and psu, atleast it's all working properly