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Ive recently been looking at RAM, and im wondering what the differences are between a couple things: DDR vs DDR2, PC3200(2-3-2-5) vs PC4000(3-4-3-8), and OCZ Gold vs OCZ Platinum RAM. Any help would be awesome. Thanks.

 

Current AMD platforms (socket 940, socket 939 and socket 754) support DDR only. The to be released M2 socket will support DDR2 only. Whereas, Intel platforms use DDR2 memory.

 

PC3200 (2-3-2-5) memory runs at a stock speed of DDR400 with timings:

CAS = 2, TRCD = 3, TRP = 2 and TRAS = 5. You can set these timing parameters in BIOS. The first number, latency, is generally the most important. There is also the command rate (1T vs 2T). 1T is faster than 2T. 99% of the motherboard do not support 4 memory modules at 1T. The only exception I can think of is the DFI Lanparty Crossfire motherboard.

 

PC4000 runs at a stock speed of DDR500. If you do overclock, the PC4000 memory allows you to go high on the FSB. You can go FSB = 250 + ~10 MHz without changing the timing. If you use a FSB < 250 MHz, you might be able to run at a tighter timing (maybe a latency of CAS = 2.5).

 

For PC3200, you can use the stock timing up to about FSB = 210 MHz. Beyond that, you have to relax the timing. I have the 2 x 1 Gb OCZ Platinum (2-3-2-5). I OC to an FSB of 238 MHz, and I have to relax the timing to (2.5-3-3-7).

 

I think the main difference between the Platinum and Gold series is that the Platinum has a lower latency, while the Gold series is more suitable for overclocking. If you get the Gold series, do not get the Voltage Extreme version (VX) unless your motherboard supports very high memory voltage (> 3 V). Most motherboards supports up to 2.75 - 2.9 V.

 

A great source of information regarding OCZ memory is the "CPU/Processors and Overclocking" forum at anandtech.com. There is a dedicated sticky thread about OCZ memories. Several OCZ technical support guys are present there to answer questions and help trouble shooting. The link to that thread is:

 

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=28&threadid=1511119&enterthread=y

 

Hope this helps, and good luck with your build.

 

Nowi :)

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Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN

nice post there walternowi ;)

 

I concur, if you just want to fit the ram into your pc, and never want to mess with stuff, just get the pc 3200, on the other hand, if you like tweaking the crap out of your pc and are continually trying to get the last mhz out it, then pc4000 may be a wiser choice.

 

Walternowi has generally said it all.

 

nothing to see here now, move on please :)

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i seen that a couple people say the OCZ gold wasnt worth the money. Im getting rev 2 platinum soon

Asus P8Z68-V GEN3/ 2500k 4.4ghz / Corsair 64gb SSD Cache / Corsair 8g 1600 ddr3 / 2 x 320gb RE3 Raid 0 /Corsair 950w/ Zotac 560TI AMP 1gb / Zalman GS1200 case /G940/

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