Help me decide on 12 gig of DDR3

A

auswipe

Gawd
Joined
Nov 25, 2001
Messages
615
I'm about to pull the trigger on a new machine.

I've decided on i7 920 and Asus P6T (non-deluxe) MB.

Now I'm thinking about memory. I have a budget of about $320 for RAM.

Don't plan on trying to beat 4 GHz OC. I figure 3.6 GHz or so is just fine for my needs.

Will be running Vista Ultimate 64-bit (yay for free legit licenses that MS handed out at MS events) and would like to run 12 gigs of RAM for VM purposes (VMWare Server, perhaps VirtualPC). I'll also be gaming some with this machine (GTA IV, Left 4 Dead and perhaps Crysis and FSX) and some CS3 goodness.

Any thoughts? There are a dizzying array of memory available on NewEgg and I've been out of the build for performance club for some time.

This Patriot kit seems like it'd get the job done but I want second opinions.
 
i suggest sticking with OCZ, Corsair, or GSkill, really don't think any one in particular is better than the other, probably more of a personal choice and whichever has best deal at the time.

as for running VMs, you're not going to be able to use VMWare Server with Vista, you could use VMWare Workstation but that isn't free. and of course there are the free options of Vitrual PC and Virtual Server from MS
 
Corsair Dominator series.

I used the XMS3 and it did not let me overclock as high as the Dominator series.

Yes, it's more money. But you get what you pay for. It runs tighter timings as well, I am doing 8-8-8-24-74-1T.
 
tritonj said:
i suggest sticking with OCZ, Corsair, or GSkill, really don't think any one in particular is better than the other, probably more of a personal choice and whichever has best deal at the time.

as for running VMs, you're not going to be able to use VMWare Server with Vista, you could use VMWare Workstation but that isn't free. and of course there are the free options of Vitrual PC and Virtual Server from MS
Click to expand...

I see some posts where people claim to be running VMWare Server under Vista 64 but it is not without issues. Looks like the main issue is that with each boot the user must hit F8 and select to disable signed drivers. That's kind of a pain.

I wanted to run VMWare Server to get around the 32-bit only OS limitation of Virtual PC but that might be the way to go for now. Do I really want to fork out the extra fundage for VM Workstation? Hmmmmm.

I'd love it if Hyper-V was available under Vista Ultimate. In my last job I used Win2K8 and Hyper-V and it was acceptable for what I used it for.
 
auswipe said:
The Dominator series at 12 GB is about $100 beyond my budget. For the XMS3 series, it does fall within budgetary constraints (NewEgg link to Corsair XMS3 12 gigs 'o memory for $289 USD).
Click to expand...
I have had both sets of memory in 6GB format. In my XMS3 kit, I got one stick that errors heavily in Memtest and had to be RMA'd. The remaining two sticks of XMS3 were fine, but limited me in QPI bus speeds and did not run as aggressive of timing as the Dominator series has.

Obviously YMMV but when you're building a new i7 system what does $100 to get the best memory matter? /shrug. I went way over my budget, but it's all good.
 
Rizen said:
Corsair Dominator series.

I used the XMS3 and it did not let me overclock as high as the Dominator series.

Yes, it's more money. But you get what you pay for. It runs tighter timings as well, I am doing 8-8-8-24-74-1T.
Click to expand...

just wondering, how far were you able to push the dominator series?

Im getting 12 gigs of that for my new build, and was wondering if it could keep up with some aggressive 920 overclocking :)
 
auswipe said:
I see some posts where people claim to be running VMWare Server under Vista 64 but it is not without issues. Looks like the main issue is that with each boot the user must hit F8 and select to disable signed drivers. That's kind of a pain.

I wanted to run VMWare Server to get around the 32-bit only OS limitation of Virtual PC but that might be the way to go for now. Do I really want to fork out the extra fundage for VM Workstation? Hmmmmm.

I'd love it if Hyper-V was available under Vista Ultimate. In my last job I used Win2K8 and Hyper-V and it was acceptable for what I used it for.
Click to expand...

It's called VirtualBox, it supports x64 hosts. Give it a shot, it's the route I had to take because some of the System Center suite requires x64 hosts.
 
Microcenter was having a decent sale today and I was able to purchase 12 gig of Corsair XMS3 1600 for $288 pre-tax. That should get the job done.
 
Good Triple Channel review here, though its over a month old and that means when they were testing, they would have purchased the ram and spent the time testing at least two weeks prior to the article date, so the actual products are probably 2 months old.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/triple-channel-ddr3-i7,2128.html

The Kingston series is the winner but expensive. I would personally recommend OCZ or Corsair or Crucial, though I wouldn't burn the money on the highest end line nor waste money on the lowest end budget series. Get something in between with good rated timings and voltages.

Patriot and G.Skill and Geil also have gotten better in the last two years but read all the reviews and customer reviews too. Newegg or ZipZoomFly are the two cheapest places to buy.

FYI: I had no problems with my OCZ Platinum, and got the timings and voltages tighter than advertised with BIOS tweaks (Asus P6T was my second choice of mobo).
 
auswipe said:
Microcenter was having a decent sale today and I was able to purchase 12 gig of Corsair XMS3 1600 for $288 pre-tax. That should get the job done.
Click to expand...

It may plug n play but, you may have to adjust your memory controller voltage a bit depending on how your CPU/IMC likes 6 modules.

Enjoy!
 
Mike Clements said:
It may plug n play but, you may have to adjust your memory controller voltage a bit depending on how your CPU/IMC likes 6 modules.

Enjoy!
Click to expand...

What is considered a "safe" controller voltage adjustment? I'm not looking at building a world beater, just a "hot rod."
 
As others have said. G.Skill, OCZ, or Corsair.

I just went with the ram that had the best deal at the time. I went with OCZ because I was able to get 12gb of DDR3 1600 for $300 back in December.

Right now the Microcenter deal sounds like the best bet.
 
brom42 said:
As others have said. G.Skill, OCZ, or Corsair.

I just went with the ram that had the best deal at the time. I went with OCZ because I was able to get 12gb of DDR3 1600 for $300 back in December.

Right now the Microcenter deal sounds like the best bet.
Click to expand...

The Microcenter deal was a one day President's Day Sale and was only good if a Asus P6T was purchased.

I had bought the i7 920 at Microcenter the day before but was planning to get the rest from NewEgg but the Microcenter sale was so good that the NewEgg order and Microcenter order were within several dollars of each other (even after tax was figured in).

Instant gratification FTW!
 
auswipe said:
I see some posts where people claim to be running VMWare Server under Vista 64 but it is not without issues. Looks like the main issue is that with each boot the user must hit F8 and select to disable signed drivers. That's kind of a pain.

I wanted to run VMWare Server to get around the 32-bit only OS limitation of Virtual PC but that might be the way to go for now. Do I really want to fork out the extra fundage for VM Workstation? Hmmmmm.

I'd love it if Hyper-V was available under Vista Ultimate. In my last job I used Win2K8 and Hyper-V and it was acceptable for what I used it for.
Click to expand...

Try ReadyDriver Plus This can solve all signed driver enforcement woes..i use it to install all sorts of things and also to use hacked Os drivers for USB polling rate and the like.
 
Vercinaigh said:
Try ReadyDriver Plus This can solve all signed driver enforcement woes..i use it to install all sorts of things and also to use hacked Os drivers for USB polling rate and the like.
Click to expand...

I'll take a gander into that as well as giving VirtualBox a try.
 
Running with 12 gig of RAM is pretty darn cool.

Turns out the Vista Ultimate license I got from the MS event is 32-bit only. :(

So, I bought an upgrade license from Microsoft's Ultimate Steal site (yay for being taking classes at the local JC from time to time) and am now working on getting the install working with a legit Vista Ultimate Upgrade license. Trying to get the install.wim file from Digital River was a beating. Finally was able to do it by using IE (not FF) and bypassing the home proxy. What a whipping that has been.

My swap file is 24G! :)
 
Finally got everything up and running with my Vista Ultimate key that I got from a MS event. It wouldn't work with an install DVD but it worked fine with an Upgrade DVD. So, I'm up and running with Vista Ultimate 64 with 12 gigs of memory.

Just installed Vista Ultimate 32-bit in a VirtualBox VM and I think that VirtualBox is gonna do just fine for my needs. I may not mess around with VMWare Server for a while.

It's so darn nifty not being constrained by a 3 GB limit!

/Runs off into the distance like a gleeful Homer
 
a little off said:
That's why I bought three of those....got 6 sticks and 12 GB of ram for $312 which is under what the thread starter requested.

RAM runs great too!
Click to expand...

Very cool! :cool: I thought that might be what you were getting at.

Are you running them at 1.65v on the Vdimm? What memory frequency are you able to get out of them?
 
Mike Clements said:
Very cool! :cool: I thought that might be what you were getting at.

Are you running them at 1.65v on the Vdimm? What memory frequency are you able to get out of them?
Click to expand...

My sig has my specs. Running at stock on all of it. This is my main workhorse and I don't do overclocking on this thing, Stability is of utmost importance, well beyond getting a bit more Mhz. The heatsinks on these where actually more important to me then running at 1600Mhz, and the reviews were good.
 
When you say stock, do you mean 1.5v Vdimm or 1.65v Vdimm? I have not tested DHX in an i7 yet and I am very curious what memory frequency you are getting and at what voltage.
 
Mike Clements said:
When you say stock, do you mean 1.5v Vdimm or 1.65v Vdimm? I have not tested DHX in an i7 yet and I am very curious what memory frequency you are getting and at what voltage.
Click to expand...


All my settings are stock, but if you haven't tested an i7 system, you don't know what those are;). As soon as my array gets done building, I'll post the numbers for you.
 
a little off said:
All my settings are stock, but if you haven't tested an i7 system, you don't know what those are;). As soon as my array gets done building, I'll post the numbers for you.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, are you running all 5 in RAID 5, or just the 4? Your sig doesn't quite explain. Either way, what do you do that necessitates that much space and redundancy?
 
a little off said:
All my settings are stock, but if you haven't tested an i7 system, you don't know what those are;). As soon as my array gets done building, I'll post the numbers for you.
Click to expand...

Thanks and I'd like to see your settings and frequency. All of my i7 testing so far is with our standard i7 kits at 1600 and 1866 and 3GB vs 6GB vs 12GB. But it's very interesting to me that you are getting 1333 out of those modules at 1.5v. It makes me wonder how much you can get at 1.5v and also at 1.65v as all of our DHX 1600 4GB kits are rated at 1.8v/CAS9 or 1.9v CAS7.
 
Arcanide said:
Out of curiosity, are you running all 5 in RAID 5, or just the 4? Your sig doesn't quite explain. Either way, what do you do that necessitates that much space and redundancy?
Click to expand...

Running 4 drive in RAID 5, and a 5th drive is in a unconnected bay(aka cold spare). If the alarm goes off for drive failure (or I get the email that a drive has failed), The 5th, known good, drive will be inserted in it's place (something even my wife now knows how to do). I only picked up a 4 port raid card because of price and I really didn't need all 8 full right now. Since I doubt that I will lose two drives at once, I opted for the extra space in plain RAID 5 over RAID 5+ hotspare or RAID 6. I do have 8 hot swap bays so I could down the road, either replace the 4 port with a 8 port (requires reinstall), or add a second 4 port and just add more space.

The reason? Really I don't need this much space right now. I really wanted smaller fast drives that didn't break the bank (aka SAS and SCSI), and was informed of the WD 640's speed is close to the Raptors for a much cheaper price. So I ended up with what I have. However, with close to 40 VM's, forensics images and the thought of picking up a HD camcorder, I figure that too much space isn't a bad thing. As far as redundancy, I don't like to reinstall...ever

The Dual Xeon machine I am on right now will actually be the one with lots of space. It's getting 8 2TB drives in RAID 5. It will also have the 2 1TB external I have plugged into my current file server as dual backups for the really important stuff from the file servers RAID 5 array.

Mike Clements said:
Thanks and I'd like to see your settings and frequency. All of my i7 testing so far is with our standard i7 kits at 1600 and 1866 and 3GB vs 6GB vs 12GB. But it's very interesting to me that you are getting 1333 out of those modules at 1.5v. It makes me wonder how much you can get at 1.5v and also at 1.65v as all of our DHX 1600 4GB kits are rated at 1.8v/CAS9 or 1.9v CAS7.
Click to expand...

All my setting in the BIOS are to Auto. If you need anything else, let me know.

mem1.jpg

mem2.jpg
 
I have the Corsair kit and it's been good to me so far. I had to RMA the first 6 sticks but I got them back from NewEgg, and have been up ever since.
 
Mike Clements said:
Actually, I was wondering how much Vdimm it would take to get 1600 out of those. I may dig up 3 modules and test it. Thanks for the screenies. ;)
Click to expand...


Check out this video from Kyle...I believe they are running 12G and are rather close to 1600Mhz

I may attempt to overclock my tonight, before I do my final install, I'll post anything useful
 
a little off said:
Check out this video from Kyle...I believe they are running 12G and are rather close to 1600Mhz

I may attempt to overclock my tonight, before I do my final install, I'll post anything useful
Click to expand...

LOL...we sent him the memory used in that video for review. And, although 12GB is cool that is not the info I am after:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=3493182&postcount=47

You bought memory that has not been validated at 1600 at 1.65v specifically. I am interested in finding out how non-i7 specific memory is going to do with i7 mandated 1.65v maximum Vdimm.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top