Price Guides July 2004: Video Cards and Memory
by Kristopher Kubicki and Howard Johnson on July 9, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Memory
There was a time about a year ago when you could get a gig of ram for, well, just a few bucks. Sadly, that was last year (save for a few exceptions) and we are currently in 2004 and moving forward. The last few guides that covered memory have shown memory prices to be either stagnant or rising slowly; unfortunately this guide is no exception. There have been very few new product releases that could help to bring cost back into order. Additionally, DDR2 is far too expensive to catch on anytime soon outside of the foothold it already has in video memory.None of this means that you can't still find a good deal now and again. PC3200 is currently our speed of choice, since it seems to strike the best balance between noticeable performance and cost. 1GB of total system memory is also preferable, since it can all but eliminate the use of the Windows swap/page file that can dramatically improve your system's responsiveness.
For this guide, Kingston's PC3200 1024MB Value is a very good deal for a single-stick configuration. If you want to utilize what performance gains can be had with a dual channel chipset, then a pair of Crucial PC3200 512MB Premier would fit the bill quite nicely. Both options are well-priced and capable of making sure your upgrade/new rig does not suffer from memory-related bottlenecks or excessive paging. In any case, two sticks of RAM would be more beneficial, since not only could it take advantage of dual DDR chipsets, but it can give you some level of redundancy should one stick fail. If these factors are not a major concern, and since both of these manufacturers provide very good warranty and replacement service, then either will do very well.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
3 Comments
View All Comments
PrinceGaz - Friday, July 9, 2004 - link
If you're an overclocker on a budget (and which overclocker isn't, else they'd buy the more expensive higher-rated parts with less headroom), the memory recommendation would have to be that 512MB Corsair XMS4000 stick for $127 I mentioned.Or maybe the OCZ PC4000 from the same store as I see that is now listed at the same price, though AT haven't tested it so I don't know how its timings compare and definitely not how high it might go beyond 250FSB. Though every stick is different anyway so its always luck of the draw to some extent.
Video-card overclocking recommendations are not too difficult to deal with. They'll all overclock to a certain degree which depends on the cooling and memory chips used, but its unlikely you'd get 10% extra performance out of a different manufacturers card by overclocking it further to justify a 10% cost increase. Thats for cards in the sub-$200 region like the Radeon 9800 Pro or FX5900 (NON-Ultra). So just get the cheapest you can find provided it has a 256-bit memory bus and you'll have got best value for money. 9800 Pro's and FX5900's offer the best bang for the buck at present.
gimper48 - Friday, July 9, 2004 - link
How about a recommendation for overclockers. Maybe an ATI recommendation, a nvidia one and a memory one just to spice it up. Granted most overclockers already know their stuff when it comes to this kind of thing but opinions are always welcome.PrinceGaz - Friday, July 9, 2004 - link
That 512MB Corsair XMS4000 for $127 seems like great value if you're overclocking a Pentium 4. Also should be ideal for lowering the multiplier and raising the FSB of an Athlon 64 with a mobo with a working PCI lock.