Tong Family

For those who like to overclock their systems and squeeze performance, the type of RAM you use does make a difference. Here’s a quick review of various websites and what the gamer geeks think are great modules. Its interesting to see that folks are charging more for overclock oriented modules now. I’m not sure if this is hype or they do this by selecting components. In any case here are some reviews:
* “Corsair TwinX”:http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/memory/Corsair_TwinX_3200LL_1.html. Folks seem to like the service from Corsair. They specialized in high-end ethusiast ware. It basically says this expensive, low latency memory can run up to 450 MHz compared with its rated 400 MHz. This is confirmed over at “OCIA”:http://www.ocia.net/reviews/twinx/twinx.shtml and “Mad Shrimps”:http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=105 where they tested a PC4000 (a 500 MHz part!) and found it very stable compared with OCZ memory.
* “Corsair XMS”:http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-169-1.htm. This is the Corsair line below TwinX. This review shows that performance on an Athlon increases linearly as you overclock, but you need memory that can also run fast. Thus the need for PC3500 to overclock a 200MHz FSB Athlon up to 217MHz and get 10% more performance. Also shows that the dual channel memory configuration that nVidia has for things like the Shuttle SN85G4 doesn’t make much difference for the slower Athlon XP processors. The SV41G for instance (which uses the Via chipset) should be just as fast and you don’t need matched memory as you would for dual channel Pentiums like the Shuttle SB61G2 needs.
* “Kingston HyperX”:http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/mem_store/kingston/hyp3500/p2.shtml. They are a high quality vendor and they now have a premium line call HyperX. To see how this matters at a low level, here’s a benchmark for calculating pi from It shows single channel memory at 64 seconds, dual channel at 61 seconds and overclocking by 10% to 225 MHz to 59 seconds. Similarly for Unreal Tournament, a real world gamer benchmark, the review shows 222, 227 and 231 respectively, so it does make some difference particularly when overclocked to have dual-channel and overlcok of about 5%.
To give you a sense of price differences, from “Pricegrabber”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php?page_id=43&sortby=popular-&vendors%5B%5D=0&popup1%5B%5D=6%3A207&popup1_attr_id%5B%5D=207&popup2%5B%5D=0&popup2_attr_id%5B%5D=210&popup3%5B%5D=0&popup3_attr_id%5B%5D=206&popup4%5B%5D=0&lo_p=0&hi_p=0&form_keyword=&ut=0ce41693ae1ec9b4 shows these prices for 1GB ram that is sold in kits of 2x512MB that is PC3200 (a.k.a. DDR400):
| Vendor | Model | Price | Speed | Comment |
| Kingston | KVR400X64C3AK21G) | $173 | PC3200 | Generic, but from a good vendor |
| Corsair | VS1GBKIT400 | $175 | PC3200 | Generic, from good vendor |
| Corsair | TWINX10243200LLPT | PC3200 | $277 | TwinX is their high end line |
| Corsair | VS1GBKIT333 | $166 | PC2700 | For budget systems |
| Kingston | TWINX10244000PRO | $355 | PC4000 | For overclocker to 500MHz |
| Kingston | KHX3500K21G | $245 | PC3500 | For overclockers |
| Corsair | TWINX10243200C2PT | PC3200 | $233 | TwinX but CAS2 so slight slow than LL line |
| Corsair | TWINX10243200C2PRO | PC3200 | $245 | Cas Pro line, so in between CAS2 and LL lines |