I want to get 2 gigs of RAM

[King Mir]

I want to get 2 gigs of RAM. How do I decide what to buy? People have been recommending different options. How do I choose?

[jclaydon]

well I know the manual recommends crucial memory. But most of the people on this board seem to prefer corsair as its even better qaulity and at the moment even cheaper.

I bought two sticks of 1GB DHX memory for $40 Canadian after rebate*almost the same as the US dollar currently*. I think the regular memory is even cheaper.

My only regret I have is i didn't think about whether this heat sinked memory would fit into the case I wanted *it should, but it still would have been better if I had thought about it ahead of time*

But the regular memory modules won't have the problem.. and..hmm I hope i'm not confusing you.. Maybe you should just wait for Jaimie or someone else.. :D


good luck

-James

[King Mir]

Ok, crucial and corsair are good brands. What else?

[The Wise Monkey]

Several things are important in choosing good RAM:

1. The brand - some are better than others. Corsair, Crucial, OCZ are all very good.

2. The RAM speed e.g. PC2-6400, PC2-5300 etc. - this determines the speed that the RAM will run at - higher is better. Most motherboards only support up to 6400 though, so anything higher than that will just run at 6400 speed.

3. The RAM latency e.g. CL4, CL5 - this plays more part than the speed in determing how quick you RAM will be - the lower the better. It is interesting that most people tend to only look at the speed as opposed to the latency - some PC-3200 with a latency of CL2 will be much faster than some PC2-6400 with a latency of CL5.

4. The price...obviously... :D

Perhaps the best RAM at the moment is this Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 with CL4:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034

With the Mail-in-Rebate, this comes to $34, which is really really really good value for money. :)

[King Mir]

Thanks Wise Monkey for that very informative post.

Yeah, that's definitely a good deal from what I've seen. Bookmarked.