RAM Upgrade Question

Hey folks- not sure if this warrants a new thread, but figured I would make one so if anyone out there hadn't seen NewEggs new prices they could....

Long story short, I'm looking at a few RAM kits that they're carrying for under 90$ USD, specifically an OCZ 2x4GB 1333 9-9-9-20 kit and the comparable G-Skill. However, I also noticed that they've got a 2x4GB kit from G-Skill that is only 1066 RAM, but has CAS timings of 7-7-7-20.

So my question to you now, ye gods of minute number crunching and how it relates to benchmarking and performance, is does the faster CAS timings on the 1066 set outweigh the drop from 1333?

Cheers!

 

It doesn't matter. Only time you'll see a difference is in a benchmark, and that's only because you thought the coffee stain on your monitor was part of the benchmark score.

 

Wonderful- though I assume the bump from 4GB to 8GB *will* be noticeable? Have never had more than 4GB in any of my machines, strange as that seems...

 

No. You won't notice anything. An SSD doesn't even bump up your score. CPU or GPU upgrades are really your best bet, so you could maybe look at a 920XM. It's not as inexpensive as RAM, but it will actually improve your performance.

 

good thread, i asked Scook the other day the same kinda question....i was trying to find an 8gb kit that was 1333mhz but had a cas latency of 7 or lower.....

I figured that IF i were to upgrade ram (regardless of how un noticable the improvement may be) i would want to put the best in there in terms of latency/timings/speed etc etc.

If anyone can link to the best out there, that would help me and the OP out i guess.....

(oh, side note: if more ram doesnt do anything, why oh why o why do we see notebooks with ever increasing capacities such as the R3 which can hold 32gb? - gotta be a reason for it - if its there, the system will surely take advantage of it...maybe not so noticeable in benches etc but it should do something eh? - otherwise, we would all be running on 4gb lol)

 

Yeah, virtual machines and servers use a ton of RAM. The average Joe doesn't need more than about 3GB in my humble opinion. For gaming, etc. I got 8GB to max the machine so it sells for more money sometime down the road.

 

The reason im looking to upgrade is simple really. I ordered with 4gb, got an upgrade to 6gb but then found out about how 6gb runs.

Although i dont fully understand , i know that 4gb of my 6gb runs in dual channel mode but the remaining 2gb runs in Intel Flex Mode.

Now, I asked my rep about this, was told nah, no difference...yadda yadda but part of me cant help thinking that the extra 2gb i have, if not running in dual channel is kind of being underused.

Obviously, i dont want to drop to 4 so the sensible thing seems to up to 8 so its ALL dual channel / same.

It aint costly, so i just wanted the best ram modules to do so.

 

No, it's not costly at all. If you want to, then just go for it. You can get very nice RAM for a pretty sweet price nowadays.

 

More RAM definitely can help, IF that's your bottleneck. Latencies and frequencies are only useful in adding 1 to the number you get from ObscuroMark'11.

 

The CAS numbers tell the number of clock cycles needed to perform a given memory operation. Faster RAM may have a higher CAS number than slower RAM, but the actual amount of time (in nanoseconds) may be the same.

There are a couple of equations you use to check for equivalent CAS between two different RAM speeds:
RAM2_equiv_MHz = (RAM1_MHz / RAM1_CAS) * RAM2_CAS
RAM2_equiv_CAS = (RAM2_MHz / RAM1_MHZ) * RAM1_CAS

In this example, CAS-7 @ 1066 would be CAS-9 @ 1370, or CAS-8.75 @ 1333. The closest you can get to either of these is CAS-9 @ 1333, which makes it roughly equivalent. There is a difference, but it's way too small to notice.

 

I have 6gb ram as well, can you clarigy what you mean about the comment made.

Are you saying the 2gb ram extra was a waste??

 

Here is a simple explanatory article which explains the differences in usng mismatched DIMM's in a notebook....

PC Tip Guys - Single Channel vs Dual Channel vs Flex Mode

 

Regarding the issue with the battery not charging on a Alienware M17X. You guys are close to the solution. 1. shut down your laptop 2. unplug you laptop 3. remove battery and the final step that you guys were close too is 4. hold power button for 2 MINUTES. Then go ahead and put battery back and plug it back on and turn on your laptop. It will work, it did for me.