davidw333

I am in the market for a piece of 512MB PC2700 DDR memory. But all I have seen are mostly CAS latency 2.5. All the CAS 2.0
memory I have found are from no name brands. Anyone know where I can find a good name brand memory that has the 2.0 CAS latency memory? I'm not sure if manufacturers like Samsung have them available yet. anyone know?

Valiant

Here ya go These guys are good They have all the RAM you'll need.. the shipping is quick, and their sales aren't bad.... if I had some cash to play with I'd buy some at dealer prices and sell it

davidw333

Ok, now I have the memory and put in my Asus A7V333 mobo. I have my CAS latency set to 2.0T and left all the others alone (RAS,etc). The system runs fine, so does that mean the memory is really ok with 2.0? I mean, if you stick a 2.5 latency memory in there and force it to 2.0, the system should hang, right?

Valiant

That is curious... I'm not sure if it would lock, but you'd definately experience problems, maybe they aren't a bunch of lying cheats... WOW...:) Let me know how that turns out. If it actually functions at Cas2 I may still recommend them, but I'm not sure.

Djembeplay

Hey, I dont know if you are still reading this post, but... I also just built a system with the A7V333 and an Athlon 2100. I have 768 MB Samsung PC 2700 Cas 2.5. I tried running it in "turbo" mode at 2.0 and it indeed did hang. Right before windows booted the system restarted. I hope this ill fated attempt didnt damage my DRAM :| . I don't think you would see a difference between CAS 2.0 and 2.5. But correct me if I am wrong, you might be working with some high end **** that needs it. Me? heh, I'm just a gamer

davidw333

Well, all the reviews have said that the only advantage in going to PC2700 over PC2100 is if you get the ones with CAS latency 2.0. Because the FSB (133mhz) is now out of sync with the memory speed (166mhz) , latency will make a difference. Besides, I paid about $10 more for my 2.0 CAS over the 2.5, so no niggy there. There are some instances where PC2100 at 2.0 CAS will outperform PC2700 with 2.5 CAS. I guess the ideal situation is to get 2.0 CAS PC2700 memory, overclock the FSB to 166Mhz, and unlock CPU multiplier and REDUCE it to match it's original core speed.

I am also a gamer. I guess the motherboard is smart enough to detect these things. So is your Athlon running pretty hot? I opted to get the 1800 instead of 2100 because I heard they make your computer reboot often because it overheats.

Djembeplay

I have 768 MB right now. Do you think my system would perform better and faster with less ram but with cas2 instead of 2.5? I.E. Would it be wise to send my 768 back and buy 512 of corsair cas2? BTW, how did you know my CPU runs hot? It runs around 65C. Is that hot?

davidw333

Well, there are plenty of reviews around like www.tomsharware.com about your CPU.
And 60 degrees C is not the end of the world. I design semiconductor chips and we
are required by the industry ot make them work from -45 degrees C to 150 degrees C.
But not sure about CPU's, I guess they should be stable up to 80 degrees?
Also in that website, they specifically said they were unable to get the Corsair 2.0 CAS
latency to work in 2.0 CAS mode (meanig 2.5 was ok) on the ASUS A7V333 mother.
Here is the link to that article: http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboar.../kt333-20.html
So you should get another brand memory like Infineon or just go to the website that Valiant
recommended. I truly believe 512MB of 2.0 CAS will outperform
your 768MB of 2.5 CAS. (Feel free to help me out on this one people.) But you paid extra money
to get PC2700 memory over PC2100. You also paid extra to get a motherboard with the KT333
chipset over the KT266. Why go through that trouble and use memory that will yield you the same
performance as someone who bought PC2100 memory with 2.0 CAS (which cost less) and a motherboard
with the KT266 chipset? But if you are obsessed with the idea of having more RAM (don't we all), then just send
the CAS 2.5 memory back and get 768MB of CAS 2.0 memory. It shout cost about $15-20 more for the upgrade.
But that depends on when you bought the memory. Meory prices hvae wnet up a bit since I bought mine about a
month ago.

Djembeplay

$10-$15 more? No way, where did you buy that RAM? I need to know!!! If I was to upgrade to pc 2700 cas2, it looks like it would be another $50 or 60 at least

davidw333

The 2nd post on this thread, Valiant was kind enough to give me a link. Their Samsung memory at 2.0 latency is $10 more than their 2.5 for 512MB PC2700.

Djembeplay

Really? I think it is overclocked, because I dont believe samsung makes stock CAS2 DIMMs. Correct me if I am wrong though. Did the label say samsung? I have people telling me that for games, the difference between cas2 and 2.5 is neglegible.

davidw333

You're right, I believe Samsung does only have 2.5 CAS latency modules. But mine came in heat sinks so I was too lazy to remove them to see if they're Samsung or not. Overclocked or not, if it runs fine, it's fine by me. As for games, it probably is negligible. You are only gonna get at most 3-4% difference,
if not more. But, psychologically, doesn't it make sense to at least
have a little performance edge over the PC2100 memory? You can look at the benchmark scores on the link to tomshardware and I would agree with you that you probably would not be able to see much difference in terms of frames per second in games. But the difference is there.

Djembeplay

Ya, agreed. Well thanks alot for the info. You said you work on semiconductors? For what company? Doing what? Sorry if I come off as intrusive but I am going to college next year and have an interest in computer hardware. I would love to pick your brain so to speak if I could. One more question about my samsung mem. I tried to boot in CAS2 with it. Do you think any damage could have resulted? How about to my Motherboard? I have an Asus A7V333.

davidw333

No problem. And why would asking me where I work be intrusive? What are you gonna do if I tell you? Send me Anthrax letters? Come barging in with an AK-47 to kill me for chatting with you about computers? LOL. I work as a design engineer for a company called Linear Technology. Analog circuits. Stuff like power management, signal conditioning, anaog to digital converters. As for damage to your computer, if it works fine now, no harm was done. Like I said before, I tried overclocking my FSB (does not stand for f**king son of a b**ch) and my comp froze. I had shut power down and back on, reset didn't even work. So it should be fine.