Twinmos and other memory-related questions

I'm thinking of slapping some more memory into my aging rig, and I've got a few quandaries I'm sure you guys are experts on :

• How good is Twinmos memory? The two 256Mb sticks I have installed at the moment are both Twinmos, which was supposedly a good brand at the time I bought them (many many moons ago). I noticed that the Twinmos sticks seem to be the cheapest ones available now, though; priced at the same point as the non-brand memory. Is there any particular reason for this?
• Is there any problem with mixing different memory clock speeds? To the best of my knowledge the only problem with this is that all the sticks will be read at the speed of the slowest one, but I just wanted to make sure there isn't anything else.
• Same thing about the clock latency. Is is important that all sticks be of the same latency?

Thank you kindly for the help.

 

Quick correction: I didn't notice that what I referred to as "non-brand" memory was actually an A-DATA brand. Other than that the question still remains: Is Twinmos any good?

 

it is strongly dependent on which particular stick you are talking about, as different ones use different chips. I have seen awesome TwinMOS memory using BH-5 chips (which were/are highly sought after), and I have also seen them using more budget chips.

they are certainly a reliable company from what I know, and perform just fine. Other companies have 'brand names' usually becuase they consistently use high quality chips.

as for mixing RAM, it works very often, however some motherboard chipsets are very picky and mixin RAM can cause issues. I wouldnt worry too much, but it's best to stick with matching RAM. This goes for CAS latency and timings as well-- as per speed, the whole bunch will be running at the timings of the 'loosest' piece (the worst of the bunch)

I'd be happy to point you in a good direction if you give me some specifics on what you're running now and what you hope to do. (system specs )

 

Hi InYearsToCome, and thanks a bunch for the advice! I hope you don't mind if I inundate you with some more questions.

The way I understood it was that all value RAM changes chips often, so the same problem will arise no matter which brand of value RAM I choose. Is that right? Also, I suppose it's possible to tell what chips the RAM is using by looking at it at the store before purchase. Would this be a good way to go? Are there any particular types of chips to watch for? (Sorry for the retarded questions. )

The reason that I'm looking at getting a different speed stick is because the selection among 333Mhz ones is somewhat small at the moment, and also so if I upgrade in the future I will be upgrading to a higher clock speed RAM. Matching clock latency shouldn't be a problem, though.

Incidentally, how good is A-DATA RAM? It's the only 333Mhz 512Mb stick at the store I'm looking in right now.

As for my specs, they are:
ASUS A7N8X (non-deluxe), Athlon XP 2000+, Radeon 9700 Pro 128Mb, and two 256Mb sticks of Twinmos PC2700 (333Mhz) CL2.5 RAM.

Basically I've decided that it's time for a bit of a boost, and RAM should be the best bang-for-the-buck; particularly since I'm already way behind the curve in this department for gaming . More specifically, a certain sim (Falcon 4.0 Allied Force) seems to be suffering from stuttering on my machine - probably in part because of the game itself; but the pauses seem to be the game constantly loading stuff into memory, so I'm hoping more RAM will help there.

 

I don't know how much money you are looking to spend, but buying RAM in a store like Best Buy or Circuit City will usually cost you a lot more. You may want to just go for 2x512Mb sticks. Something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450
Corsair XMS 2x512Mb PC3200 for $119.

Or, if you want to save some money and go with the value RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440
Corsair ValueRAM 2x512 PC3200 for $85.

P.S. - I'm not so sure that 1Gb of RAM will increase your performance all that much. Your processor is a bit of a bottleneck, as well as your video card. (It's not bad, but it is fairly old)

 

Thanks. We don't have any Circuit Citys or Best Buys over here, so that shouldn't be a problem.

My budget kind of only goes up to a single 512Mb stick of Value RAM at the moment, so I appreciate the suggestions but they're not an option at the 'mo.

As for performance: This specific game, at least, seems like a sure-fire victim of not enough RAM. Anyway, updating the CPU or video card is out of the question at the moment, so it's a moot point.

Also, if anyone can answer my previous questions it would greatly appreciated.

 

here's an easier way.. whats your budget? we'll try to track down the best value for you.

often you can find a single stick of 512MB good RAM for cheap, and I'd recommend buying pc3200 as it can be moved to your next system and save you a litlte bit then

 

Well, I don't have a budget per se; the cheaper the better. For the sake of argument let's say around $65, which is the cost of the aforementioned Twinmos stick. Also keep in mind that I'm in Israel, so no sending me links to Newegg or something please; I'm not paying shipping fees for a stick of RAM.

I really appreciate you going to all this trouble for me. I owe you a beer.

 

well I dont really know how to go about shopping in Israel as most of the sites I found are in Hebrew and difficult to navigate... haha

but i'll remind my girlfriend to get that beer from you when she goes back there this winter , or I'll come get it when I'm visiting family in Lebanon next haha

 

Here's some links for Israel:

]http://www.pandas.co.il/ (Biggest variety and very cheap prices)

http://www.ksp.co.il/ (Excellent prices, almost everything is in stock)

http://www.noacomp.co.il/ (Decent prices, very cheap hard drives)

http://www.plonter.co.il/ (Online shop only)

http://www.mardanit.co.il/ (Decent prices, excellent warranty and service)

http://www.zap.co.il/ (Price comparison)

http://www.lof.co.il/ (Price comparison)

 

The Corsair ValueSelect memory that Wyatt Earp posted about is good solid memory. If you are gonna be overclocking then go with the TwinX, as the Value doesn't stand too much of that.

 

Yeah, but it's also 30% more expensive than the Twinmos stick. Is it really that much better?

Oh, and I have no intention of overclocking anything, least of all my memory. Never have, never will.

And thanks ASUS for the links. Even I didn't know some of those. I think you just blew your cover.

 

no it wont be that much better. I'm pretty sure you'll be happy with the TwinMOS-- if in fact the RAM is your limiting factor.

the only Benefit i can see of you paying more for 'better' RAM is if you want to move it to your next PC-- but even that would fail if you went DDR2 in the future.

 

Excellent! Thanks a ton for the advice and excuse all the badgering.

Or, as the British would say: Jolly good! Cheers!

 

"Yeah, but it's also 30% more expensive than the Twinmos stick. Is it really that much better?"

It's also 2 512Mb sticks of memory rather than 1.

 

Oh... Right. Sorry. My mistake. I'm an idiot.

Still, there's no way I'll be able to find a deal like this in-country, and there's not really too much point in adding another 1024Mb to my machine anyway since it's not likely to help with performance any. (Particularly considering that my machine only has 3 memory slots, so 256Mb will have to go in order for the second 512 stick to fit.)

Anyhow, I think I've got enough info for when I decide to add the memory. Thanks everyone.