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Continued from page 1 System Memory
System memory, often called RAM (random access memory), is the probably the second most important component of your recording PC after the processor. Though there are myriad brands, speeds, sizes, types, etc, picking your RAM isn't as difficult of a decision as you'd think.
First, you need to know what type you need. There are two basic types of RAM today, 184-pin DDR SDRAM modules (Double Data Rate-Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory), and 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM modules. Which you need is determined by the processor that you chose. All newer Intel processors, and AMD DD2 processors, use the latter RAM, and older Intel processors, and AMD A64 and X2 processors require the former.
When you start shopping for RAM, you will see a lot of numbers. I'm not going to explain what all of the numbers mean, unless you are planning on overclocking, they really don't mean that much. Overclocking requires you to have a lot of headroom, so you are able to slow the RAM processes down, while still maintaining high performance. I'm assuming that your rig is intended to be used for recording, so I'm not going there. I'm going to talk about each type of memory separately.
DDR Memory
If it wasn't obvious in the earlier paragraph, DDR system memory is pretty much obsolete. It will still be around for a few years, but it has progressed as far as it is going. If you have chosen an earlier P4 processor, or a non-DD2 AMD processor, you will be using DDR RAM.
RAM is rated by speed in megahertz. It gets pretty confusing, because there are two terms that tell the speed of RAM modules, and they are used interchangeably. The basic modern DDR RAM is 400mHz, and is called either PC3200 or DDR400, and that is the speed that you should get. You will see other speeds, like DDR266 (PC2100), DDR 333 (PC2700), DDR433 (PC3500) or DDR 500 (PC4000). Don't worry about all the others, get DDR400 (PC3200).
You may also see other numbers like 2-3-3-6, or 3-3-3-8. Or, maybe instead will say "CAS Latency 3". These are called "timings". You really shouldn't be concerned about timings, once again, it is an overclocking thing. The lower numbers denote "tighter timings", and is more expensive. I would probably get RAM that the first number is 3, or "CAS Latency 3".
DDR2 Memory
DDR2 memory is also rated by speed, and also has timing numbers which mean the same thing as DDR memory, but the numbers are different. Presently, the basic DDR2 speed is DDR2 667 (PC 5300), and that is probably what I would get. I would probably get timings that begin with 5.
Continued on page 3
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