Memory

While everyone is aware of the importance of quality power supplies, it’s still common to see people tempted to completely skimp on the memory. Don’t do it. Like power supplies, bad memory isn’t something that’s obviously noticeable at first. You’ll just have lingering reliability problems that you might simply attribute to Microsoft. Now, while it’s not necessary to always go with flagship manufacturers Corsair and OCZ, I do recommend brand-name memory be it Kingston, Crucial, or Mushkin. Generic RAM with brand-name components (Infineon, Samsung, Nanya, Micron) are acceptable, although my experience has been hit and miss – they’ll usually be great, but I will see more frequent errors. Please avoid the purely generic RAM, where the actual chips themselves as pure black without any branding at all.

All that said, the price premium for RAM from companies like Corsair or OCZ is not that high if you avoid the lowest latency products. By going with a more conservative Corsair’s Twin-X 1024-3200C2 on our desktop for example, you save over $100 in comparison to the 2-2-2-5 timing modules. These C2 modules are still quite good with better-than-most 2-3-3-6 timing and preserve the reliability you associate with Corsair modules.



For the workstation, there’s not that much leeway. JEDEC-spec RAM runs at 3-3-3-8 timing and so there’s no way you can go any slower. Dropping to PC2700 instead of PC3200 is a foolish idea, as measurements of bandwidth show nearly a 100% difference in performance. We used Corsair RAM in yesterday’s article and admittedly use the same modules in our web servers, but any server module meeting JEDEC specifications will likely be good. An important distinction to remember is that produces from a member of JEDEC does not mean that every product from meets JEDEC specifications.

Case and Power Supply

The PC Power and Cooling PSUs and even though we all agree they are the best, we can make do with cheaper PSUs. I still like to use PC Power and Cooling PSUs any time I build a system for someone for the simple fact that I’ll know that it’s a great product. Most of today’s brand-name PSUs do a great job with most systems, as opposed to the state of PSUs back in 2000. You can get great Antec, Enermax, Fortron, and OCZ PSUs for much less money. Still, the PC P&C PSUs are still the best and always overkill. The flagship PSUs from companies like OCZ, Silverstone, and 1Fortron are like a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII tuned by Vishnu Performance Systems -- amazing in performance and price. By that measure, however, the PC Power & Cooling 850SSI would be equivalent to the Audi R8 Le Mans race car. It’s still in a different class. If I was on life support and my life depended on a Windows XP computer, I would want a PC Power and Cooling PSU in there. Unfortunately, they’re so expensive that even though I know they’re the best, and everyone on the Internet can agree that they’re the best, they rarely make it into my own personal systems.

We brought in a few “PC Power & Cooling PSUs” into our labs including the OCZ PowerSteam line (manufactured by TopPower) and Silverstone Zeus (manufactured by Enhance). We had a PowerStream 600 running in a production environment. Even under significant power demand, the OCZ had no trouble handling equipment at their stock voltage and clockspeed. The Silverstone Zeus is an SLI certified with PSU with significant cross-loading precautions (not a good thing). That is to say, that while the Zeus can handle 650W total power, the available current on the +12V rails is dependent on the load on the +5/+3.3V rails. Moreover, it’s a paradoxical relationship – the HIGHER the draw on the +5V rail, the HIGHER the available current on the +12V rail. If you had nothing connected to the +5V lead, the +12V rail would be tenuous.