Choosing RAM

I don't have first hand knowledge of that board, but I do recall a few threads around here about AMD memory issues. I can't recall what it is specifically the AM2/3's can't do (might be something about cas), but if you're going to get that board and buy off the qvl, you'd be well advised to find out. I'll dig around and see if I can find the threads I'm talking about.

Having said that, they market the Patriot kit as being designed for the P55. That's probably meaningless, but again, I don't know AMD chipsets and so that may be something worth looking into. However short the qvl is, there must be some inexpensive kits on there?

One of my quirks is never skimping on RAM or the PSU, so, lol, maybe I'm not the best person to assist?

seekermeister said:

Something else that I don't understand is CAS values. At one time, I understood that the lower the CAS, the better, but with these new DDR3 RAMS, it seems that the higher the number the better...is this true?

No. Timing rules still apply. Lower is tighter and tighter is still better. DDR3 is only different than DDR2 or DDR in speed, timings, and voltage... otherwise they're essentially the same.

Glhs958 said:

This kit is on the M4A89GTD PRO Series Motherboard Qualified Vendors Lists
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-4GBRM

Boom... there you go. Good link.

seekermeister said:

Something else that I don't understand is CAS values. At one time, I understood that the lower the CAS, the better, but with these new DDR3 RAMS, it seems that the higher the number the better...is this true?

no , with the advent of higher buss speeds the stable latency has generally gone up a bit with DDR3 :/

CAS latency will always mean "how many clock cycles the memory module will delay in returning a data requested by the CPU"

seekermeister said:

ickymay said:

seekermeister said:

Something else that I don't understand is CAS values. At one time, I understood that the lower the CAS, the better, but with these new DDR3 RAMS, it seems that the higher the number the better...is this true?

no , with the advent of higher buss speeds the stable latency has generally gone up a bit with DDR3 :/

CAS latency will always mean "how many clock cycles the memory module will delay in returning a data requested by the CPU"

Okay, but to put that into perspective, with two qualified RAMS, the one with the lower CAS would be the better performing...right?

Yes. The lower the timings, the better the machine will perform.
Here's an AM3 memory link you might want to read before buying. They suggest the best kit for AM3 is cas 6 1333.
AMD AM3 Memory Performance Guide - Introduction