Dual Channel Kits... Naming Scheme or True to IT'S Word?

[Hell-Fire]

Curious, are the advertised DC kits truly needed? Isn't buying 2 matched sticks just as good?

Reason I am asking is because I see on alot of sites that the DC kits are more expensive than just buying 2 sticks.

When building a rig from the ground up, saving $10-20 per component is worth the research.

Was looking at the OCZ Gold 3700 series, and several places I have looked, it would be cheaper by $15 just to buy the sticks versus the DC kit.

[GVCryan]

I honestly don't know either way, and since I doubt most companies go xtreme on their overclocks, they really don't know if the sticks perform identically.

I worked for a music shop for a while, and my main job there was matching drumsticks.

Every drumstick makes a different sound, and my job was to find which 2 sounded the same. All I did was whack each stick twice on the ground and organize them as high mediums or low.

After I got my main groups. I tested two sticks from each to find each sticks best match.

This is probably what these companies do, by testing the ram in a mobo simulator which simply continues to clock each stick up, until it reaches a certain speed at which it errors. Then putting the sticks the max at the same speed together.

Or they just grab all the sticks from one wafer and put those into one box for processing, and since they all come from the same scource, they are "matched". Alot like high quality percussion instruments. Every drum comes from the same tree. It doesn't matter if they all sound different. They are "matched" if they are genetically identical.

[Keeper]

I learned the hard way about matching RAM, if it’s not out of the same lot, it might not work at all. When I buy memory I do it by phone to make sure both sticks come from the same lot. Most vendors will charge about $10 extra for that service. These DC sets are supposed to be tested, but my OCZ3500 EL is working pretty well for just same lot matched.

[Major]

Its all about marketing ! but I do see some advantage in buying a matched pair in that the are tested together and should have the same chips and OC the same (or close to it). I think if you bought 2 seperate sticks at the same time from the same vendor you would probably be fine, but there is always an outside chance that one stick will perform better than the other when OCed, or worse yet that they are from a completely different batch (maybe even different chip types) and will not work well together at all.

To me its probably worth the $15 insurance ;)

Edit: man you guys are fast typers !!!!

[OPPAINTER]

My Kingston sticks are from back before they even started coming out with kits, they work well together. In fact they work well with my OCZ 3700, we're talking into the 240s at least, all 4 in at the same time:D

OPP

[charlie]

There you are, Major! Good eve!
C

[Hell-Fire]

Well, I also bought my HyperX that was not a DC kit, and it performs rather well I think.

Obviously this isnt some ragin o/c on the cpu, but its only a 2500+. I was just working on how high I could ramp up the fsb at tight timings.

Damn, me confused now on what DDR to get for my IC7-G I got coming. Gold Dragon, HyperX or OCZ. :brick:

http://www.asmdmohaa.com/uploads/photos/230fsb_2_4_2_2.JPG

[ryanpgroovy]

A human being hand tests and matches all OCZ DC kits , thats why the premium price.

[eva2000]

Originally posted by Hëll ‡ Fîrë
Curious, are the advertised DC kits truly needed? Isn't buying 2 matched sticks just as good?

Reason I am asking is because I see on alot of sites that the DC kits are more expensive than just buying 2 sticks.

When building a rig from the ground up, saving $10-20 per component is worth the research.

Was looking at the OCZ Gold 3700 series, and several places I have looked, it would be cheaper by $15 just to buy the sticks versus the DC kit. i've always bought my memory in pairs or quads ever since i got my first pc P166mmx

most recently i decided to get 4 x OCZ PC3500 Premier sticks (rated for 217mhz 2.5-4-4-7) and 2 of them were faulty but the other 2 could do 225mhz 2.5-4-4-8 at 2.85v in dual channel

guess if you have the time to test individual sticks, then getting 2 matched sticks would be just as good.

but ocz pc3700 gold dual channel is nice.. IC7 memtesting error free at 255mhz 2.5-4-4-7 at 2.8v :)

[Hell-Fire]

Thx eva..thats good info seeing as I will ahve the same board.

[ryanpgroovy]

oi:toast: