[Hybr!d]

I would go for one of the top brands, kingston, ocz, corsair over PNY, not heard anything bad but the are not top end as far as I know. Don't quote me on non-ecc = unbuffered, look into it I may be wrong.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

Actually wikipedia confirms they are in fact different, yet similar and often confused.

Registered memory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with ECC memory, although memory modules often use both technologies.

Registered (also informally called buffered) memory modules have a register between the DRAM modules and the system's memory controller. They place less electrical load on the memory controller and allow single systems to remain stable with more memory modules than they would have otherwise. Registered memory is more expensive because of the lower volume and the additional components, so it is usually found only in applications where the need for scalability and stability outweighs the need for a low price (servers, for example). Although most server-grade memory modules are both ECC and registered, there are both registered non-ECC modules and non-registered ECC modules.

There is a performance penalty for using registered memory. Each read or write is buffered for one cycle between the memory bus and the DRAM, so the registered RAM can be thought of as running one clock cycle slower than equivalent unregistered DRAM. With SDRAM this only applies to the first cycle of a burst.

Whereas ECC is where errors are detected in bits and fixed (or in any odd number of bits)


But thanks anyway for all your help, I don't really think the buffered/not matters anyway I think it's just ECC my mobos not compatible with.

But I'll avoid it anyway if theres a performance penalty. I think what I'll do is get a 4GB Kit for now, however a faster one (1066mHz probably) because that will be more helpful in my PCs intial times.

And then in a few months when my wallets had time to swell back up I'll get the OCZ 8GB kit you posted. Unless f course in that time they advance so much more that I'd be better off with a single 32GB stick @ 7462mHz

Seriously though, I bet by the time I get a second Dual channel ram set (it'll be more than a few months knowing me) they will have advanced ridiculously.

Thanks for all your help on the matter, Ollie.

[Carbon]

Higher memory bandwidth numbers don't make PCs faster.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

I know, I just meant that initially I don't think I'll be needing the whole 8gb, I'd only get that when it starts to get really cluttered up, or when Win7 is released, whatever's first.

[Hybr!d]

I had a hunch I was wrong, just didnt have the time to research it. Thanks for the info, good luck getting it all sorted.

[4D(Fordy(Ford) Ollie]

No worries. Cheers, hopefully all squared away now getting the wrong one refunded. They even let me pick a day for them to collect which is quite convenient.. I wonder if that'll actually work though