Part number deciphering: What does xmd xhd xld mean?

[bs27975]

Hello.

I am looking at building a new system, so looking at my memory choices.

If I look at memory at my local retailer, say: http://canadacomputers.com/advanced_...200mhz&x=0&y=0, I see:

G.SKILL Ripjaws X + Fan Series DDR3 2200MHz (PC3-17600) 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit (F3-17600CL?D-4GBX?D)

Note the '?'s above. i.e.

- F3-17600CL7D-4GBXHD
- F3-17600CL9D-4GBXLD
- F3-17600CL9D-4GBXMD

I follow that mostly well enough. The CL# being the timing speed.

But what does XHD, XLD, and XMD, stand for, and mean?

Thanks.

[Tradesman]

Gskill will have to confirm, but I know the 'X' is for RipjawsX models, the 2nd digit, either 'L', 'M' or 'H' is for Low, Medium and High (Performance indicator), and believe the final digit the 'D' is for a duel fan cooler for the sticks, and 'S' would indicate Single fan. the rest:

F3 - DDR3
17600 - Speed/Frequency
CL9 - CAS Latency
D - Dual Set (2 sticks) S-Single, T - 3, Q - Quad
4GB - Total in set

[bs27975]

L/M/H performance?

Cool. Thanks very much for your note.

So ... now I just have to figure out what L/M/H performance means (to me?) / how much should I care. Not a gamer, but will run vm's, so faster is always better, but only so far.

Any good links to where these performance specs / measures are explained?

After all, speed is speed, MHz is MHz, CAS is CAS, size is size ... how then is L / M / H performance come into play?

[Tradesman]

It would be of primary interest to some one who might want to OC the sticks themselves, performance wise, the 'H' sticks have the greatest versatility, the 'L' will have the least....going with 2200 sticks, unless you want to be tweaking alot, the 'L' sticks should more than suffice.

[bs27975]

Thanks.

I'm considering the Asus P8Z68-V Pro. I have never overclocked before, and don't expect to, ever - except I expect to turn on the auto-tuning, and that it is foolproof and fire and forget. I am interested only in what it is able to play with. i.e. If it isn't capable of usefully and significantly tuning the H memory to non-trivially noticeable effect, then the L memory will do. [Granted, discussion of what such MB's can/can't appreciably do may be beyond the scope of these forums.] don't expect to be going in and individually tweaking things.

- I don't expect the (processing elapsed) time (reduction) gained to be worth the (elapsed) time (spent effecting and monitoring the tweaks) or stability lost. Having a perfectly tuned system has no value to me, vis a vis actually producing results. Checking a box and having non-trivial elapsed time reductions, that does interest me. But not if it takes any more effort than that.

In the meantime, it would be useful to have documentary links as to what the different levels of 'performance' mean. I'm guessing the tags (L/M/H) have more to their labelling than just the CAS values. But I've yet to come across anything that actually explains the labelling.

[GSKILL TECH]

With our RipJaws X kits, they can match with that motherboard by enabling the XMP profile. Tweaking is not required, as these kits are a perfect match with ASUS 67/68 motherboards.

The different levels of performance are mainly the CAS values. Of course depending on kit, an XH could use completely different/better chips to achieve the higher performance. The higher the price, the higher the performance. You should not need to worry about tweaking, just which level of performance you need for your purpose.

Some people purchase XL and overclock/tweak it to run like XM, but you stated you're not interested in that, so you just need to purchase the performance you need/want to pay for, and it should be an easy configuration.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[bs27975]

Thank you for your note.

Further poking does seem to confirm what you've said.

e.g. difference between XH and XL/XM can be CL 7 to CL 9 (and visible in the part codes), and difference between XL and XM can be a lowering of a couple of the middle numbers from 10 to 9. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_timings and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAS_latency was most helpful to come across.]

If 'enabling the XMP profile' is a tweak, then I agree with you - minimal fussing required. Just going one step too far, then backing off, for each of the many main, secondary, and tertiary settings, can be time consuming, let alone nerve racking - so I take your point. Mind you ... I'm expecting to take the XH and let it auto-tweak much further! [Isn't that the point ... after all! (-: ]

Sadly ... there seems to be little to no stock here in Kitchener-Waterloo Canada, neither at my favourite local, or national web, retailers.

<sigh>

Wait for CPUs to fill the channel, then the Z68's ... only to be confounded by lack of memory supply.

*&^$%*^&(*^*%*&^%

Thank you again for your note, this thread has been most helpful.

[GSKILL TECH]

Have you tried looking into NCIX or NewEgg.ca?

Actually here is NewEgg.ca, they do have the CL7 DDR3-2200 kit in stock:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...on=gskill+2200

Messing with timings and such can be a great hassle especially if that's not your hobby. Some people like to tweak for max performance, some don't. Thanks to technology and a few good companies, high performance can still be achieved if you are not an advanced overclocker. For example, we work very closely with ASUS, and our goal is to bring easy, high performance to the end user. So as you see with our RipJaws X kits, we have super high specs like DDR3-2200 CL7 that can just work with one setting (XMP). If you purchased another platform or chipset, it could take endless hours to achieve anything near DDR3-2200 CL7, even for an experienced builder. Just reading our forums alone, you'll see people have problems with DDR3-1600 DDR3-2000..

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[bs27975]

Yes, I first looked at canadacomputers.com, then checked ncix.com, and a last resort check at tigerdirect.ca. Thanks for the reminder about newegg.ca - had forgotten about them.

Have word back from canada computers that they're expecting some time towards the end of next week.

Sadly, looks like ASUS is off the table. They've gone goofy with the hardware. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...h-b3,2939.html
<<<<<
Lacking the PLX bridge found on the company's more expensive products, it?s impossible to populate all of the P8Z68-V Pro?s interfaces simultaneously. The second PCIe x1 slot is, for example, shared with the front-panel USB 3.0 controller and the four-lane x16-length bottom slot. When one of the two slots is filled, electronic switches disable the other two interfaces. The features get even sparser when the bottom slot's x4-mode is enabled; doing so disables the first x1 slot and the eSATA controller.
>>>>>

Leaving just Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-B3, which it doesn't look like Canada Computers is carrying, and I'd really rather not anyways - my last two GA-8I945G Pro's died almost to the day 5 years after purchase.

And ASRock's Z68 Extreme4. Never had a good feeling about ASRock. Never actually seen anything bad, or good, about them. But never had a warm fuzzy feeling about them.

Asus' goofiness is sad - they're just about the only one's I thought were universally rock solid. Guess perception isn't reality.

Guess I'll have to do yet more reading ...

[bs27975]

Have you tried looking into NCIX or NewEgg.ca?

Actually here is NewEgg.ca, they do have the CL7 DDR3-2200 kit in stock:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...on=gskill+2200

Oops. Thanks for the link, but guess we lost sight along the way that I'm looking for 4GB sticks. Would prefer 8GB sticks, but I see no sign of them on the horizon.

$288 F3-17600CL9D-8GBXLD - LD, CL9, are you nuts? Take $100 off, and OK.
$605 F3-17600CL9Q-16GBXLD - LD, CL9, I don't think so, Tim.

[I'd get two, and split the 16GB across them, until the day 8GB sticks are available and I need them.]

$170 F3-17000CL9D-8GBXLD, http://canadacomputers.com/product_i...item_id=035807, is more reasonable. But no stock.