BIG memory problems, possible chipset problem?

[wolfram]

Memory problems, please help!

Hi,
Some time ago, I´ve bought a MSI 661FM2 mobo with a SIS661FX chipset.

Today I did some memory tests with this system:

Celeron D 335 @ 2800MHZ 533FSB
256MB DDR400 unknown brand RAM (DDR333 overclocked to 400)
Radeon 9600XT 128MB
Integrated audio
Same HDD

Memory tests in Everest say that my machine it´s scoring 1239MB/s in read tests and in write tests 630MB/s. Very poor score. Is almost like a celeron 1700 with pc133 ram :suspiciou

So I´m thinking seriously that this problem has to be related with the chipset.
I was wondering if this problem is related to the very cheap sticks of ram, but in other machine with an Athlon 1800+ palomino 300FSB i have tested my mosel ram and it works better. It´s working at 1700MB/s in the read tests. It is normal for an athlon like that. That PC has a SIS chipset too, but it seems that is more efficient than mine.

What do you suggest?
A) Should I get more, quality RAM (corsair, kingston, ocz etc.)?
B) Should I get another mobo with a better chipset? (i865PE with dual channel support)

I know that my Cel d and the radeon are not working at their best. Also, I would like to do some little overclocking, but it is not very important for me. I just want to solve the damn RAM problem.

Thanks! :wave:

 

[iss]

I would choose A AND B. cheap DDR ram is something that should be avoided. period.

SIS chipsets can be quite finicky about hardware and personally I wouldnt buy one. stick with intel based chipset for intel processors.

 

[wolfram]

Then, what Ram you suggest. I was interested about Corsair value select RAM, but i heard some bad reviews about it. What do you think? Any suggestions?

 

[iss]

The only problems I have ever heard of with corsair was with some earlier Nforce based boards. in general I stick with Kingston or Crucial ram but I wouldnt have any problems using corsair.

 

[hexrunt]

Believe me it's the chipset

My computer is using 1GB of Corsair VALUE ram. So not THE cheapest out but nearly there. My old board was an Asus job with the SIS chipset and it ran really slow and really poorly. In an attempt to recover my computer's performance without spending too much I attempted a motherborad change to an Intel board. All of a sudden it was running so much better. So much better that my 2.8ghz pentium now outperforms my brothers 3.2ghz pentium. We both run similar hardware except for his computer uses the SIS chipset. So in a nutshell SIS bad. Steer clear of it and enjoy a much better computer.
Cheers

 

[wolfram]

I decided something:

I will buy some Ram first, because 256Mb that I currently have is not enough for anything. Then, after increasing my Ram to 512MB, i´ll change the mobo.
I´ve been looking in Newegg for good, fast, and not very expensive memory sticks. I saw some OCZ´s, Wintec Ampo´s, Corsair´s, etc.
What would be a good stick? Any suggestions?

About the mobo, I saw this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127174

and this other:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130467

These are pretty cheap, and I´ve heard some good rewiews about them. Especially, I want to overclock my CPU to at least 3.2 or more GHZ.
Any thoughts?
Thanks! :wave: