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Best Buy Deals From 6/15 To 6/21

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 2:33 am
by BuddhaTB
Happy Father's Day to All The Dads Out There

Philips 700MB 48x CD-R Disc Spindle 50-Pack
$19.99 - $7 Instant Rebate - $10 MIR = $2.99
*Made By CMC*
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Memorex 650MB CD-RW Disc Spindle 25-Pack
$14.99 - $5 MIR = $9.99
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Norcent 52x24x52 Internal CD-RW Drive
$59.99 - $30 MIR - $10 MIR = $19.99
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Maxtor 80GB Internal Hard Drive
$109.99 - $30 MIR - $20 MIR = $59.99
*8MB Cache Buffer*
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PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 9:18 am
by guarana2.5
I hate MIRs. nice price on that maxtor hd though.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:37 pm
by UALOneKPlus
Whew, no "hot deals" or "very hot deals" notation by BuddhaTB, so this means my wallet is safe for another week!!!

LOL :lol:

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 12:50 pm
by BuddhaTB
UALOneKPlus wrote:Whew, no "hot deals" or "very hot deals" notation by BuddhaTB, so this means my wallet is safe for another week!!!

LOL :lol:

LOL! :lol:
Hard drive isn't a bad price, but I've seen the 80GB 8MB cache versions go for even cheaper.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 5:11 pm
by hrbngr
no hot deals... I disagree.

http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=112 ... 529&scat=0

this is Kingston HyperX pc3500 (ddr433) memory 512mb for $99 after rebate, that's a pretty good price to me.

thoughts?

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 5:58 pm
by BuddhaTB
hrbngr wrote:http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11222759&m=488&cat=529&scat=0

this is Kingston HyperX pc3500 (ddr433) memory 512mb for $99 after rebate, that's a pretty good price to me.

I've personally never had any experience with buying RAM faster than PC2700, so I have no idea if these prices are considered good or not.

PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2003 8:09 pm
by fng
Best Buy has a $25 gift card rebate on Sony optical drives. I didn't see this in their flyer this week. I don't know which ones qualify, but the DRU-510 definitely does.

http://www.bestbuy.com/rebatecenter/bra ... e=11218807

Kingston HyperX PC3500 (DDR433) Memory

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 8:19 am
by ZenMaster27
The Best Buy ad doesn't specify whether it's CAS 2.0 or CAS 2.5 memory.

If it's CAS 2.0 then Best Buy has a good deal going on, but if it's CAS 2.5 you can do better. I've seen the CAS 2.5 module going for as low as $89 online with no rebate and free shipping.

For anyone who's not certain, CAS (column address strobe) is a measure of latency. Simply put, lower latency means better performance. Performance nuts always choose CAS 2.0 over CAS 2.5 because it allows you to set more aggressive memory timings in your BIOS. It also gives you more headroom for overclocking.

The real debate is whether or not PC3500 (DDR433) or PC3700 (DDR466) can provide enough of a boost (or any at all) over PC3200 (DDR400) to justify its higher cost. If I had to guess, the only people who MIGHT currently benefit from PC3500 or PC3700 would be people who have the new P4 that runs on an 800MHz FSB, because they would be able to overclock their entire system, not just the CPU.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 12:49 pm
by hrbngr
ZenMaster,

it's funny you mentioned the new P4 800fsb chips/mobos. I bought the memory to run w/a 865pe springdale mobo (asus p4p800).

Here's an article on high-speed memory w/those mobo's at anandtech:

865PE/875P Memory Guide

The Kingston HyperX (cas2) passed at 2-2-2-5:

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc ... =1828&p=11

Hopefully it will work out for me as well.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 8:36 pm
by ZenMaster27
Hrbngr,

I currently have the P4P800 Deluxe along with a P4 2.4C processor. I've been a big fan of Corsair memory for the last little while, so I equipped my board with a gig (2 x 512) of DDR400/CAS2.0.

Since that board requires DDR400, I can only overclock the CPU, but I can't take advantage of the "AI Overclocking" features in the BIOS. If I had faster memory (like DDR433 or DDR466) I would be able to use the AI Overclocking feature to overclock the entire system by 5% - 30%.

Even without the benefit of faster memory, I have my 2.4C CPU running stable at 3.0 using only stock cooling. I did that by raising the CPU's FSB from 200 to 250, and keeping the memory clock speed steady at DDR400. I don't think I could get results like that using the AI Overclocking feature, even if I had DDR433 or DDR466 memory.

Let me know how your system turns out once it's done!

PostPosted: Mon Jun 16, 2003 9:56 pm
by hrbngr
ZenMaster,

what is the "AI" overclocking feature. Prometheus on asusboards.com has done a pretty good review of this mobo, and he discussed the various features of the "MAM" which equals the PAT of the 875p here:

http://www.abxzone.com/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=10

since the MAM feature seems to only work at the 1:1 ratio, I went ahead and purchased a 2.8c HT chip so that I could stay at that ratio w/the HyperX memory...and I can always see what happens if I run the FSB asynchronous to the memory speed. I will definitely update you w/my results regardless!

PostPosted: Tue Jun 17, 2003 10:23 am
by ZenMaster27
Hrbngr,

"AI Overclocking" is the name Asus has given a feature in the BIOS that allows you to overclock your system by either 5%, 10%, 20% or 30% by changing only one setting. I can pull off a 5% overclock, but can't go any faster than that, and I suspect it's because my DDR400 memory is holding me back. This scenario is the only scenario I can think of where faster memory (DDR433/DDR466) might come in handy.

As far as "MAM" and "PAT" go, here's the deal: At birth, the 865 and 875 chipsets are identical. Intel tests them using aggressive memory timings -- the ones that run stable become 875s, the ones that don't become 865s. Now, many times what ends up happening is Intel needs more 865s than 875s (based on what the market demands), so they take perfectly good 875s, they "castrate" them, and mark them as 865s. Engineers at Asus and Abit have both found ways to bypass Intel's aritifical speed-limiter, allowing the 865s to run just as fast as the more expensive 875s.

Asus comes out and says that the P4P800 with the 865 chipset now supports PAT, which pisses Intel off because motherboards with the 865 chipset cost $50-$60 less than motherboards with the 875 chipset. Intel tries to do some damage control and comes out with a statement that PAT cannot be supported on boards with the 865 chipset because it's "hard-wired" into the 875. Asus -- presumably in an effort to avoid a lawsuit from Intel -- simply renames PAT, and instead calls it MAM on boards with the 865 chipset.

I saw a few posts from real Intel zealots saying that the 865 is inferior because it failed Intel's speed test -- Asus very nicely walks around that problem by saying that it has thoroughly tested MAM on its 865-based boards, and can guarantee reliability based on strict quality control standards. I've had the board for a week now, and having been very happily running my CPU at 1000FSB (250 x 4) with no difficulties of any kind.

I took a quick look at the Asus website and noticed they took down most of the references to MAM..... I guess Intel put a lot of pressure on them to downplay the significance of their achievement. Intel must really be steaming, because simply upgrading your 865-based board to the latest BIOS (1007 for the P4P800 Deluxe, 1.3 or newer for the Abit IS7-G) gives you all the functionality of a board that costs $60 more. The only reason to buy an 875-based board is if you demand ECC memory support -- and unless you're running a server, you probably don't. Besides, you take a performance hit with ECC memory, so chances are ECC users aren't particularly interested in overclocking in the first place.