1.6a P4, DDR or RDRAM.

[PlatinumGold]

Discounting the Money factor, which would you buy?

is there a real signifcant performance difference? it would seem to me that the RDRAM would have better performance overall, but i hear that the DDR is easier to OC.

any thoughts would be appreciated?

 

[JellyBaby]

I would buy DDR because I will not support Rambus, Inc.

Even if I loved Rambus Inc. I couldn't ignore the fact that RDRAM is on its way out for Intel PCs. Memory companies (except Samsung?) appear to be avoiding it like the plague and focusing instead on DDR.

 

[BFG10K]

DDR RAM is only barely slower than RDRAM. In fact if you use DDR333 on an SiS 645 chipset it'll outperform its RDRAM competitors from Intel.

Go with DDR - it's cheaper and doesn't have to be used in pairs.

 

[ToBeMe]

<< DDR RAM is only barely slower than RDRAM. In fact if you use DDR333 on an SiS 645 chipset it'll outperform its RDRAM competitors from Intel.

Go with DDR - it's cheaper and doesn't have to be used in pairs. >>


As coincidence might have...........I happen to own one of each that you mention. While PC2700 does close the gap.......it still does not surpass RDRAM in B/M's. My two systems are a 2.2@2.6 on a TH7II-RAID with 512mb of Samsung RD, and a 2.2@2.6 on a P4S333 with 512mb of Corsair XMS PC2700 DDR. As I said, the P4S333 closes the gap, but the i850 still wins overall in B/M's! Add to this the fact that PC1066 should be available by May/June according to Ingram Micro, and PC1200 available by late Q4 or Q1 '03 and I doubt RD is "on it's way out"! RD will always be around and especially for high end Intel systems and servers...........

Now, having said that.......I still agree that Rambus, the company leaves much to be desired. The technology though is sound, and latencys get lower with increased speed! DDR though is also very good and if it continues to advance to DDR2 and Quad, it too is a very good alternative! To be completely honest, they are both extremely fast and the difference between the two is so minute.............but, as I said, in pure synthetic B/M's the RD systems still win.........

 

[Goldfish]

I have a 1.6 with 384mb of DDR and it runs like a charm, couldn't ask for more. Well, actually, I could, but the ole pocketbook couldn't.

 

[PlatinumGold]

tobeme,

lucky tobeu.

oh well. if you factor money into it, i guess the ddr wins by a hair.

i guess i'll go ddr, but that RDRAM is tempting, kinda like scsi, definitely an increase in performance and cool to have it just to say you have it, but probably not worth the extra moolah.

 

[ToBeMe]

<< tobeme,

lucky tobeu.

oh well. if you factor money into it, i guess the ddr wins by a hair.

i guess i'll go ddr, but that RDRAM is tempting, kinda like scsi, definitely an increase in performance and cool to have it just to say you have it, but probably not worth the extra moolah. >>


I agree......it's NOT really neccessary and the gains are nothing you will really notice in day-to-day operation, but, for someone without a budget that just wants to sit around and B/M all day............IMHO RD is still the way to go with a P4!

Good luck with whichever DDR combo you decide to go with.............take a look at the P4S333..........it may be just what you want!

 

[Nova101]

Why do people think RDRAM is so expensive?

If you look around, you will find it is CHEAPER than DDR now.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Nova

RDRAM is cheaper, but the RDRAM mb are more expensive than the DDR mb. at least the ones i've seen. if you have better info, i would appreciate it. that's why i posted this.

 

[w9design]

DDR is far easier to overclock than Rambus -- getting to high FSBs is pretty easy (I'm at 160 now). But, Rambus has better performance. At stock speeds, the difference isn't much.

But, if you can get your Rambus to run at a high bus speed, either by being lucky or by replacing the DRCGs (Direct rambus clock generators) on the motherboard, the bandwidth difference increases dramatically.

Rambus scales much higher. At 133FSB (PC1066), Rambus offers 4.2GBps, but DDR only offers 2.1GBps (2.7 if you are using DDR333.) You do the math

The trick, however, is getting the Rambus to clock high enough, which is often an exercise in futility unless you do heavy board modding.

In any event, you can overclock much higher with DDR, but you'll never match the bandwidth of Rambus.

 

[JellyBaby]

<< If you look around, you will find it is CHEAPER than DDR now. >>

Last I checked DDR and RDRAM 256 MB modules were about the same but RDRAM was still far more expensive in 512 excrements, er, I mean increments.