DDR or PC133 RAM

[jutral]

Greetings. I was wondering what everyone's opinion was on a RAM choice for a new Athlon system (going to be used primarily for gaming). I've read that DDR (PC2100), supposedly, gives about a 20% increase in RAM speed/performance over PC133 RAM. Considering that 512MB of PC133 RAM costs $50 and 256MB of DDR PC2100 RAM costs $50, which is the better deal? Will DDR PC2100 RAM be around in a year, or will PC133 RAM keep the standard? I'd welcome everyone's opinion on the topic

 

[Mem]

With the price of PC2100 DDR ram same as PC133 ram ,definetly go with DDR ,PC2100 ram will be here for awhile yet.

 

[jutral]

Mem, where do you get DDR PC2100 RAM being the same price as PC133 RAM? Pricewatch lists the PC2100 RAM at about double the price of PC133..

 

[chuckieland]

if you guys read carefully
you will see that price for 512mb sdram been the same price as 256mb DDR

 

[Renob]

The DDR ram is $1 more then the PC133 at crucial.com Thats for a stick of 256megs BTW the crucial PC2100 will overclock bigtime. DDR ram will be here long after pc133 is gone

 

[Catbird]

I am getting ready to do some extensive testing with 512 of PC-2100 DDR and a 1.4 T bird, as compared to the 1.2 and 384 megs of PC-150 SDRAM. If you ( or anyone else) is interested, I will post the results next week to see what kind of difference I am getting. I already installed a G force3 and took out the Ultra2 and changed nothing else and ran all the benchmarks to see what happened, so I have a good idea what I got from just that change, now I will add a couple hundred Mhz on the processor, change out the Abit KT7A Raid for the Asus A7M266 and add the 512 of DDR and see what, if any, change I gain ( or lose!) from that change vrs just upgrading the video card. Should be interesting......

 

[Mem]

Jutral I was looking at Crucial UK site today,they have PC133 ram(256MB)at £30.59, PC2100(256mb) ram is £31.49.

Crucial UK site .

 

[ledzepp98]

hey catbird, i'm always interested in seeing people do comparison benchmarks. post 'em when you got 'em

 

[BurntKooshie]

A lot of people use Crucial's prices. The reason is simple: for quality stuff, their price is unbeatable right now, and PC2100 is like, a buck more (for 256Mb) than PC 133.

 

[Catbird]

Will do Ledzepp98, I will post the old stuff with the card out and then in, and then the additional gains if any with the addition of the DDR and the new MB. I will leave the 2 IBM'S ATA 100 30 gig hooked up to the promise controler and leave that part alone, they perform very well in the Raid 0 setup they are in now.

 

[Davegod75]

DDR hands down. Forget sdram if you are building a new system

 

[steelnewfie]

DDR, no question...

 

[NelsonMuntz]

DDR is definitely the wave of the future. PC133 is the standard bearer no longer. DDR is going to be the RAM of choice for the upcoming chipsets (new VIA KT266 and NVIDIA NForce) so I will be looking for PC133 to begin to disappear from new chipsets (except when Intel wants to make a crappy bargain chipset for the P4).

 

[robg1701]

The DDR is the same price as CAS2 PC133, its the CL3 PC133 which is slightly cheaper....and actually, for the previous few price drops over at Crucial UK, the DDR was actually CHEAPER than the CAS2 PC133 !!

 

[yaethom]

hey catbird,

I think it would be a LOT more useful if u do the test with MORE SDRAM than DDR. This is because SDRAM is the cheaper alternative. And most people run into the dilemma of: 512 of SDRAM? or 256 of DDR?

Just do the benchmarks with more SDRAM than DDR, that would help a lot of ppl.

Tom

 

[Catbird]

Geeze, I am sorry, all I have is the 384 megs of PC-150 Mushkin at hand, the two sticks of DDR I have are both 256 each so I don't have enough. I guess I could pull out one of the 128 meg sticks of Pc 150 so I would have 256 and then try the DDR with only one stick ( can I do that? Do I have to have DDR in both slots?) so that at least they are both being tested with 256 instead of 384 and 512. Whatach think?
It is hard for me right now to get into this very large case ( live in death valley) and it gets so hot here we have to have a lot of case fans blowing a whole lot of air around to keep things cool enough and I broke my back in a car wreck two months ago and am having a hard time healing so I am off to a bit of a slow start but I will do what I can.

 

[majewski9]

DDR sdram is the best choice, but I would wait for the Nforce chipset. DDR chipsets have not matured like the SDRAM chipsets have. The current chipsets don't have much on the KT133A chipset which still uses PC133.