DDR vs SDRAM for video editing

[mgos]

I am buying a ECS K7S5A motherboard and it has SDRAM and DDR modules on it. I am primarily using my computer for video editing with Adobe Premiere. Does anyone know if it would be worth the extra money for the DDR memory instead of SDRAM? Thanks in advance.
Matt

 

[ripthesystem]

DDR isn't that much more expensive right now. and it's definately faster- I say that's what you should get. no question

ripthesystem

 

[ElFenix]

ddr sdram is the way to go.

 

[paralazarguer]

I have just that motherboard in one of my secondary systems. In soundforge I found that going from PC133 to DDR266 shortened my 45 minute resample operation to 33minutes on an Athlon XP 1700+. You don't want to starve your processor.

 

[mgos]

Thanks a lot. I think I will go with the DDR.

 

[Scottee]

I'm thinking about building a new system. At what point would PC133 start holding back the potential of the processor? Like, for an Athlon XP 1600+, DDR is probably significantly better. But at the same time, DDR on a PIII 800 probably doesn't make as big of a difference. What about on a Duron 1.2? Or 1.3? Cuz I have a lot of PC133 and don't want to waste it and buy all new DDR if I don't have to. So at what point does the type of RAM start being the bottleneck of the system?

 

[JSSheridan]

Originally posted by: Scottee
I'm thinking about building a new system. At what point would PC133 start holding back the potential of the processor? Like, for an Athlon XP 1600+, DDR is probably significantly better. But at the same time, DDR on a PIII 800 probably doesn't make as big of a difference. What about on a Duron 1.2? Or 1.3? Cuz I have a lot of PC133 and don't want to waste it and buy all new DDR if I don't have to. So at what point does the type of RAM start being the bottleneck of the system?

DDR is a must for the Athlon XP, and for the Duron 1.2 or 1.3GHz. This is because the peak data bandwidth's of the processors has increased and the memory's bandwidth has to keep up with it so it can provide information to the CPU. The Athlon XP has a bandwidth of 2.1GB/s, and DDR 266 (PC 2100) memory has the same. For the Duron, the bandwidth is 1.6GB which matched the bandwidth of DDR 200 (PC 1600). With the P3 700 I'm currently using (don't laugh, I'm a student. You just wait until I get my engineering degree...), my PC 133 actually has more bandwith than the processor, so DDR for the P3 would be a waste really.

As a rule, I would go one grade higher on the memory than what I stated above. The memory isn't just suppling data to the CPU, but it's also sending/recieving data to/from the video card, sound card, hard drives, ect. This means that an Athlon XP should have DDR 333 (PC2700), and the Duron should have DDR 266. Hope this is helpful. Good luck finding and building a system. Peace.

 

[Scottee]

Thanks. That helps a lot. So pretty much, anything above a Duron 1.2, the PC133 would start bottlenecking the bandwidth. DDR seems the way to go then, especially with prices coming down.

And I don't laugh at a PIII 700 cuz I'm currently on a PII 400. PLUS, the system I'm building isn't even my own box. It's for my family. After I finish that, I finally get to upgrade.