Which DDR RAM to buy?

[Mysterio]

as the subject says...

I have 2 choices here:
1. Mushkin PC2100 128MB DDR SDRAM $164
2. Crucial PC1600 128MB DDR SDRAM $77.39

Same amount of quantity of RAM but different FSB, is it worth to waste another $90 just to get the top of the line, i.e. the PC2100 ??

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

 

[Biggs]

Let me put it this way, if you want an additional 10-15% increase in performance, take the Mushkin.

 

[Mysterio]

Hmm...that's a good question...
I dun play games too much, but are games going to go obviously faster w/ the PC2100 RAM?? Can you notice it??

Say, if I paired up the PC1600 RAM w/ the Athlon (Thunderbird) we now already have in the market, how much more performance can I expect from our usual PC-133 or even PC-100 counterparts??
Any articles on this one? I've been trying to look for it...
thanks

 

[spamboy]

With the savings from the Crucial memory you could put it toward a better video card or something, which would make a much larger difference than faster system memory.

 

[Finality]

Mushkin is not worth 2X the price. Get the Crucial.

 

[ruckb]

Hi,

Do you have a 133MHz FSC Processor ?
If not, then take the PC1600, because, the mem bandwith don't helps to much, if you can not get it to the processor!

Do you have any closer spec to the DIMMs?
Normally, the PC2100 will run as 2.5-3-3, and I expect the PC1600 to run as 2-2-2. Therefore for Random accesses the PC1600 is as fast (or even faster as the PC2100.

What board do you have ???

bye

ruckb


P.S. you will never get 10% - 15% Performance increase from PC1600 to PC2100 (not even for switching from PC100 SDR to PC2100 DDR)

 

[Passions]

oops

 

[PliotronX]

Plus there's a possibility of the 1600 being able to overclock to 2100

 

[Mysterio]

ruckb,
is it really true that there's not much performance gain if I switch from using PC-100 SDRAM to PC1600 DDR SDRAM and use similar mobos from same company.
I thought of buying the Gigabyte GA7DX

Anyone else got better suggestion ?

 

[Dulanic]

<< Let me put it this way, if you want an additional 10-15% increase in performance, take the Mushkin. >>



If your talking because its PC1600 vs PC2100 then yes! But Crucial should be releasing PC2100 SOON! They already have a ton of engineering samples.

 

[Dulanic]

<< P.S. you will never get 10% - 15% Performance increase from PC1600 to PC2100 (not even for switching from PC100 SDR to PC2100 DDR) >>



Yes you will! With PC1600 you can only run a 100Mhz bus! Atleast until we see the VIA DDR chipset.

 

[Jumpem]

Micron(a.k.a. Crucial) is already mass producing PC2100. They have been for over a month. However they are using ALL of it for their 266FSB Athlon systems that they sell through their MicronPC branch. Lead times for those systems are over a month, so they do not have enough PC2100 to sell just the modules to the public. They make much more money by supplying the entire computer.

 

[NucleusWDS]

I'll get the PC2100 ... in March from Crucial, that's what they've told me.

I-Will's just sent me an engineering sample board utilising VIA's KT133A chipset ... the model is KK266-R
A FULL review on this board soon ... Keep your eyes peeled on AMD3D.com

See ya .....

 

[ruckb]

Hi Mysterio,

I don't know, why many people are thinking just because of using a 33% faster memory they will have a 33% faster Computer.
There are some benchmarks, that show this high performance increase for DDR compared to SDR, but most of the benchmarks show a performance increase from SDR to DDR from 5 to 10%. And I believe this benchmarks are true.
Of corse this are not synthetical benchmarks, that are showing a much higher increase, but this have nothing to do with normal applications. Of cours it is difficult to make any true comparision between SDR and DDR, and that is the reason, why I do not believe all what Im reading.

If your system stays the same, and only the Memory is different, then I would suggest, to spend your money first for a faster graphicscard.
If you are going to exchange board (DDR, ATA100, ...), proc (higher frequency, higher FSB, ...), new graphicscard, then I would suggest to add DDR too. Then you will have a faster system.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to say DDR is not good. It is definitly the next generation memory. But just the exchange SDR to DDR is still to expensive.




ruckb

 

[Mysterio]

that's very true...
quite expensive to migrate over to PC2100, but on the other hand the PC1600 parts are selling so much cheaper...
funny yeah ??

 

[Finality]

I'm not sure on the spec of the PC1600 DDR but I suspect its 8ns just 0.5 ns short of the PC2100 spec.

That memory should easily do the PC2100 spec. Whether it does it @ 2-2-2 is another question.

 

[ruckb]

HI,

the PC1600 spec is a 100MHz FSB. Therefore a cycle time of 10ns. But most of the chips should be already -8, and therefore even tested to a tck of 125MHz.
I have tested DDR modules, that are doing PC2100 at 222 without problems. the most critical parameter was tRP, that caused some single cell fails. therefore a timing of 232 was necessary to run them without problems (no problem for ECC DIMMs, as they will correct the single cells). The DIMMs where even running at 150MHz FSB (incl the Athlon ;-) )without problems.
One other difference between PC2100 and PC1600 is the CL, that is with PC2100 2.5 cycles and for PC1600 2 cycles!


therefore you are right, that DIMMs with -8 devices are quite close to the PC2100 specs, and there is a good chance to overclock them!

ruckb

 

[Jumpem]

Ruckb, do you know which, if any, brands of PC2100 run at 2-2-2? Thanks for the help!

 

[Dulanic]

Crucial seems to be doing good at overclocking. Even if it doesnt run PC2100 CL2 there is also now CL 2.5 which is new, you may not get PC2100 CL2 out of PC1600 but you may get PC2100 CL2.5 which is about .1-.3% slower according to some benchmarks I saw.

 

[dolphins]

Just in case you guys are interested in pc2100 ddr from crucial, here is what i got back from them in an e-mail regarding it.

Hello Steven,
We will have PC2100 DDR memory by the end of March. Until then we have
PC1600 DDR available on the web site.



Curt Erskine
VAR Sales Account Manager Eastern Region

 

[Mysterio]

Well, the engineering sample of PC2100 RAM from Crucial is out for sale, I forgot the URL though, I'll post it up here if I can find it....