512MB of PC133 vs 256MB of PC2700

[Booster]

I have an option to trade my 2*256MB PC133 sticks for one 256MB PC2700 DDR stick for free. Should I do it? I'm afraid the reduced memory size wouldn't be enough for my system. Shall I notice any significant drop in performance with only 256MB of RAM?

System specs are:

Windows XP Pro
P4 Celeron
ECS P4S5A/DX+ board, 2SDR+2DDR slots.


What would you do?

 

[Lonyo]

When I had 1024MB RAM, boot up took 140MB, just with small amount of stuff that was there when Windows first started, with 256MB RAM, it's now around 90MB, so the amount shouldn't be too much of a problem, as Windows (in my case Win 2k) seems to apadpt to the new amount. The faster RAM might also help in things like games. Depends on whether you do RAM intensive things though, image work might benifit more from more ram, even if it is slower. Maybe you could take out one 256MB stick at the moment and see if it's much worse?

 

[Booster]

Maybe you could take out one 256MB stick at the moment and see if it's much worse?

That's a good suggestion. I think I should try that before I make the final decision.

 

[ProviaFan]

With Windows XP Pro, if you do more than just basic internet browsing and email, you'll probably find 512MB of RAM to make your system more responsive than 256MB of faster DDR.

 

[Woodchuck2000]

Definitely 512Mb PC133.

The overall performance difference between a DDR system and an SD-RAM system isn't actually that great.

 

[jeffrey]

IMO I would take the even trade for the single 256mb stick of PC2700 and save up for a second stick to fill your second memory slot, since you are running XP. I just checked at Crucial and a second PC2700 memory module would only cost $58.99. Under $60 to switch from 512mb of PC133 to 512mb of PC2700 sounds like a great price for a nice upgrade.

 

[LED]

On XP 512 MB will serve you better but the bytes from jeffrey make a whole lotta sense.