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Argghhh...should I wait for AMD's DDR chipset or splurge now?

R

ricequeen

Junior Member
My computer is fairly outdated now: Pentium II 266, 64mb RAM, a single Voodoo2. I've been looking to do a major update on my computer, spending at most $800, so that by the time I get to college, my rig will be up to date. However, there are so many technologies looming on the horizon that I'm not sure if I should wait or splurge now. The deal is, I want to buy something before Christmas. Is AMD planning on releasing the DDR chipset by then, and if so, what do you think starting price for motherboards will be, alongside 256mb sticks of DDR ram? If the combined package is over $350, it'll be too rich for my blood. I honestly don't wish to have to purchase a new motherboard for around two years, to get 40+ frame rates with mid-level graphics in games by then. I doubt I'll experiment with resolutions any higher than 1024x768 or 1280x1024. So, what should I do?

And is there any crucial difference between PC133 and PC100 ram? What benefits would I get with PC133, assuming I go with CAS2?
 
I recommend getting a DDR system, becuase if you get a normal SDRAM system you may be wondering about SDRAM support in the future.

and also, you might want to consider a new video card along with the new RAM, MOBO, and possibly CPU!
 
well 256mb ddr sticks will be like $250 , and 256mb sdrams are $100 now, so if you are on a budget might as well go for it now, plus the difference is onlylike 10% , which you can spend the $150 you save on ram and $50 you save on motherboard on something else
 
it's not about speed right now, it's about upgradeability later on. how likely is it that normal SDRAM will become rarer as time goes on? fairly likely.

therefor, for the purpose of being able to upgrade your computer easier, and farther, get a DDR chipset. DDR Chipset based motherbaords SHOULD be out by christmas..
 
My vote goes to waiting. Dunno how long that wait will be, but Soccerman hit some good points.

Why upgrade now and be stuck with a dead chipset later?
 
personally , whenever i upgrade, i pretty much upgrade everything. If you are an upgradeaholic then go for ddr, but if you are not gonna touch this system for like a year, like rice queens present system which looks to be around 3 years old, then go for sdram
 
I'd take advantage of current RAM prices and get some name brand CAS2 PC133 and either the new MSI or Epox MB and spend what's left on a Radeon 32Mb DDR video card or GeForce MX. The new ALI DDR chipset supports both PC133 and DDR and others may as well. So down the road when prices are reasonable upgrade your MB and take your memory with you or sell it to someone who's further behind the curve and pick up some hopefully cheaper DDR.

Getting one of the 100MHz Durons or Tbirds to run with PC2100 DDR may be tough so you're looking at a higher cost for the the new AMD CPU if you go that way now. What's the point (for now anyway) of spending so much when your video card will probably be the bottleneck in any system you can afford to cobble together.

A Duron O/C'ed to 900+ with a decent video card and lots of cheap RAM will allow you to run with the big boys with lotsa room for future upgrades.

My $.02.

Super6
 
i'd have to agree with super 6...

sdram will probably stay with us for a little while anyway... id get a duron on a decent board and upgrade your video card... you could do it now... but if you want to wait prices drop about 20% in february... you could get a little extra memory and I KNOW the mombo will be much cheaper by then
 
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