Bro just ordered a laptop with 8 ns RAM instead of 30 ns RAM for mo $$$

[bovinda]

I've never heard of measuring RAM in nanoseconds. I guess you could convert from MHz to ns? Anyway, he upgraded from 512 of "30 ns RAM" to 1.5 GB of "8 ns RAM" because the guy said it made like 3-4x difference. It was like a 200$ difference.

I feel like it's not a worthwhile investment, but I don't know for sure. Does the speed of RAM make that big a difference (as in, 10-20% improvement or so)?

And...is it okay to have 2 different-sized sticks of RAM (he's getting one 1 GB and one 512 MB)? I thought in some mobos you wanted two of the same kind and size of RAM, but is that no longer true? (Or was that never true? I've been out of it for awhile.)

Should I tell him to try and change the order? I'm not sure, but I think he was ordering a Toshiba A105-S4014 from this place called MP Superstore: link.

Edit: I should say I know enough to know that 3-4x faster is ridiculous--so what I'm asking is--would it even be a 10-20% jump in performance, or no?

Any constructive input is appreciated.

 

[arcenite]

lol

 

[RadiclDreamer]

i havent seen ns ratings on memory in AGES. Id say he got took since no memory is going to make 3-4 times the dif

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Ok, you can't have 30ns ram, you must be freaking crazy.

ns => MHz = 1000/time...

Example, my SDRAM 133 chips are rated 7.5 ns.. 1000/7.5 = 133.

Edit: Whoops.. 6ns DDR is DDR333.. I always get tripped up with double pumped stuff =P.. just like everytime I calculate bandwidth I'm off by a factor of 2 =P

 

[hans007]

well technically 6ns ddr is 333mhz, its double pumped on the clock.


that said, yeah he got taken.

 

[F1shF4t]

Ahh the useless sales people.... haha....
I actually had one guy tell me that ATIcarda are ablosute best at open gl and nvidia ones do not even support it.
I almost burst out laughing right in from of the guy. What a tool he was

 

[otispunkmeyer]

lol 30ns ram.....

 

[Effect]

Hmm, if memory serves, RDRAM/RAMBUS is something like 32/40ns, but i didn't think RD was pin compatible with normal SD stuff. Eh, I might be wrong.

 

[jackschmittusa]

I think the salesman is a little shady.

 

[gsellis]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
i havent seen ns ratings on memory in AGES. Id say he got took since no memory is going to make 3-4 times the dif

Wow, you are right! It took me awhile to figure it out. The last time I saw it that way was PI-II days and we had screaming 80ns memory on our 100MHz machines!

 

[thunderhorse]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
Ahh the useless sales people.... haha....
I actually had one guy tell me that ATIcarda are ablosute best at open gl and nvidia ones do not even support it.
I almost burst out laughing right in from of the guy. What a tool he was

Yeah! Been there, done that, got a t-shirt!!! Tell the customer what he wants to hear then breakout the lubricant. It would have sounded great with my DX4-100.
Remember boys and girls use .exe to play the games. And we're off!!!

 

[BurnItDwn]

Wow,
30ns ram is like, back from around the days of the 486. (33mhz bus)
No laptop could possibly hold 512mb of 30ns ram as the biggest sized 30ns chips were around 64MB iirc.
8ns ram is likely PC100 SDram. They haven't made that stuff in several years.

Unless ..... Does that Lappie use that wierd RDRAM stuff that had the funny latencies?

 

[HVAC]

Don't walk....RUN from this $*&@!!!!!

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
Wow,
30ns ram is like, back from around the days of the 486. (33mhz bus)
No laptop could possibly hold 512mb of 30ns ram as the biggest sized 30ns chips were around 64MB iirc.
8ns ram is likely PC100 SDram. They haven't made that stuff in several years.

Unless ..... Does that Lappie use that wierd RDRAM stuff that had the funny latencies?

Hmm...so from what everyone's saying...this sounds a little sketchy. I'll try and get the actual specs of the machine he ordered tonight.