CAS2 or CAS2.5

[bazzla]

While on the face of it the choice is easy, the lower the better I would like opinons on what RAM to buy.

I am going to purchase a new motherboard with KT333 chipset.

The question I have is, what would give me better performance, PC2100 CAS2 or PC2700 CAS2.5?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

[John]

Check out Samsung original PC2700 @ newegg.com

Since you are going for a KT333 chipset, PC2700 is a more viable solution (166MHz FSB). Samsung memory is highly spoken of around here, and the price is very attractive.

 

[bazzla]

John,

I see where you're coming from on the 166MHz issue, but as the CPU's FSB is going to be 133MHz it will not be able take advantage of the higher memory bandwidth.
I know the benchies do show some performance improvement with DDR333 vs DDR266, but I cannot get any clarification on what memory timings are used for said benchies.

Will the new AMD processors work on the VIA KT333 platform? (as in Hammers)
I assume that they will have a 166DDR FSB. ? .

Thanks again.

 

[gregor7777]

For quite some time the Athlon ran on a 100mhz FSB where the memory was at 133mhz.

BTW, the Hammer will be at a 2 Uber-Flop FSB, so your board will not suffice.

 

[JohnnyTT]

Go with PC2700 or greater that is Cas 2. I know Corsair has 3000 Cas 2 memory. There are some ohters too.

 

[FishTankX]

The performance difference is negligible. *But* if you get PC2700 you'll be able to carry your memory over to the hammer platform later..
The best would be CAS 2.0 PC2700 but that's Corsair only and pricey. You'll see a 2 or 3% performance boost.. I think.

The place where the extra bandwidth comes in handy is AGP, when you've got lots of triangles flying over the bus (have to compute bandwidth for AGP seperatley from FSB, so the AthlonXP with a fully loaded AGP bus (not gonna happen, but this is an example) and a fully loaded fsb (not gonna happen, but this is an example) will consume 3.2GB/s. SO theoretically CAS 2.0 PC2700 can help out some.

 

[mastertech01]

I run dual Athlon boards with Samsung PC2100 that is CAS 2.5 ... It benches the same performance as PC1600. I would spend a little more and get CAS 2 what ever you get.