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Choice question...performance gain?

G

Geocross

Member
Ok, basically, I'm building a DDR sysytem with an AMD chip. with the money I budgeted, these are the two possible combinations I could get for about the same price. Which do you think is better?

1. AMD 1ghz 266fsb
DDr motherboard (haven't made a choice yet, but the Iwill looks promising)
128MB PC2100 RAM

2. AMD 1ghz 200fsb
Same motherboard
512MB PC1600 RAM

FYI, I will be using Win2k for an O/S

Please don't reccommend a KT133 motherboard or anything of the ilk, because IMHO, anyone building a new system today with performance and longevity (sp?) down the road in mind, would be foolish not to go the DDR path (unless you're and RDRAM fan). PC133 is dying.... regardless of comparable performance today.
 
That's a tough call there... The FSB difference and memory speed will make the difference between 512MB and 128MB fairly hard to notice in most applications... I would go with the 266/PC2100 combo though, unless you're running very RAM-intensive programs and need all that extra RAM.
 


<< PC133 is dying.... >>

😱

If you think PC-133 is dying, go read the reviews (Tom's and Anandtech's) on the KT133A chipset.

You get the same or better performance without having to spend more for DDR ram.

 
I said that although right now the performance is compatible, PC133 ram and KT133A boards will be become obselete in the future as more applications rely on greater memory bandwidth. What's more, the cost off DDR should be the same as PC133, since it's pretty much the same manufacturing process (geeze, 256MB of PC1600 cost $96 @ crucial). Basically my comment was that if you are building a new computer today for the long term, you would be foolish not to go the DDR path (and KT133A boards are no bargain over DDR boards either)
 
I would go for the Athlon 1 gig 200 and 512Mb RAM because the 200 Athlons are doing fine at 133 (266) bus speeds, and that extra RAM would give you a nice increase in performance.

-Matt
 
Yea, that's what I was initially thinking that too, but I've never overclocked before (but I'm going to learn reaaall soon). When I buy a CPU, its either got to come unlocked or if it's locked I have to do &quot;the pencil trick&quot; (though I'm not really sure how). Then I would use the bios (my MB will defiitely have bios or windows tweaking... no onbard jumper crap) to increase the front side bus. Right?
 
DDR is coming but PC133 won't be going anywhere soon.

You're right that DDR will be the technology of the future, but it will be in about 1 and half years. So if you have a KT133 or KT133A you're sitting pretty for another year and a half or more.

That's why I bought my KT133 (KT7-RAID) and a Duron 600@894 last fall. This time next year I could go out and buy a 1.2Ghz (or by that time a faster) Tbird and be able to run just great (just think how cheap a 1.2Ghz will be this time next year). One of the things I've noticed is that the hardware has gone through the roof but the software hasn't caught up yet.

DDR is good, there just isn't anything to take advantage of it right now. By the time there is good software to use this newfound bandwidth, the next technology breakthrough will be here (read NEW SOCKET CONFIGURATION). When this happens you have no choice but to upgrade. That's why the P4 is such a lost cause right now. No upgrade path. If you buy one now, the socket config is just going to change in 6 months and you are stuck, just like those that bought the Slot A Athlons.
 
To me it doesnt ever make sense to go out and buy the very best the day it is released.

It makes more sense right now to stick with pc133 ram because of the price difference. With the money you'd save sticking to pc133 you'll be able to upgrade to ddr in a few months... and then you'll have two motherboards/cpu/ram setups instead of one.

Just my opinion.
 
PC1600 DDr RAM and PC133 are priced the same. Why not use the DDr ram in a DDR board since you will have better upgradability in the future (and the KT113A boards are jsut as expensive as DDR boards)
 
be carefull when adjusting the fsb in the bios.. if you fvck up.. you might not post.. so then you'll have to fvck around with the cmos jumper anyways.. to reset the bios.. or something like that.. it hasn't happened to me (non-oc'd).. but I have been reading threads about this lately...
 
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