DDR mobo or not?

[MementoMori]

I'm gonna upgrade to an Athlon system within short, but I'm a little unsure about the choice of motherboard and memory.

I'm getting a 1.2GHz Tbird, that much is clear. Power Supply, cooling device and a new keyboard will also be bought.

Now to my questions:

1. Is it really a good idea to go with a DDR-system? The mobo as well as the RAM modules will cost a bit more, and as far as I know the performance boost is no more than 5%, especially with the Via-chipset.

2. How good is the Athlon to overclock? What about compared to the Duron? At what frequency can you safely run a 1.2GHz without putting the thing in the fridge?

3. What kind of cooling device would ya'all recommend? Copper-based? A papst fan? I'm anything but an expert in that area...

Thanx in advance,
Magnus

 

[Athlon4all]

1. Go DDR, boards are the same price as the KK266 or A7V133, Crucial sells DDR for the same price as SDR equivalents. If u're gonna oc, then get the Epox 8K7A+, it's da best for ocing.
2. Dunno, I'm using a Duron 800, and it's hit 870MHz, I probably could hit 925MHz, but my mobo doesn't have multiplier adjustment.
3. Dunno either, I'm using a Volcano II for my Duron 870 and it keeps the temps in the 40-50C range. I have heard Volcano 5 is supposed to be great.

 

[yazz]

SDRAM is dead. there is no reason for someone to go to a SDRAM based system unless they are short on money and planning to use their existing SDRAM. RAM is soooo cheap right now!!!! i would buy as much as i can afford and make sure it is quality DDR RAM--either from Micron, Crucial, Mushkin or Corsair. i really doubt these current prices are going to hold. i think we hit the bottom for RAM prices. i paid about $450 dollars for a stick of high performance PC133 256MB DIMM towards the end of 1999.

In my opinion about the motherboard.... i would get the MSI K7T 266 PRO RAID. very stable board, very overclockable and fast as well. make sure you flash the board to the lastest bios revision (1.4v).
I would take your chances with a 1ghz athlon. i have been hearing that there is a new stepping of this chip and that some people have taken it up to 1.4 and 1.6ghz. for a cooler i would get a ThermalRight, but i would check out www.hardocp.com June Heatsink roundup.

 

[jaggrey]

I went through the same thing you're going through.....you can checkout my sig to see what I did!

 

[jaggrey]

Also, I was looking to get a Taisol copper-based fan/heatsink, but it was a little too expensive for my tastes. This Cooler Master that I have is holding it's own, and doing it well I might add.

 

[whitelight]

1. go DDR. sdram is getting outdated. DDR will last you much longer in the future.
2. my 1.2 tbird hits 1.466 stable. it doesn't post at 1.5ghz, but some ppl have been able to get there 1.2's up to 1.5 and higher.
3. i have a taisol copper base hsf. pretty quiet and decent cooling. i would recommend the new vantec copper cooler though. i've read many good reviews about it. sells for ~$35.

 

[jkellynewyork]

I say go DDR also.

Price is great.

I just started getting into building computers and built an SDRAM system for myself after hearing great things about ASUS a7v133a mobo's. I wish I would have did a little more research cause the DDR is the way to go from what I hear.

 

[FlippyBoy]

as everyone before me said, ddr is the way to go. i am a happy user of the OCZ gladiator (four of them, actually), so i would reccomend that one.