DDR Ram w/ newer athlon cpu's

[blakeyez]

Hey everyone

I'm looking at buying a new mboard/cpu and am definatly going the AMD route. However, I have a question:

If I were to buy a board based on the KT133A chipset (eg: the asus a7a or iwill kk266, or abit kt7a - I already have a plain old kt7 in my 'old' machine), would I be able to use plain old pc133 (or "pc150&quot sdram? Or am I confined to using pc2100 ddr?

There have been so many developments in the industry that I haven't had the time to keep up with so I am now fumbling in the dark a little now that I have some cash to spend... So I'm not even totally sure if the kt133a chipset uses ddr ram?

Thanks for any help!

David

 

[xcourse]

The KT133A chipset is an SDRAM chipset; no DDR-SDRAM.

 

[Swanny]

What xcourse said. You will be able to use only single data rate SDRAM. The KT133a is really just an improvement over the KT133. It adds official support for the 133Mhz system bus and a few other goodies.

 

[blakeyez]

Thanks guys - as I said, I haven't paid enough attention this last while to know what goes with what

So, if I were to buy a kt133a-based board, what would I want to look for in the way of processor? Are there specific athlons for ddr and for sdram?

What I'd preferably like to do is have a system in which I can use either ddr OR sdram... That way I could buy large quantities of the *very* cheap sdram right away then upgrade to ddr when and if I feel the need...

I remember seeing a mboard with both sdram and ddr support; would I be able to use the same processor with either type of ram?

Thanks guys!
David

 

[blakeyez]

Ack I just realized I made a fool of myself quoting the a7a as a kt133a-based board... DOH! It's the board I was thinking of with the 2ddr and 3sdram slots.

David

 

[Dark4ng3l]

The ali chipset when using ddr is almost as fast as a kt133a chipset. It's alot slower with sdram though, stay away.

 

[blakeyez]

Okay... well from what I've been reading for the past couple of hours, and from this topic, I think I'm going to stick with the kt133a and not pay the price for ddr.

What I'm lookin at is getting either the Asus A7V133 or the IWill KK266-R with an Athlon 1.33GHz oem processor, along with a stick or two of Corsair PC150 CAS2 256Mb ram... Any comments/suggestions? Is Corsair a decent brand of ram to get? It's reasonably cheap for me to get which is the main reason I chose it...

David

 

[Rostig]

Ali chipset is crap.

 

[SpeedTrap]

just get a 8k7a by Epox it uses teh most stable chipset so far the 760/1 and get some crucial ddr

 

[salman327]

Yeah but I've heard a few printer problems and such w/ the 8k7a, nothing major though, and those problems were probably easily resolved. If you want DDR, go Epox 8k7a, or Gigabyte 7dx

 

[SleepyGuy]

ummm... what price for DDR? the price difference is next to nothing! check out crucial.com

 

[salman327]

w/ the state tax calculated in, I can get 512 mb (2 sticks of 256) of pc2100 from crucial.com shipped for $102. Damn that's just a good deal, and like 256 would be 1/2 that...so $51 bucks.

 

[blakeyez]

I can get 512mb of sdram for about $110 canadian (about $70US I believe)... I am on a relatively tight budget right now as I'm looking at moving out this summer (just gradded high school... never have to return to that accursed place again! hehe) so I've gotta keep some money stashed away just in case.

I dunno, when I'm sure I want to spend the money on this, I'll decide whether or not to go the ddr route.

Thanks for all the help guys.

David

 

[kylebisme]

but do you realy need 512mb right now anyway and force yourself into a ageing solution or would you be beter off with much more memory bandwith wich will eventualy play a very vital role in the preformace of your computer and be able to add more ram later?

 

[blakeyez]

Okay you guys (along with various articles and some thinking) have me convinced that DDR's the way to go... I want to get the epox 8K7A board but can't seem to find it anywhere canadian (looked at newegg as it seems highly-regarded by many around here but they won't ship to canada)!

Can anyone recommend a good canadian reseller? Preferably in BC but anywhere in canada will do... NCIX.com in vancouver is usually pretty good but doesn't have the epox board

Thanks...
David