Faster RAM or more RAM?

[karmasalad]

With RAM prices at a nice low, I feel like I should take advantage and buy my memory now for the eventual system upgrade I plan on doing in a month or two.

Will it be better for me to pick up two 512MB sticks of PC2100 = 1GB or one stick 512MB of PC2700? It'll be a price difference of ~$40. How much of a performance difference is there between PC2100 and PC2700?

I'll be building a P4 2.53 rig using the Intel's D845PEBT2 "Blue Mountain" motherboard. I don't overclock and I rarely game. This'll be a workstation that will be running apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, etc. Is 512 enough for these apps or should I go up to 1GB?

Thanks!

 

[Dotman]

M y selection of APPS exactly. Go a gig for sure.

dot

 

[Lord Evermore]

I almost wouldn't even bother to buy now for this purpose. You're essentially "speculating" in memory commodities, hoping that the price won't actually go down.

With a P4, I'd generally say PC2700 would be best since the P4 bus is so much faster, but I think all the apps you're using do much better with lots of memory, and I don't know how bandwidth affects them.

Of course, you could get the best of both worlds, and get a Granite Bay (or SiS 655 if you're not dedicated to Intel) board where dual channel PC2100 would provide all the bandwidth you need for a 533MHz bus processor.

 

[karmasalad]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
I almost wouldn't even bother to buy now for this purpose. You're essentially "speculating" in memory commodities, hoping that the price won't actually go down.

With a P4, I'd generally say PC2700 would be best since the P4 bus is so much faster, but I think all the apps you're using do much better with lots of memory, and I don't know how bandwidth affects them.

Of course, you could get the best of both worlds, and get a Granite Bay (or SiS 655 if you're not dedicated to Intel) board where dual channel PC2100 would provide all the bandwidth you need for a 533MHz bus processor.

Well, I'll be buying the RAM with an AMEX Gold card, so I'll have the BVG to protect me for a couple of months.

What are some good Granite Bay mobos to look at? I really like the Intel solution as it's rock solid, has lots of features, and I don't need any of the hardcore oc'ing features anyway.

 

[karmasalad]

Actually, I was just browsing Newegg for Granite Bay boards.. ouch. Way too expensive for me! The Intel BM2 only costs $121, a full $100 less than most of the GB options. It lacks FireWire, but it'd be cheaper to just drop in an add-in card for that.

Any other opinions on the original RAM question?

 

[Ben88]

I think you should get 512mb of the geil pc3500

 

[Sid59]

i vote single stick of PC2700 @ 512 MBs

 

[Lord Evermore]

What memory were you looking at? Kingston ValuRAM 512MB PC2700 is 66 dollars at Newegg, and PC2100 is 58 dollars. Not a huge price difference to just get a gig of PC2700. Even Corsair ValueSelect 512MB modules are only 68 dollars and 76 dollars. Of course once you get into the XMS type memory, the price jumps tremendously, and nobody bothers to make PC2100 low latency modules so you can't compare them. However they have Kingston HyperX PC2700 512MB at only 75 dollars (but not in stock). Googlegear has it for about the same price.

 

[moonshinemadness]

My worst mistake was thinking that More ram wasnt as good as faster speed ram, I went from 512 PC133 to 256 2100 and the change in speed was horrendous, it can be painfully slow sometimes, go for the 1 gig!

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
1600+ XP
Radeon 9700pro
256 DDR 2100

 

[AtomicDude512]

I would go for PC2700 so your P4 can use all that extra bandwidth.

 

[0roo0roo]

yea 256 is bad.very bad. i'm using 1gb now. 1942/simcity run nice.

windows xp claims its using slightly over 512mb physical mem right now..and i'm just neffing with some downloads, small apps, and outlook open!

 

[Budmantom]

If you are that worried about the price difference go with 768 of DDR 2700.

 

[Brian48]

I can't see investing a lot of money in PC2100 right now unless you really need it. I'd go with the PC2700 or higher only 'cause it's a little more future proof. It's incredible how low memory prices have fallen. I just picked two 256mb sticks of Samsung PC3200 for only $33 each.

 

[0roo0roo]

nothing is future proof with ddr 4000 already coming soon for xp 3000+ and p4's.

only a fool would think ram was an investment. by the time u upgrade to your next cpu who knows what ddr speeds we'll hit.

 

[Ilmater]

Originally posted by: moonshinemadness
My worst mistake was thinking that More ram wasnt as good as faster speed ram, I went from 512 PC133 to 256 2100 and the change in speed was horrendous, it can be painfully slow sometimes, go for the 1 gig!

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
1600+ XP
Radeon 9700pro
256 DDR 2100

No offense, but this comparison is ridiculous. 256MB is WAY too little RAM. Most programs (especially games) need 512MB of RAM in order to never need to access the hard drive, which is the biggest bottleneck in PCs. Dropping down to 256MB of RAM is a bad move. However, there aren't NEARLY as many programs that need more than 512MB of RAM. Sim City 4 and BF1942 are two that I know run better, as well as (from what I've heard) WC3.

I don't own anything Intel any more, so I have no idea how different the performance would be, but by increasing my FSB and RAM speed asynchronously (changing CPU multipliers in order to maintain a fairly constant speed) I can see a definite difference in speed in EVERY program I run.

 

[karmasalad]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
What memory were you looking at? Kingston ValuRAM 512MB PC2700 is 66 dollars at Newegg, and PC2100 is 58 dollars. Not a huge price difference to just get a gig of PC2700. Even Corsair ValueSelect 512MB modules are only 68 dollars and 76 dollars. Of course once you get into the XMS type memory, the price jumps tremendously, and nobody bothers to make PC2100 low latency modules so you can't compare them. However they have Kingston HyperX PC2700 512MB at only 75 dollars (but not in stock). Googlegear has it for about the same price.

I'm looking at Crucial prices. I can get 512MB PC2100 at $61 per, while a 512MB PC2700 will cost me $78.

I've looked at the Kingston RAM on Newegg, and it has gotten too many bad reviews for my taste. The price differential between Corsair and Crucial is minimal, and as I've always gotten my memory through Crucial with no problems, I don't see a reason to switch.

As for the comments about investing in PC2100 right now.. I only upgrade my machine about every 2 years, so I'm pretty sure that whatever I get now, in 2 years time, something much better and faster will be out by then, making this RAM a bit obsolete.

I'm just trying to figure out what will help me more based on how I intend to use my PC.

 

[Mist]

Gold card? That's soooo 20th century!

Get the platinum, or even better, the black one!

Michael.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I don't think you'd find many people using current Kingston HyperX that'd consider it a bad purchase, considering it's got way better timings and is cheaper than Crucial. The original HyperX was far less than hyper, having the most horrendous timing ratings.

I certainly don't consider 17 dollars difference for 512MB modules of the two speeds to be significant, when it means you could get both the higher speed and the full gig of memory, and only have spent 34 dollars more, 122 bucks compared to 156.

 

[Cerb]

Check Newegg. The price difference between PC2100 and PC2700 is not $40!
512MB PC2100: $58 (x2: $116)
512MB PC2700: $65 (x2: $130)
That's $14 difference. Go with 1GB PC2700.
Edit: The Crucial PC2700 has almost as many bad votes. Note that the more people buy it, the more people review it, and more people that review it, the more bad reviews there will be.