IF you were building a new system, what would you do?? Think about it.

[Whitedog]

?IF? (and I?m not), were in the process of building a new system and were limited on $$$, but you HAD TO HAVE 1GB of RAM. What would you do?

For RAM + Video Card + CPU + HD, you had $500 for these items...

Would you build System A:
1GB 333Mhz DDR @ $240 (gestimation price from Pricewatch of 2x512pc2700)
Athlon XP 1800+ @ $70
Radeon 64MB 8500 @ $90
WD 60GB 7200rpm @ $90
Total price for items = $490

OR--- would you build System B:
1GB PC 133 @$80 (2x512MB on pricewatch)
Athlon XP2200+ @ $145
GeForce 128MB Ti4200 @ $145
WD 100GB 7200rpm @ $120
Total Price = $490

Sorry, I know DDR is the new thing, but pound for pound, it?s getting to look more like RAMBUS everyday in bang/buck. I truly believe System B would by far out perform system A. in MANY areas.

Of course, if money was not a limiting factor and you wanted the ultimate PC you wouldn?t contemplate this, but for many that POST here is IS a serious factor.

I?m just voicing that spending the money wisely can get you more bang for the buck. I believe that PC133 systems still offer the better ratio.

I?m interested in hearing others comments on this.

.02
Whitedog

 

[Muse]

I'm thinking the same thing as far as bang for the buck in RAM, but as pointed out it's getting hard to find MBs that support SDRAM, so you have to figure your investment in RAM if you buy SDRAM will go down when you retire that MB. If that's OK with you, then get the SDRAM. PC2100-->PC2700-->PC3000-->PC3200 has been the recent progression and I figure it will keep escalating, so you decide if your investment in DDR today will last 2 MB cycles. If it won't, again SDRAM makes sense if you're happy with the MB. BTW, I am planning a system, so that's why my head is into these things.

 

[Bovinicus]

Actually, even in that case I would choose DDR. The 5-20% increase in performance when using PC2100 as compared to PC133 has increased since it was first introduced. It's not only the fact that the memory is slower; the chipsets are more advanced now and come with better memory controllers. As well, PC2700 will perform even better. I can't imagine you needing that 1GB of memory for just simple gaming, and therefore your memory probably has a lot more to do with performance than your video card. I can't say for sure until you give us a better idea as to what you will be using your system for and why you need 1GB of memory.

 

[m1ke101]

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
Actually, even in that case I would choose DDR. The 5-20% increase in performance when using PC2100 as compared to PC133 has increased since it was first introduced. It's not only the fact that the memory is slower; the chipsets are more advanced now and come with better memory controllers. As well, PC2700 will perform even better. I can't imagine you needing that 1GB of memory for just simple gaming, and therefore your memory probably has a lot more to do with performance than your video card. I can't say for sure until you give us a better idea as to what you will be using your system for and why you need 1GB of memory.

i was wondering the same thing about the gig of memory...if you don't need that much ram you could get 512mb instead and get better parts.

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: Bovinicus
Actually, even in that case I would choose DDR. The 5-20% increase in performance when using PC2100 as compared to PC133 has increased since it was first introduced. It's not only the fact that the memory is slower; the chipsets are more advanced now and come with better memory controllers. As well, PC2700 will perform even better. I can't imagine you needing that 1GB of memory for just simple gaming, and therefore your memory probably has a lot more to do with performance than your video card. I can't say for sure until you give us a better idea as to what you will be using your system for and why you need 1GB of memory.

Agreed, if you need 1GB of memory it's probably not for gaming at all, so no need for a gaming video card. If say CAD or someting, then DDR would defintely be better.

 

[Athlon4all]

Hmmm. Quite Interesting. What kind of applications will be run on it? If apps are being run where file sizes are larger than 512MB, then I would be leaning towards the PC133. Not to mention, do you need such a high performance 3D Card and will your apps use the extra 277MHz of the 2200+? It all lkies in the application.

 

[Whitedog]

To be honest, I "AM" considering building a new system soon. Reason being my wife has officially took over my Server, so I'll need to build another computer soon.

Why do I need a server? I'm a programmer and require A server OS to run SQL 2000. I'm not going to load that on My box, because... yes! I am a Gammer myself! YEAH! aren't we all?

Anyway... amoung other things, I do a bit of graphics work as well... my latest toy is the Construction Set world builder for Morrowind. My current PC is XP1700+ with 768MB of PC133 and GF2GTS Vid Card.. This Construction set Puts my system to it's knees sometimes. I was working on a section the other day and noticed the application had 450MB in use.
I run WinXP with NO Memory Paging, so I can't afford to push my memory over it's max.

What I'm thinking of doing is turning My current PC into a server (which I will need soon because of this project coming up at work). Without my server at home, I have to stay and work late. Yuk! I'd much rather work at home as much as possible.
If I have to build another system, I'm not going to have a thousand bux to do so. I "WILL" need killer Video (games, graphics programs I use)... I WILL need GigaGobs of HD space... I WILL need TONS of memory...

I figure the Extra Bang in the CPU and Video card will make up tremendously in performance vs. using Cheezy Vid Card and Slower CPU. I would Love to go with a DDR platform, but since I have all the parts but the ones I listed (plus mobo, I gotta buy one of those too) and only need to spend about $600, I will probably have to go with the SDRAM setup.

That's my situation.

As far as "Not needing" that much ram if you're a Gammer... well, I've done a bit of looking into Hardware resources that games use. Some games will Use a TON of memory (if you have it) and increase performance a lot. I had a game once that loaded up around 500MB on my system. Some of the games coming out in the near future will be even more aggressive, so even someone who just games "can" benifit with a GB of ram. True, most games won't use it, but some will, and certainly newer games.

Athlon4all - to answer you're question <<do you need such a high performance 3D Card and will your apps use the extra 277MHz of the 2200+? >>
Yes. Morrowind Construction Set relies on CPU + VideoCard performance mostly, and RAM... if I only had 512 MB Ram, I would have to enable Memory Paging (Yuk!)

 

[microAmp]

price watch has a listing 512 MB DDR for $93 ea. = $186, now you have an extra $50 to play with on a CPU or video card.

Edit: That's for PC2100, PC2700 is $107 ea. = $214.

But why use PC2700 instead of PC2100? Didn't mention chipsets or o/c. so I'm guessing no o/c.

 

[bigboxes]

I think that you are crippling the performance of your system by sacrificing on your ram. Do what I'm doing. I am upgrading part by part as I can afford it. I have a new beefier psu (Antec TruePower 430W), kt333raid mobo (Abit KX7-333R), XP1600+ cpu, and copper hsf. I am going to order the memory (512mb Corsair XMS3200C2) by the end of this week. When it arrives, I will have a faster pc. Total cost for the upgrade = $469 shipped. You can probably do this cheaper (under $400) if you already have the psu, and lose the raid if you won't use it. Then all you have to do is get the video card. Of course, with this setup I plan to o/c to XP2200+ level. Why don't you buy 512mb of ram to start off with and then get another stick when you can afford it? When I get a new video card all I will have to purchase is a case and then my current setup becomes a second pc!

~box

 

[Muse]

Whitedog,

If you already have your 1 GB SDRAM, presumable 2 512 MB sticks and need an economical MB you might consider the blow-out for the ECS K7S5A for $53, free shipping at Newegg.com. Supports 2 DDR or 2 SDRAM for max of 1 GB. Supports up to Athlon 2200+ XP CPU.