Need Memory Advice. DDR Vs. Rambus

[gooseman]

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

If I were going to build a system with a P4 1.8 overclocked to, say 2.4, which would be the better route for memory? I've heard that RDRAM is better but that you can't push it as far as DDR! Any truth to that? What would you guys use?

Thanks,
William

 

[HouRman]

From what I heard, RIMM/Rambus/RDram would be the way to go.

I remember when a stick of it costed $1000. And everybody hated rambus 🙂 Now the prices arn't too bad and it is better than DDR.

In an overclocking system I heard RDRAM would actually be better than ddr.

 

[captdilly117]

NO! DDR!

 

[AndyHui]

Go with RDRAM for the best performance.

Even if you cannot get your RDRAM up to PC1066 level (133MHz x 4), you can always change the multiplier.

 

[Athlon4all]

AndyHui summed it up. People will claim that the 845-D Asus P4B266 overclocks much better than any 850 board, but the reailty is that while Asus P4T-E doesn't overclock as well as P4B266, Abit TH7II does just as good as P4B266. And the best part is that the P4T-E and TH7II both support 533fsb and if PC1066 RDRAM would ever get launched, then a 850+PC1066+533fsb will widen the gap between 845-D to in games around 10-15% so it is very much worth it, especially with current prices.

 

[RazeOrc]

Actually Athlon4all, Abit TH7-II and ASUS P4T-E support PC1200+ due to the insane FSB settings available for both boards so long as there is a BIOS flash and PC1066/1200 use the same slot 😉. Oh and as for Overclocking, just change the Ram multiplier, you can OC the piss out of your processor, throw in a PCI divider when you OC and you should be able to just run your processor really fast, and not even worry about data corruption, 🙂

 

[tornadobox]

if cost is in consideration, RDRAM is not THAT much more expensive than DDR right now, but the intel850 chipset boards are still fairly more expensive than the 845D chipset boards...just something to keep in mind.

 

[MasterHoss]

Definately RDRAM. The "they" say that the latency issue present with RDRAM almost goes away as processor speeds go up. If you OC past the 2GHz barrier, latency should be nonexistent. Moreover, as mentioned above, the difference in price between PC2100 DDR SDRAM and PC800 RDRAM is minimal...it's worth it to spend a little extra to maximize that processor.

 

[gooseman]

Well, I'm leaning in the RDRAM direction. That seems to be the majority vote here and cost is not much of a factor. I thank all you guys for responding, you have certainly given me something to think about.

William