next up RAM............

[4fingerwu]

ok I decided on the CPU, motherboard and hard drive that I want in my first comp .....
so next up is RAM and I need a little bit of input -
first off I was thinking of going with 512 mb DDR 2100
by the way my motherboard will be the Gigabyte GA-8iexp, HD is WD 80gb with 8mb cache-
CPU will be a P4- was going to go with the 1.6GHZ but prices seem to be falling so quick I may just go with 2.0-2.4
back to the RAM - will I see a noticeable performance increase with 512mb as opposed to 256?
also what is the difference in the RAM by different companies that account for the huge price difference?
For example I see 512 mb off DDR 2100 ranging from around $110 dollars all the way up to $170 -
any brands and companies that you could recomend would be appreciated
Peace
4Finger

 

[smp]

I like crucial ram ... if you're just running win2k/xp and you don't do any photochopping, sound work, video or 3D rendering then 256 will be just fine, that's what I run and I never swap.

edit: and I dabble in the afformentioned types of apps without a qualm as well.

 

[Wolfsraider]

256 is a great place to start
if you feel more is needed then you can always upgrade later

the difference in price relates to cas timings brand names and supply and demand

cas 2 is supposed to be the best as seen here
but again that is subjective on your needs/cash flow it also depends on if you're overclocking or not

corsair,muskin,kingston and samsung seem to be the top 4 with the first 2 being the better performers

i'd look into going higher than 1.6 since the upgrade would last longer but ymmv (your milage may vary)

and i'd try to stay at cas 2.5 or 2 for best results

hope this helps
mike

 

[Smithy18]

It seems everyone that is building a new p4 system opts for DDR over RDRAM. Just wondering if I could get some info as to why...besides price of course...
Thanks for any info.

Regards