Quick Question about RDRAM and DELL...

[Funboy]

I'm planning on purchasing a Dell Dimension 8200 series and I was wondering if I could just get the least amount of RDRAM from Dell and purchase my own seperately and cheaper online.

I assume this is possible, but what do I need to be aware of? If I purchase 128mb from dell that means it comes in 2 * 64mb RIMMs right? Where do you all suggest getting RDRAM from online and is there any difference in quality between brands?

Thanks in advance!
Dru

 

[Salvador]

If I were you, I'd stay clear of RDRAM. It's just too expensive and the performance increase is not worth it. I have a friend that originally had a P3 800 mhz and Dell ended up replacing it because of weird problems. The replacement was a 1.4 mhz P4 with RDRAM. It came with 2 sticks of 64 mb for a total of 128 as you mentioned. I recently helped him upgrade and the best deal we could fine was when Dell was having a 25% off plus free shipping, no tax deal. I guess we could've saved a few pennies from some place off of Pricewatch, but it wasn't worth the hassle. Still.. He spend more than 4x the amount on the same amount of RAM than I did for PC133. Just rediculous IMO.

RAMBUS is basically in trouble, so that's another reason to steer clear of them IMO. Because of this, I don't think prices are coming down any time soon.

Sal

 

[dullard]

Most major companies make a large chunk of their profits from selling memory and other add-on components. It makes good marketing sense to advertize a barebones computer for $699. Then when you go to purchase it you find you need to add $200 to upgrade from 64 MB of ram to 128 MB of ram (regardless of the type of ram). This upgrade is the way these places make their profit. The same goes for the $500-$600 Geforce 3 at Dell (regular version not titanium).

If you purchase from Dell always get the minimim allowed memory and video card. Then purchase what you want elsewhere. I saved $400+ when I bought 1 GB of PC800 ECC RAM from another company and discarded the 128 MB that came with the system.

By the way, anyone want to buy a stick or two of 64 MB PC800 ECC RDRAM?

 

[Vegito]

same here ! I was forced to order the precision 420 workstations and I got it with the least amount of pc800ecc and went to gogglegear.com and got it for half less.. and they were the same samsung pc800ecc

googlegear

i paid 200 for each over a year ago when dell was charging like 600...

in the old days, I get crucial sdram for the pc133 systems.. much much cheaper

must install in pairs like 256 = 2x128, 512 = 2x256

 

[Texmaster]

<< RAMBUS is basically in trouble, so that's another reason to steer clear of them IMO. Because of this, I don't think prices are coming down any time soon.

Sal >>




I dont know where you are getting this. Intel just released its platform for the Northwood, the i850 chipset which uses Rambus.

Rambus is GREAT Ram and it has a bright future. You may not like it or the price but to say they are in trouble is laughable.

 

[John]

<< If I were you, I'd stay clear of RDRAM. It's just too expensive and the performance increase is not worth it. >>



I disagree. I would rather have the i850 w/ RDRAM over the i845 w/ SDRAM anyday. 75.00 for (2) 128MB PC800's is not expensive. Memory prices are way low across the board, so most of you consider RDRAM to be overpriced. Now if we were talking last year, maybe you would have a point, but not anymore.