Ram Question

[Pete888]

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. I have MicroStar MS 6163 Pro motherboard with a celeron 400mhz processor. Right now i'm using pc100 ram. Is it possible to use p133 ram with this broard/cpu? It's so cheap right now!

 

[sohcrates]

you sure can. pc133 will simply run at 100 mghz

your idea makes sense too because if you upgrade, you'll have pc133 instead of being stuck with pc100 and having to buy all new ram

 

[Pete888]

One more question. Suppose I wanted to build a new computer (it would probably be AMD for price reasons), would using DDR ram increase my performance enough to justify the added cost of the ram? Thanks.

 

[Scouzer]

The actual DDR RAM from http://www.crucial.com is the same price as PC 133

 

[MasterHoss]

Actually, you can buy the Crucial PC2100 DDR SDRAM for the same price as the PC133 SDRAM. The price difference comes in the motherboard--I would say it's not worth the higher throughput right now but build for the future...definately build DDR if you're going to make an AMD box.

There will be more hardware and programs optimized for the higher throughput which the DDR systems can provide.

 

[DoctorBooze]

Pete888 - if you're running a Celeron, your system's only running at 66MHz FSB anyway. Using PC100 or PC133 is fine, but it'll all run at 66MHz.

Also, in the UK at least, going for a DDR motherboard (AMD 760 (or do I mean 761) based) over an SDR motherboard (VIA KT133A) only costs about £10 (comparing otherwise similar boards from the same manufacturer), sometimes less, that's less than $15. The performance difference is 5-10% on 1GHz Athlon systems (I think that's what Anandtech said), and I guess that $15 will be less than 5% of your new system price (even just mobo, CPU and one stick of RAM), so I think it *is* worth it, right now, in addition to the future-proofing aspect.

 

[Jiggz]

With the price difference almost negligible, build based on DDR although there might be a little more cost when it comes to the mobo. The performance gain may not be as great but at least you're geared for the future.