Should I put 640MB SDRAM or 512MB DDR Ram in my PC?

[Shuomaru]

I have K7AMA Socket 462 Motherboard with Athlon 1Ghz chipset. There are two PC100/133 SDRam slots and two 200/233Mhz Ram slots. Both type can not be used at the same time so I have to choose wither SDRam or DDR PC2100(266Mhz). The maximum Ram is 1GB.

I already have PC100 128MB SDRam on one slot so what I can do is
-get another 512MB PC100 SDRam and install it on the second SDRam slots. Total Ram will be 640MB PC100.

-Dump this Ram and get 512 MB DDR Ram, Total Ram is 512 MB DDR PC2100 (266Mhz).

My question is which one will yield the better performance?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I would suggest going with the DDR, as Athlons are very FSB-sensitive. You don't state what your CPU's current running FSB is though. Is it 100Mhz or 133Mhz? Another reason that I suggest that is, I haven't seen too many 512MB PC100 modules, it's possible that they use newer "high-density" chips, and might be incompatible with such an older board. Even if the memory-controller of that chipset does support it, it probably won't support mixing high-density and low-density SDRAM together, which your 128MB PC100 almost certainly is, which means that you would be stuck at 512MB anyways. Besides, your next step should be upgrading that old CPU+board, and the DDR could be used in your new system.

Not to mention, the prices (at least in the US), are cheaper for DDR than they are for large-size SDR PC100 DIMMs. If you are in the US, check out the Hot Deals forum, there are a number of deals on cheap DDR RAM during the upcoming "Black Friday" sales.

 

[jiffylube1024]

DDR. It will be faster, for sure.