Upgrading from pc133 to ddr...is it worth it?

[YankeesWin]

I just bought an IWill KD266 PC133 Motherboard, I still have a few weeks to return it. Everyone keeps telling me about DDR, and I've been asking around trying to figure out if its worth the switch. Then I talk to this guy yesterday who tells me the difference is only a fraction of a second or some crap like that. Faster? more stable? is there any signifigant difference? someone lemme know.

 

[zxcv]

From SDRAM to DDR you will probably notice a difference. Do go for the DDR.

 

[Buz2b]

If you mean the difference between PC133 and PC2100 (DDR) then the difference is not earth shattering. I believe the school of thought is around 10% +/-. Would that be noticable? Not really in most apps. In some high bandwidth games it might play more of a factor. I guess it depends upon what you are going to be using the machine for and what you are used to. If you do mostly web surfing, office apps and even some gaming, then I doubt seriously if you would be able to notice the difference. If you do a multitude of games, digital photography and video editing, you might notice the difference. So, the guy that said it was only a fraction of a second "or some crap like that." was not really far off the mark.
The other side of the coin is that DDR gives you more MB options in the future. Then again by the time you are ready for your next board, PC2100 might be going the way of PC133; considered low end. Especially now that the MB's are starting to support faster and faster DDR. Of course, that's unless you buy a new board every six months or so. Confused yet?? Hey, remember the old saying about a "bird in the hand"...........!

 

[lobe]

I agree. It's worth it if you are doing moderate gaming and a lot of digital photography or scanning and manipulating images right now. You would probably notice "more than a second" difference in those applications.

Otherwise, you will run fine with pc133 for quite a while, and the jump to 2100ddr isn't likely going to be worth the money and effort for you.

I'm running 256mg pc133 on a ecs k7s5a motherboard. I bought because it was cheap, I could still use my pc133 ram, and could upgrade to 2100ddr (it has the slots for it). Well, for about $45 I could get 256mg 2100ddr, but I haven't even been willing to do that because I am doing fine with what I have. I'm just going to wait and skip this jump, and when I'm feeling too out of date, go to 2700ddr (or higher) when I switch mobo's.

Admittedly, I'm a "trailing-edge" technology guy to save money, but I still don't feel too out-dated with the pc133.

 

[FelixDeCat]

The greatest advantage to DDR is that it allows the maximum throughput to be achieved from processors designed for it. If you match ddr w/p3 you wont notice anything. But if match a 1.6a w/ p133 youll really be sorry.

-And thats the truth.

 

[VSEKH]

I agree that if you are running a P4 cpu, it will fully take advantage for the DDR bandwidth. But, again only if you are playing games and using graphic intensive games. For the average user that just browses the internet and uses Office applications, they will not notice the extra bandwidth.

 

[Buz2b]

Uhh, obviously he is not matching up a P4 system with PC133. It is an AliMagic chipset for an AMD system that utilizes PC133. In fact, I would agree that using PC133 with a P4 system is nonsense. However, that was not even a concern here.

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

i notice a huge difference with running multiple apps. Also with the aps themselves i've notice it was faster.

 

[VSEKH]

Sorry Buz2b, I was agreeing with FelixDeKat, who I believe was talking about a 1.6a P4 and PIII cpu's. This is an AMD mobo. I have noticed that the AMD cpu's work really well with DDR Ram. My first experience was with DDR was with the Thunderbird 1.333 that was plugged into an AMD-761 chipset. I had upgraded from a 1.5 P4. I was really happy with the Thunderbird CPU. Heat was my only concern with this setup.

 

[Synergy3618]

I think the point isn't really PC133 vs DDR2100, but what chipset is a better choice at the moment. The only motherboard which accomodates both PC133 and DDR is the SIS 735-based ECS K7S5A. I happen to have this board and find no significant performance improvement using DDR over SDR PC133 SDRAM as others suggested. However, I'd assume the chipset on your KD266 is equivalent to Via KT133A, which is sort of out of date compared to KT266A and KT333. You can easily get a KT266A motherboard for around $60 (say, Shuttle AK31a) and 256 MB DDR RAM for about $40 or lower. It just happens that none of these KT266A boards use PC133 RAM, and they all have much better performance compared to KT133A chipset. Most vendors are dumping KT266A boards even though their performance is only slightly less than the KT333 boards, and DDR prices have come down so much recently. You'll be much better off get a KT266A board and move up to DDR. Just my two cents.

 

[blackhawk]

The advantage isn't so much the small speed increase, but the more than doubling of the bandwidth. That's what ddr is all about.

 

[tsnyder]

actually you should take the whole motherboard into consideration... it's worth it if you're getting an all-around more up to date board. Would I replace an sdram board/memory just to go to DDR?... probably not. There are boards though that are probably more compelling though that just happen to use DDR, if this would be the case than I think it's justified

 

[30wolverine30]

With the price of DDR coming down I'd say go with it but your mobo makes a big difference also.