Why isn't Asus P4T533 mobo more popular?

[Akaz1976]

Especially compared to P4T533-C. Its only $10-20 more expensive than the P4T533-C while 4200 RDRAM is ~$50 cheaper than 256MB 1066 RDRAM. So if you buy 2 stix of RDRAM (for 512 Total, this i would think would be min. one would buy with this sort of rig), u save nearly $100 in mem cost while paying only $10-20 premium for the mobo.

I would think performance would be nearly identical and same with features.

Also its common knowledge that DDR is cheaper than RDRAM but isnt good quality DDR 2700 or + same price as 4200 RDRAM modules?

Thanx

Akaz

 

[fragusmaximus]

I just got a P4T533-C this morning. I decided to go with that because I could put in more memory at a cheaper cost. My goal is to put a total of 1GB of RDRAM into this board. The P4T533-C has four slots which will give me that capability without breaking the bank all at once. BTW, do you know where I can get some Samsung 1066 RDRAM?


Corsair 512MB PC2700 CL2.0 runs about $144 (googlegear special)
Samsung 256MB 1066MHz RDRAM runs about $105 (components direct)
Samsung 512MB 1066MHz 32bit RDRAM runs about $369 (components direct)

So I guess good quality DDR333 is about half the cost of one stick of 32bit 1066 RDRAM. However, 16 bit 1066 RDRAM is cheaper going for about $210 for every 512MB. That's not to much more expensive.

 

[fxer]

I don't see the special on the Corsair 512MB PC2700 Cas 2 ram at googlegear for $144, it looks like it is $157 for that ram, but it is $145 for the Cas 2.5 model, perhaps that is what you were referring to

 

[fragusmaximus]

Yep, sure enough. I saw this special yesterday and didn't bother to check it again today. Sorry.

 

[wicktron]

Here are 70 pages of problems with this board: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=454638

Some success stories, but they come very rarely.

 

[mastertech01]

I like my P4T533, I am running a 2.53 at 2.85 and its plenty stable for me. Rim4200 is still in its infancy but I think it will grow with popularity. A lot of peeps state problems with this board running default speeds but I havent seen such problems. Maybe the earliest boards had problems. Many of the problems were peeps trying to get thier 2.26 up to 3.5GHZ stable...

 

[fragusmaximus]

Wow. They're up to 93 pages in that thread. However, I can't imagine the motherboard to be all that bad. After all hasn't Anandtech tested the Radeon 9700 Pro with this board? I don't remember hearing any problems from the hardware reviewers and it has been out for some time now. Most reviewers actually benchmark new motherboards against the a similar configuration of P4T533-C and 1066RDRAM, right? Could that thread be populated with people not reading the manual or something?? I'm at a loss as I can't explain what problems they're having. I don't even know if they're trying to overclock out of the gates or something.

I guess I'll find out soon enough as I ordered a P4T533-C and Radeon 9700 Pro today. Has anyone else had success? I know one poster here has a configuration like this.

 

[Rick67]

I was going to buy the P4T533 until I read all those posts in that thread. I picked up the P4T533-C instead. It cost a little more but I don't have to worry about all those problems.

 

[fragusmaximus]

I got a very rude awakening this morning trying to buy RDRAM from newegg. Turns out that the item they have listed (the Kingson 256MB 1066) is acutally *two* sticks. I was expecting to buy two orders to fullfill the requirement for the RDRAM to be in pairs. So I was expecting to have a total of 512MB of RDRAM. I was shoked when their customer service told me that the item listed included two sticks for a total of 256MB. :Q wow. So that would mean that I could only get up to 512MB RDRAM if I bougt four of them. Yick! That's no good. I want 1GB RAM by the time I'm done upgrading.

So if I get this right, I would have to pay approx. $300 for 512MB 1066 RDRAM. I can get 512MB Corsair DDR333 CL2.0 for half that and only suffer, what, a 10-15% performance loss?? I guess the math really doesn't add up does it. Question is what will I sacrifice in terms of stability... anybody? I'm not going to overclock this system until two years pass.

I plan to return my P4T533-C when it arrives tomorrow. It's a mistake that will cost me about $30. But that's small compared to the situation I was leading myself down.

 

[CloudsShinji]

You can get actual 256MB sticks of Kingston PC1066 RDRAM from GamePC. If you're NOT going to overclock I would say go for Rambus.

Okay maybe that's just me, but hey.