Building a new PC - DDR-II or DDR-III?

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

After using a laptop for the best part of a year I'm going to build another PC. I don't know whether to go with DDR-II or DDR-III though? I'm giving myself a budget of €1000 and I'll be buying the parts though work as I can through them on my account and pay it off easily over time.

So are most people still using DDR-II or should I make the leap to DDR-III? Usually I'd have gone with an Abit board but they don't see to have much happening at the moment so I guess I'll be after an Asus board. Are there any I should look at getting in particular?

Many thanks for any replies given.

Anti

Id save the money over ddr3 and get ddr2 as ddr3 is still expensive. Have a quick scan through some of the threads here are most people have a budget of around your level.

sink

The preformance difference between DDR3 and DDR2 is minimal but the price difference is immence. Since you are on a budget it would make sence to buy cheaper DDR2 memory and spend more cash on the GPU and CPU etc.

Read this article from Tom's to find out more.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/toms-ultimate-ram-speed-tests,review-30648.html

TonyM.

ddr2 is a dead end 2gb. of Corsair DDR3 pc12800 is only €94.00.

AlmightyCushion

TonyM. wrote: »

ddr2 is a dead end 2gb. of Corsair DDR3 pc12800 is only €94.00.

But 4GBs of DDR2 can be got for around €70.

TonyM.

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

But 4GBs of DDR2 can be got for around €70.

and you will get €10 for it on Adverts next year ddr3 is more future proof .

AlmightyCushion

TonyM. wrote: »

and you will get €10 for it on Adverts next year ddr3 is more future proof .

DDR3 prices are gonna fall big time as well (they already have). 4GBs ddr3 costs around €200 at the moment. It'll probably be half that this time next year.

TonyM.

my point is get a good case, psu and ram now and they will be good for your next upgrade, ddr2 will only last another year at best better to spend the extra now.

AlmightyCushion

Well the way I see it is €70 now and €100 next year works out cheaper than €200 now. Plus you'll still have the ddr2 stuff to put into an older computer or sell on for a few euro.

Anti

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Well the way I see it is €70 now and €100 next year works out cheaper than €200 now. Plus you'll still have the ddr2 stuff to put into an older computer or sell on for a few euro.

QFT !

TonyM.

I THINK WE FORGOT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION.

If you are buying through work they might be able to claim back the vat no harm to ask. Asus are way out in front when it comes to mainboards any ROG board will give you great performance,as for the ram in real terms ddr3 will only give you a 3% gain .

RealistSpy

DDR3 if you can wait till christmas.

Tails142

DDR2 is the obvious choice, both for your budget and for cost effectivness reasons even if you didnt have a budget.

As someone else said DDR3 will only give you 3% real world performance gains, and when DDR3 does come down in price, it will still be higher spec and faster clock speeds that will give the performance gains over DDR2, which todays motherboards most likely wont support.

DDR2 all the way imo.

Sqaull20

DDR3 = Nehalem, Intel has Integrated memory controler in NB that's why its so much limited , the nehalem one will be integrated and 3 times faster , then you will use the bandwith of DDR3, now it's a great waste of money,DDR3 for is useless right now.