Athlon XP cheaper? +RAM Query

Kairo

Okay, theres probably some obvious answer to this somewhere that I'm just too stupid to spot...but how come the Athlon XP is cheaper than Thunderbird on overclockers.co.uk?

Also, can someone explain ram to me, like whats the difference beetween PC133 and PC2100, SDRAM and RDRAM ..whats DDR and all that stuff. I basically want to know which is better, and what will work in what motherboard (ABIT K7-RAID..hopefully )

azezil

On the ram front: sd runs @ 100 - 133mhz, ddr runs at 250 - 300mhz, n RD runs at 800mhz afaik. SD is cheap, ddr is slightly more expensive, like a tenner more, n RD is just ridiculously over priced!

yop

Kyro -

Got a price for all that stuff, did a compare these guys are cheapest

www.pc-pitstop.com

Same board with 1.6 Athlon

33 dollars delivery to Ireland

all prices in punts - have not bought from them so I cannot guarantee speed, overclockers take near on 3 weeks to deliver

USA UK
Board 138 183
Processor 98 124
512MB 66 80
Fan 20 18

Total 322 405

Gerry

Ok, the athlon xp 1600+ ( for example ) runs at 1400mhz. The 1600+ is there so you can compare it to the p4, thought it is faster than the 1.6ghz p4. The xp 1600+ will be faster than a thunderbird 1400 for some things, because it uses a newer, improved core, called the palomino. It is not as fast as a thunderbird 1600mhz though, in general. The only ram you will want to get is ddr ram, as the athlon boards do not use rdram. DDR is not really any more expensive than sdram, and it offers up to 20 or 30 percent improvement in performance (very roughly), everything else being equal in the machine. It runs at 266mhz usually, this is described as pc2100 (the 2100 means it can transfer 2,100 megabytes a second, in theory). There is a newer standard coming out now, this is pc2700 and it runs at 333mhz. It is not used on amd motherboards yet though.

I hope this clears things up for you somewhat.

astrofool

Xp's are cheaper cos that's what AMD want you to buy, they'll be discontinuing the thunderbird asap (if not already) as it's cheaper just to amke one line of chips. Thunderbird only really to be used on older motherboards (ALL KT133 boards and most KT133A's probably) dunno if my pre v1.3 kt7a-raid will support Athlon XP tbh, will probs get a KR7A-RAID to rest one of them in

bonkey

Originally posted by Kyro
Okay, theres probably some obvious answer to this somewhere that I'm just too stupid to spot...but how come the Athlon XP is cheaper than Thunderbird on overclockers.co.uk?

The Tbird is now an "obsolete" chip - it is no longer part of AMDs pricing strategy. Therefore, while they will drop the list price of XP chips periodically, the old TBirds will remain as they used to be priced.

Also, can someone explain ram to me, like whats the difference beetween PC133 and PC2100, SDRAM and RDRAM ..whats DDR and all that stuff. I basically want to know which is better, and what will work in what motherboard (ABIT K7-RAID..hopefully )

OK.... (takes deep breath)

there are two *basic* memory standards : DIMMs (SDR and DDR RAM) and RIMMS (Rambus memory or RDRAM).

DIMMS run at a given clock-speed. Most typically 133Mhz or 266Mhz.

The 133Mhz is known as "single data rate" or SDR. You dont need to know more about what that means 133Mhz SDR memory is made to a standard specification known as PC133.

DDR DIMMS are "double data rate", so the logical equivalent of a 133 SDR chip is a 266 DDR chip. These are often called PC266, but more often PC2100. I think there may be something slightly different between PC266 and PC2100, but lets not get into it.

266Mhz DDR is *not* twice as fast as PC133. It is significantly faster thought.

RDRAM is cimpletely different. Thats about all I'll say about it. Its fast, overpriced, and used almost exclusively in the pc world on P4 chipsets.

Now, here's the important bit...

All three memory types have different physical interfaces, as well as being different internally. In the same way that you cant swap a P4 for an Athlon on the same mobo, your mobo will only support one of the three (in most cases). There are a few mobos out there which support both SDR and DDR ram, but they have seperate slots for each, and the system only uses one or the other.

Your abit is probably PC133 memory. You cannot use the other stuff without changing mobo.


Hope this helps
jc

Kairo

Cheers lads.


Mobo im getting has:
4 x 184pin DDR-SDRAM slots

Maxed out with 512mb PC2100 DDR ...id get about 2 gig total?

The specs say 4gb max tho.

Fidelis

Athlon XP - tell me this chip has nothing to do with Microsoft.

JustHalf

It does, but only in the "let's get free association with Windows XP" sense.

bonkey

Originally posted by Kyro
Mobo im getting has:
4 x 184pin DDR-SDRAM slots

Maxed out with 512mb PC2100 DDR ...id get about 2 gig total?

The specs say 4gb max tho.

Thats cause no-one makes 1Gb DIMMS yet, but the BIOS in your mobo can support them

jc

Gerry

Its quite uncertain whether these boards would actually work with 4 1 gig dimms. I have read a few stories which said neither the via kt266(a) or the amd 760 would support this configuration. Could be wrong, and quite a moot point, but hey I'm bored!

astrofool

if u're using 4 DDR Dimm's they will most likely have to be Registered EEC Dimm's (does the KT266A support ECC yet?), alot of motherboards have stability problemswith more than 3 (or even 2) slots populated. There's no guarantee's, v. high quality RAM needed.

Crucial do PC2100 ECC registered for about £3 more than no ecc registered stuff