DDR PC2100 Vs DDR PC2700

irishguy

a chip of DDR PC2100 256mb is €70 and a chip of DDR PC2700 256mb is €91 is it worth the extra money???also is it possible to run both on the same system at the same time??? and is there any adventage in getting 1 512mb stick instead of 2 256mb sticks???

bonkey

The only reason in buying PC2700 is to put it into a 333 mobo. If you have paid the premium to buy a 333 mobo, then there's little point in not buying the memory to get the performance you have just paid for Similarly, there's not point putting 333 memory into a 266 mobo. While they are pin-compatible, you'll get absolutely no benefit from it - well, at least none that I am aware of.

So - typically you buy the memory for your mobo

The advantage of 1 512MB stick is that it only takes up one slot! Sounds obvious, but youd be surprised how easily you can find all three slots filled and feel in need of more memory.

irishguy

the board is a Asus A7V333 RAID but is it worth the extra €40 for the performence gain ??? will i notice it i play alot of RTCW,lot of mps and dvixs

Slutmonkey57b

You'll get a big bump in performance - current generation PC architecture is full of bottlenecks, the DDR/RDRAM standards are finally breaking one of them. Faster ram means your system isn't spending as much time twiddling its thumbs waiting for stuff to happen.

Stick two sticks of differing speeds into the board and it'll just default to the slowest stick, you'll be wasting the performance of the faster ram - or if you're unlucky your bios will complain.

_CreeD_

The AthlonXP's FSB is still stuck at 266, so the chip itself can't take much advantage of the extra bandwidth - unless you overclock the FSB itself. Without this only the 2200cpu starts to show any real performance difference with 2700 over 2100 (And if I remember the article rightly that means showing anything more than 2/3% of a boost)

irishguy

so my motherboard supports the new 333 standard but amd have still to produce a chip that will preform at the speed,right?? so i should only buy the DDR2700 if i want to upgrade my processor [later] with a new 333mhz complient processor??but seen as my processor is 333mhz complient wouldnt it take advantage of the DDR2700??

_CreeD_

The CPU isn't 333mhz compliant, it runs at 266fsb, the motherboard runs it out of sync with the ram so the chip doesn't have a clue it's on 333 at all. You may get some advantage IF your CPU was utilising every bit of the 266mhzfsb then you would still have some headroom for DMA operations from your hard drive.

irishguy

i have desided to get 2x256mb of DDR2100,thanx 4 the help