Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) A question about RAM

I currently, have 512mb of sdram, and I'd like to upgrade to DDR. My problem is, I have a very low budget, and since I need to change my motherboard to get DDR ram I can only get 256mb of DDR ram.

So I was wondering if 256mb of DDR 400 ram would be better than 512 pc-133 sdram.

Thank you

the little gain in speed coupled with half the amount of SDRAM that u already have, i say stick to SD & save some more $$$ so u can get yourself at least 512MB of DDR (preferably one stick of 1GB) & a decent motherboard that can last u at least 3 years. if there is somebody u know (friend, relative) who has spare 256MB or 512MB of unused SDRAM (make sure the current motherboard can support that much memory), might as well buy it from them cheaply. more memory that's relatively older is a lot better than a little faster of not much memory.

just my opinion. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

yes 256 Mb of "faster" Ram doesn't mean you syqtem is getting faster.
if you programs uses all of the memory ,windows uses swap disk space to write/read data instead of on the ramm stick.
and your hardisk is much slower then the Memory sticks.

secondly if you want to go for the new motherboard wich uses [email]DDR@400Mhz[/email], you older processer can't probably be used in your new board, so that you have to buy a new Processor also!

and if your new motherboard supports Sd133Mhz ram, you ram is the bottle neck so that your processor can't be used for it's full potentional. so don't do thi seighter

1) stick with your old pc and put in 512Mb ramm
2) buy a new system MOBO+Processor+new memory.

Well I currently have an amd Athlon XP 2200+ and the mobo I wanted supports all amd ahtlon xp, athlon and duron processors (socket A) And also, I think my current mobo only supports AGP 4x while the new one would support AGP 8x, and I have a graphics card that works with AGP 8x. So it's not just about the ram, but also the increased speed the mobo itself would bring to my computer.

Thanks for the answers.

Oh and I have another question, can a motherboard with the nvidia nforce2 chipset still use ATI video cards? (might be a silly question, but knowing this could help a lot)

Thanks again.

wait there is still time to dream with me here hold on....
ok picture in your mind <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />..oO your holding two sticks of kick [Potatoe] dual channel...Oo <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> oh wait <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" /> let us cry together of the cost sigh <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" />

as far i understand about the nforce chipsets,
these Mobo's have an intergated video card on the mobo itself. (geoforce 4Mx)
if you want to use a better video card you can use an ATI or nvidia card, with no problems.

on a side note : switching from 4x to 8x AGP wouldn't be a real performance boost.
it all depands on the processor and the memory etc, to get closer to the theoreticly max bandwith of the videocard.
only with the latest gen vid cards you can have a slightly performance with 8x AGP
atleast, that'a what a read these last years..

so my 2 cents,
don't bother buying a new mobo
invest in 512Mb "faster" memory (is it drr 333 your processor and MOBO can handle?)

edit: this link will tell you wich type of athlon xp2200 you have
http://www.overclockers.com/tips00173/

check out this link : http://www.techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3173
the 9the post is interesting

Erm... Bean? Those posts were TWO years old! There isn't much in knowing that Intel 2.8 GHz was faster than the AthlonXP 2600+ 2.13 GHz, since you can easilly get a Intel pentium 3.2 GHz (for a decent price). I don't know about Authon64's. I'm not shure what the difference between Intel and AMD is. Intel seams faster, AMD seams more expencive. There's got to be something else...

Let's take an example: You can on a Swedish site (good site btw) get an Intel Pentium 4540 3.2 GHz processor for 2085 kr (allmost printed 20085...). You can get an AMD Athlon64 3500+ 2.2 GHz processor for 2485 kr (400 kr more, and it seems that the intel is faster). What is the differences? I've pointed out one, but there's got to be more? (After the 2.2 GHz it says 512kb bulk/tray Socket939. Don't know what they're talking about. After the Intel it says Hyperthreading 1Mb 800MHz Boxed (with cpu-cooler!) Socket775. Xept of the cooler thing I don't know what they meen.). Please enlighten me!

Übereil

how old do you think an athlon xp2200+ is? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

Two years???

And that doesn't answer my question.

Übereil

Currently the tech sites are unanimous that AMD64 gives superior price/performance over Intel.

@UB,


the Athlon is faster then the intel on above example.
the intel has a higher clock speed. but that alone doesn't say mutch about the speed/performance of a processor.
Amd had develloped a better architecture that can easely beat intel's chipsets on the same clock speeds,
or... is equal in performance as intel with lower clockspeeds.
if you see a 3500+ it means that this processor has simular speeds as an intel pentium4 3500Mhz



i will not explain everything because then i would be typing for the next couple of houres.
but a socket, like sockest939 is were the processor has to be attached on the MOBO, newer processor has more pins then the older versions and there is need for "another" type connection or socket because the new processor wouldn't be working on the older socket versions.

abour the 512Kb or 1Mb, that refers to the cache level of the processor. level1,level2 cache
a higher cache with give a performance boost,
search on google for it.

800Mz is the speed of the front side bus.
this is in a way the tunnel, a connection from your processor to your MOBO and your memory etc.
in this tunnel you transport data. at a theareticly speed of 800Mhz (clockpulses)
because the faster a processor gets , the more instructions it can send true the data bus. so the data bus has to "follow" these speeds. otherwise you would get a bottleneck

if you use memoruy with the same speeds as your data bus, you will get max performance.(if you choose the right configurations ofcource)
but i could be a bit wrong on this one.. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shhh.gif" alt="" />

Really?

Übereil (rethinking his plans on buying an Intel processor...)

Ube, i might as well go into my Lecturer mode & help u find out a bit about computer technology.

go to these websites in order
1. http://www.webopedia.com
2. http://www.howstuffworks.com
3. http://www.pctechguide.com

for the first link, it's mostly explanations on computer terms, very much like a dictionary/thesaurus. as for the second, go to the computer section to find out more on the technology. the info here is understandable for anyone. & as for the third link, it's usually meant for IT students so hit it once u understand the info presented in the second link. beware though that the third link requires u to know at leat a bit of computer technology.

now at least u can tell your parents u're surfing to expand your mind in knowledge. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

We've got ADSL. And I know a guy who's studying on the IT-program (for all the idiots who don't understand what a program is, it's more or less a collection of classes), so in case I don't understand, I can have him translate it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

PS Checked the two first links out. The first one was NICE <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> DS

normally we spell those collection of classes as programmes. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> queen's english, no? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />