DDR 333 v DDR 400

[phill21]

what does all this mean?
i was reading that DDR400 is slower than DDR333?! how can this be as i would have thought that DDR400 would have given better performance...
As im considering upgrading my system, i was thinking that the performance of the memory was an important factor, am i correct in thinking this?
I have always gone for Abit motherboards, but judging by the latest view of the nforce 2 board, it wasnt that great, compared to the likes of MSI and Asus.. Has Abit gone bad or are the other companies getting a lot better?
I was kinda hoping for staying with AMD cpus, but with the reviews i keep seeing, im getting confused because toms say one thing, pcstats say the opposite and so does amantech.. which do i believe?
i was also thinking of changing to an intel setup, but with some of the reviews i have seen, im at edgeways as to what to get.. one review says that the intels are slower than xps, where as the other say that they are vise versa.
Could someone please help put some light into what is going on and could someone possibly recommend a possible few upgrade paths? intel or amd, i dont mind..
please go to this site for upgrades (this is where i get my hardware from, regardless really)

<A HREF="http://www.microdirect.co.uk" target="_new">http://www.microdirect.co.uk</A>

i thank everyone and anyone that replys..

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[Crashman]

DDR400 is only slower than DDR333 on VIA chipsets, due to a flaw which VIA claims doesn't exist (as usual). And even then you can get the "speed" back by underclocking your DDR400 to DDR333 speed.

Anyway, if you ever want to overclock, you'll want the faster memory. And if you ever want to transfer the memory to another system with a "400" bus in the future, you'll want at least DDR400.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>

 

[phill21]

So in that case would it be better to get the fastest memory i can aford, ie the xms 3500 stuff from corsair? i think in the way of if its only a little more expensive, then what the hell but the cost has to make it up in for performance..
is it best to have 512 mb dimms or 256mbs? which would be better for me as i would be trying to do video editing?
which type of chipset is best to go for? intel and or amd? please could you help!


if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[Clarentavious]

Crashman is right, VIA makes sloppy arse memory interfaces, which, is not surprising. Several months ago DDR 400 was still kind of betaish and had yet to be optimized. Things like CAS Latency are going to have a great impact on RAM performance.

I personally am not a big fan of Abit. When I compare their driver disc to MSI's driver CD, I can see a big difference. MSI offers automatic driver and BIOS updates, an overclocking utility called Fuzzy Logic, and more hardware features if you ask me (like passive heat sinks over the voltage regulators on their boards). To tell you the truth, Abit seems more OEMish to me. So I both for MSI. Asus is good too, they've made some foul ups recently, but have an overall excellent history.

The best idea is to get a single DIMM. However, going above 512 on a single DIMM will be lordly expensive (as pretty much only a gig per DIMM is sold after that, you'd be hard pressed to find a DIMM with 768MB for example). The data density on cache buffers hasn't reached the point where they can push it above that. They can fit 8 buffers on the standard RAM DIMM, and buffers on both sides of the circuit board (dual layer), for a total of 16. What is 32x16 = ? Exactly, 32 times 16 equals 512. It would be more expensive to increase the densisty of the buffers than to add more of them with less memory.

However, I don't know if you can run dual channel mode with only 1 DIMM of RAM, in the case of the nForce 2's You may need to separate DIMMs to run dual channnel mode.

On the RAM I would personally recommend Corsair's low latency models (they don't just push the CL timing, but the other timings like Pulse Width, Precharge Rate, etc....)

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Benchmarks don't lie

 

[phill21]

As i have been reading up on this quite a lot, i have been reading that i will need two dimms to make it work with the dual channel mode.
As i have had Abit boards since i have had a pc i have had nothing but joy from them. i am a little annoyed with some of things but its nothing that a faster cpu or newer motherboard wouldnt fix!
I am willing to try various boards as im not stuck with one particular type or model and i have seen recently that the abit boards are slipping a little when it comes to performance, which is something that i dont want.
as for the memory i believed that the corsair was the better bet as it was rated higher and i would have therefore assumed it was a better type of memory, but like you say, its more expensive, especially when you are going upto the 3200/3500 xms dimms at 512mbs!!
overall, what would be a good upgrade for me as i want to make a big difference when it comes to the upgrade.. i feel its better than wasting money on something thats not quite 100%... it seems a little waste of money to me.. if im going to do something i dont mind paying more when i know im getting something better
thank you for your views... its most helpfull

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[Crashman]

Well, there's also the notion that you can save a bunch of money by getting PC2100 or PC2700 and buying the fast memory later when it's also cheap. Anyway, you'd find great performance in either the SiS 655 chipset for the P4, or the nFocrce2 for AMD.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>

 

[phill21]

well i have enough memory for now, but faster would definitly be something that i would really want to get.. i need the most performance i can get!!
as for the p4 or amd, which do you prefer? im not wanting it to be an intel v amd thread, i just want to know a few peoples opinions on this..
i want the best from the 9700 pro.. i dont want second place stuff.. if you know what i mean!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[Crashman]

I'd go for a P4 on a 655 chipset, but I have nothing against the AMD on nForce2 solution. I simply think that AMD is falling too far behind in their product schedule and no longer offers the value they once did.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[phill21]

i think that i will probably go for the nforce and amd, but as you said, i think that they are slowly getting slower and slower and soon i dont honestly know whether or not they will be able to keep up with intel.
im not writing them off, i just hope that they are going to surprise everyone with what they are planning to do..
although, i do think that they prices of their latest processors are a little ott.. i felt before they where a lot better priced.
thank you for your help!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...

 

[Clarentavious]

Personally, I would still go with AMD at this point - though if the company falls under sometime within the next few years, eeeeek, you've got a motherboard that supports processors no longer being produced ;-)

My suggestion on that note would be to go with the lowest speed Barton you can find (you may want to wait a bit for the prices to drop though). I would skip the nForce 2's and wait for SiS 746FX motherboard. Its release shouldn't be that far off.

If I am going to get an Intel CPU, I would completely insist on an Intel motherboard. I hold off on their Granet Bay chipsets and wait for the SpringDales, as someone suggested in another thread.

That's just my personal take on the matter.

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Benchmarks don't lie

 

[phill21]

and are the new 746fx boards coming out? by the time i have the money, the top end barton might be the one to get..
would it still be best to get the corsair memory ? and if so, what speed? and heres a personal choice i think, would you have 2 512mbs or 2 256mbs? as i would be doing video editing wouldnt i need all the ram i could get?
thank you for your help!

if all else fails... kick it and if it goes wrong, say it wasnt you...