I have an 18 month old Dell w/a P4 2ghz (512 L2)/socket 478 w/Rambus memory. Rather than hemmorage $$$ to buy 512mb of PC800 Rambus, I'm thinking about buying a new mobo w/the appropriate flavor of DDR memory. Anyone know the what the best board/memory speed combo will work for my P4 chip w/400mhz FSB? Thank you in advance for your help.
P4 2GHz / socket 478 motherboard upgrade?
- Thread starter gowens
- Start date
It would be as a means to an end. B/c PC800 Rambus would run approx $160 for 2 256 RIMMs, and DDR seems to be dirt cheap, perhaps I could just get a new [faster?] mobo and DDR memory for less. Do you think it is too much of a gamble for stability, or that it would end up being considerably more expensive than just buying the RIMMs? Thanks for the post.
- Dec 31, 2007
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You'd be best advised to shop around for a better price on RDRAM.
In order to get the same bandwidth from DDR as you have with RDRAM on your "400" bus processor, you'd have to use either PC3200 in single channel mode (no chipsets support this option with your CPU to my knowlege), or go Dual Channel with a very GOOD dual channel board!
Plus you'd have to replace your case!
<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
In order to get the same bandwidth from DDR as you have with RDRAM on your "400" bus processor, you'd have to use either PC3200 in single channel mode (no chipsets support this option with your CPU to my knowlege), or go Dual Channel with a very GOOD dual channel board!
Plus you'd have to replace your case!
<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
- Dec 31, 2007
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Most people will see a noticeable improvement going from 256MB to 512MB, but some programs will like more than that.
<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
I may play a few games (1942, HL 2, etc) but probably won't mess around w/video/photo editing for another year -- and even then i'd consider myself only a hobbyist. based on that, would you suggest looking at upgrading to 512 or something more? I would only spend 2 times the money if it made a huge difference and really openned up the door for future apps.
- Dec 31, 2007
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I find 1024MB to be ideal, but considering you won't be doing anything requiring large amounts of memory, 512MB would be fine. You can always get more later, when you need it.
<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>
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