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DDR + Duron = Waste of Money?

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Memory - DDR + Duron = Waste of Money?

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AMD_Man   08-17-2001 at 01:04:24 AM

Ok, please don't get annoyed first of all. I'm building a cheap PC for a friend and I want to impress him how fast it is for the price so I can get other "customers". :smile: I've been posting a lot of questions on several forums to decide on the perfect budget components. My memory-related question is will DDR RAM and a Duron make any difference in performance on games and other memory intensive apps? I thought that instead of getting a somewhat more expensive 1 GHz Athlon/SDR system that an overclocked 1GHz(266MHz bus + DDR)Duron system would perform just as well if not better in some cases. Also, that would give my friend more headroom for upgrades before getting a new motherboard since DDR is becoming more effective with higher clocked processors. Will there be any performance difference with the Duron? Thanks in advance.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

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mpjesse   08-17-2001 at 04:13:34 AM
- 0 +

Getting DDR for a Duron or Athlon is a good idea. DDR is only percent more (at the most) than SDR. The only think holding back a Duron with DDR is it's 128kb L2 cache- there are no bus and bandwidth differences between a Athlon/Duron. If you can't afford a Athlon then you can't afford a Duron- A 1.4GHz Athlon can be found for $117. CHEAP!!!

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

Reply to mpjesse
killall   08-17-2001 at 12:55:03 PM
- 0 +

you would get a cheaper faster system with a cheap tbird...

if in doubt blame microsoft...

Reply to killall
xxsk8er101xx   08-17-2001 at 06:12:49 PM
- 0 +

hey,

I had a SDR board and then a DDR board i have a duron 700. the sdr board was the kt7 using pc133 256MB of crucial ram. I would have a TV, IE5.5, and aim running and switching between windows would be some lag. Now with DDR i have a GA-7DXR, 256MB of pc2400 (however it is running at pc1600 using a 200mhz bus ='s pc1600). I have the same windows open, tv, ie5.5, and aim.. switching between them is fast. I was surprised actually.

So i have noticed a difference between sdr and ddr. with both ram types being about the same price go for it.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>

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FatBurger   08-17-2001 at 06:47:42 PM
- 0 +

A Duron has 64k of L2.

Why are people even debating the difference between SDRAM and DDR? From Crucial, they're exactly the same price!!



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upec   08-18-2001 at 05:23:19 AM
- 0 +

It is good idea to use DDR RAM especially you want to upgrade later.

Reply to upec
mpjesse   08-19-2001 at 02:43:01 AM
- 0 +

No, it has 128KB of L2 and 64KB of L1 for a total of 192KB of cache.

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

Reply to mpjesse
phsstpok   08-19-2001 at 03:19:43 AM
- 0 +

got that backwards. 128KB L1 cache and 64Kb L2 cache.

from the AMD Duron Data sheet

<i>The AMD Duron Processor Model 3 features the
seventh-generation microarchitecture with an integrated L2
cache, which supports the growing processor and system
bandwidth requirements of emerging software, graphics, I/O,
and memory technologies. The AMD Duron Processor Model 3
high-speed execution core includes multiple x86 instruction
decoders, a dual-ported 128-Kbyte split level-one (L1) cache, a
64-Kbyte on-chip L2 cache, three independent integer
pipelines, three address calculation pipelines, and a
superscalar, ful ly pipelined, out-of-order, three-way
floating-point engine. The floating-point engine is capable of
delivering superior performance on numerically complex
applications.</i>

link

<A HREF="http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/duron/techdocs/pdf/23802.pdf" target="_new">http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/duron/techdocs/pdf/23802.pdf</A> (warning to 56K users: 1.50mb document)

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 08/18/01 09:35 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Reply to phsstpok
madmike   08-19-2001 at 03:40:45 AM
- 0 +

Now I know everybody seems to be OC'ing their processors (including me), but you might want to tell your buddy that it voids the warranty. Just my 2 cents worth.

Reply to madmike
Anonymous   08-19-2001 at 05:33:31 PM
- 0 +

if you don't want to void your guarantee just overclock the FSB.

Anyway is there an unlocked Athlon 1.4 GHz sold? That's because my friend bought an AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz which is unlocked from the factory (the 4 things in the L1 part is perfectly connected already).


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girish   08-19-2001 at 07:03:38 PM
- 0 +

both Athlon and Duron have DDR bus which goes from the CPU to the chipset. using SDR at the other end of the chipset reduces this bandwidth potential of the Athlons and Durons to practically half! DDR, on the other hand with these processors will let them use their FULL bandwidth and thats it!

theres hardly any difference between the cost of SDR and DDR, but it will improve the performance significantly.

girish

<font color=red>No system is fool-proof. Fools are Ingenious!</font color=red>

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mpjesse   08-20-2001 at 02:40:35 AM
- 0 +

WTF? That can't be right... I thought it was the other way around. So, the Athlon has a 256K L1 cache?! Hmm...

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

Reply to mpjesse
phsstpok   08-20-2001 at 03:31:53 AM
- 0 +

Wrong again. The Duron and the Athlon Thunderbird have the same size L1 cache, 128KB. It's the L2 cache that differs, 64KB vs 256KB.

Reply to phsstpok
FatBurger   08-20-2001 at 07:05:04 PM
- 0 +

Yes, the man with the funny name is correct. Which one, you ask? phsstpok.

It's stupid, but it's the way that it is.



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<font color=red>Change the Sig of the Week!!!</font color=red>

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