SDRAM or DDR?

[crdiscoverer]

Hi, I have several questions really. I bought an Athlon PC with very little memory (just one 128Mb SDRAM PC133 chip), because of this: My motherboard has 4 slots for memory (2 for PC100/PC133 SDRAM and 2 for PC1600/PC2100 DDR-SDRAM), so I was thinking to upgrade to DDR and get rid of the currently installed memory, but then I saw here an article about performance gains from that upgrade and it says you should expect at best 20% increase or even slower performance than SDRAM because of latency times. I'm not a hardcore gamer or anything and I ask you: Should I still upgrade? or should I better buy more SDRAM PC133 memory plus the module I have installed?

 

[JP5]

It's all relative. You would see a nice increase by buying a super cheap 128MB PC133 stick for $15. You could get another 512MB PC133 stick for $35. Or you could get 2 256 MB PC2100 for $50. You would get increasing performance at increasing price. You should have at least 256MB and preferably 512 for Windows XP.

 

[crdiscoverer]

Yeah, thanks. I know 128Mb of any kind of RAM isn't enough, but at the time I bought the PC it was better to have the less memory possible in case I switched to DDR, because I'll have to put the SDRAM away. What I'm thinking now is that I'm planning to get a 512Mb module of whatever type of RAM you recommend. If I go for the SDRAM I'll have those 512Mb plus the 128Mb chip already installed, but if I get DDR I'll have just 512Mb of a "faster" memory. My concern is that I don't want to see a performance increase just in benchmarks. I want you to tell me: 512Mb of DDR or 640Mb SDRAM? (for a casual gamer, CAD design, Office apps)

BTW, the article about RAM is this:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20010104/amd-133fsb-01.html

 

[Nights_L]

you have ECS K7S5A based on SiS735?
I would say Upgrade to DDR..

 

[Guest]

For the price difference, I suggest DDR, like this your computer wont be obsolete in 1 year...

 

[coolsquirtle]

no offence, i am very surprised that you can run CAD on that machine....... DDR is the way to go nowadays

Proud Owner the Block Heater
120% MATROX/INTEL EXTREME GRAPHICS Fanboy

 

[pIII_Man]

what is that supposed to mean Coolsquirtle...i can run cad just fine on a pIII 700 w/ 100mhz sdram.