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Anonymous   11-15-2000 at 08:49:43 PM

Ok guys I have a pentium 3 750mhz but i want to upgrade. Im sorry but I am not sure what the heck DDR memory even is, call me a loser i dont care... well i want to upgrade but i want to go athlon becuz there so much cheaper. So i was looking at the 1 ghz athlon but AMD just released the DDR chips. What is the difference between the reg athlon and the DDR? what does the DDR do for me? and is it worth the price difference?!! im sorry if these questions sound stupid but i just dont know...

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Anonymous   11-15-2000 at 08:59:06 PM
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DDR stands for Double Data Rate, basically doubling the speed at which memory is accessed. If you get a mobo with a DDR chipset it will support the new memory technology by the same name. DDR SDRAM is notably faster than regular dimms and is supposed to cost about the same (havn't priced it as of yet but you can check www.pricewatch.com)
I believe most DDR mobos do support older memory, so you should be able to still use your existing ram. As for the processor, it doesn't change due to chipset. All Athlon CPUs use a DDR based Front Side Bus, so in effect they are all DDR chips, however the new DDR chipsets are referring specifically to the memory. I hope this helps.

-Infornography
life as we know it is absurd

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74merc   11-16-2000 at 02:41:05 AM
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well, for one, it runs faster, doesn't access faster. It has the same latency as standard PC 100/133 ram, if not slightly worse.
another thing, DDR motherboards are NOT compatible with old SDRAM. DDR is 184 pins, rather than 168.
much faster, its worth it, but its not backward compatible.

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Anonymous   11-16-2000 at 05:04:43 AM
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thanx to both of you for the info...

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Anonymous   11-16-2000 at 05:05:29 AM
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I realize that they are not compatible, however I think I remember something about the motherboards being designed with both DDR dimm slots and regular dimm slots, perhaps I should have been more specific, sorry for the confusion.
;-)

-Infornography
life as we know it is absurd

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Anonymous   11-17-2000 at 04:35:55 PM
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You'll find motherboards for DDR only and motherboards for both normal SDRAM and DDR (2+2). I think the AMD chipset works only with DDR and the VIA chipset will work with both, but I'm not 100% sure about it.
Anyway, an important difference is that DDR has enough bandwidth to use AGP 4x. You don't really use it with PC133.

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Anonymous   11-17-2000 at 04:40:10 PM
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You'll find motherboards for DDR only and motherboards for both normal SDRAM and DDR (2+2). I think the AMD chipset works only with DDR and the VIA chipset will work with both, but I'm not 100% sure about it.
Anyway, an important difference is that DDR has enough bandwidth to use AGP 4x. You don't really use it with PC133.

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