DDR VS RAMBUS for Pentium IV Chipsets

[Guest]

Did anyone else read the new article showing the new developments regarding DDR400 & PC1200 RDRAM? I am at the point of making a RAM/CPU/MOBO upgrade purchase, but now I want to wait. Have successfully and stably overclocked Intel P233MMX, CEL300A, and PIII650, I want to take the next logical step (PIV1.6A). My research led me to the SIS 645 DDR 333 as the best possible combo for price/perf/OC. After reading the article on Tom's, I want to see what Intel has in the wings for DDR & faster RAMBUS PIV Chipset offerings. My previous OC was done with Intel TX & BX Chipsets. What will be the "next BX"? Any feedback would be appreciated.

-BBROUS

 

[AMD_Man]

The SiS 645DX is still a very decent chipset that supports DDR400 now. PC1066 and PC1200 is going to take some time to come. I'm personally looking into the Asus P4S533 and some 5ns KingMax RAM. I doubt it'll reach DDR400 at CL2, but if I do get it, I'll play around with it to see whether DDR333 at max settings is faster than DDR400 at more relaxed settings.

Besides, the P4S533 is one amazingly upgradable board. If you're cheap, you can get PC2100 (DDR266) for now, then upgrade to PC2700 or PC3200 (DDR333 and DDR400 respectively) later. That sounds like a sweet deal to me.

The Asus P4S533 natively supports the 533MHz FSB and is very stable with moderate PCI/AGP overclocking.

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[pr497]

while we're on the P4S533 topic...i've sucessfully flashed my P4S333 BIOS to P4S533 specs...so i essentially have the P4S533 mobo with my P4S333 board....the only difference i see between the two boards (that i can find) is that my board now supports ddr400 (where it used to support ddr333 max).
the only problem is my ram (ocz pc2700 is a little skimpy) and my power supply (some no name 300w).
my PSU's 12v line gets way too low (around 11.3v) when im overclocking....i need to get myself some new ram and a new PSU before i can really see what this mobo can do...

<b><font color=red>ATI</font color=red>'s drivers are like a broken faucet, they both keep on leaking...</b>

 

[FatBurger]

The i850 chipset gives the best performance. I have my Abit TH7II-RAID and Samsung PC800 running at a 155FSB with 3/4 speed RAM, and it performs quite nicely.

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/fattyburger/155benchmarks.html" target="_new">Benchmarks</A>

<font color=blue>Hi mom!</font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip. I have considered the P4S333 up until now, the 533 seems like the logical choice. I planned on using Corsair XMS memory (CMX256A-3000C2). It seems to be the winner at high bus speeds. I definately don't want to go cheap on the ram (I've been using Kingmax PC-150 in my BX since it came out). With the recent price drops, it's hard to be cheap when $350 can get you a sweet mob/cpu/ram deal! I plan to use newegg.com at the recommendation of this community & resellerratings.com.

-BBROUS

 

[AMD_Man]

That looks like good RAM. You should be able to get a P4 1.6A to 2.4GHz in no time.

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[Crashman]

The best chipset for the P4 right now is the i850. The best motherboard, the TH7-II. The best RAM is Samsung PC800. As far as overclocking goes, everything else on the market right now is utter garbage, because you would need your DDR at 444MHz CAS2 to match ordinary PC800 at PC1066 speed, impossible for DDR but practical for Samsung PC800. People who recommend DDR, having this knowledge, are total idiots.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[AMD_Man]

People who recommend DDR, having this knowledge, are total idiots.

Thanks a lot, . I was just letting him keep his options open. You can't guarantee the RDRAM will reach PC1066. At 2.4GHz, most RDRAM won't handle PC1200 (assuming you get a 1.6A P4) and so you'll have to lower to PC900 in most cases. DDR400 can easily beat that. The Asus P4S533 allows you to run the DDR RAM asynchronously from the FSB. At 150MHz FSB, you can set the memory ratio to 5/4. That will allow you to run the RAM at 375MHz DDR and probably at CL2.

I'm confident that could outmatch PC900 on the current i850 motherboards.

333MHz DDR RAM on the SiS 645DX chipset outperforms PC800 on the 850 chipset most of the time, so 375MHz DDR RAM should generally outperform PC900.

Besides, the Asus P4S533 has other memory ratios too so you can overclock even further in the future (if the processor can handle it), or run the RAM at 450MHz once DDR RAM that can handle those speeds arrive.

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>

 

[AMD_Man]

The only direct comparison of DDR RAM and RDRAM that we saw in Tom's Hardware's article was Quake III. Unless you can't stand anything under 400fps, that one benchmark means nothing. The last review of the SiS645DX, the chipset with DDR333 outmatched the 850 with PC800 in 10 out of 16 of the tests.

Also, I'd personally want to stay with DDR so I can move to an AMD ClawHammer next year when the prices go down without having to replace my RAM.

<b><i>"A penny saved is a penny earned!"</i></b>