DDR or RAMBUS?

[maxoid9]

I'm going to be upgrading my MB soon and have a question about DDR vs RAMBUS.

I have AMD right now with DDR266 memory (512mb) but I'm going to be changing to Pentium 4.

Question is should I get a RAMBUS board (850E) and buy all new RAM or get a Dual DDR board (7205?) and keep my current 256x2 DDR266 memory (would save me a couple hundred bucks which is a big factor). Is this memory going to work with Dual DDR boards? It's PC2100 I think, whatever they sold with AMD DDR266 a couple years ago... all I know it's quality stuff and I paid a lot for it.

Thanks..

 

[touchmyichi]

Definently go dual ddr and get a granite bay board. RDRAM and a board would cost much more then a gb board for you(even though gb's are pretty expensive). The preformance is also equal to that of a dual RDRAM board. PC 2100 is what gb's were made for, so you're in great shape.

 

[maxoid9]

Thanks will it work with 3Ghz P4 though (533fsb)? (or actually I might get 2.53 or so to save a few $$ that 3ghz is so expensive right now

 

[poMONKey]

These boards DEFINITELY support 3.06GHz CPUs AND the price of said CPU is going down almost daily... they were over $700 less than a month ago. Now they are shipping for under $650... wait another couple of weeks

PLUS... if you're building a system anyway... its already half as much as buying that dell or gateway for way better stuff... RIGHT? Take your time and build a sweet system.

 

[bgeh]

go ddr
granite bay is designed for ddr 266,so you can save on memory costs

 

[CraigRT]

this is so worthy enough of the question: "why even bother with RDRAM?"

seriously.. it's too expensive, and it's now equal if not less the performance of dual DDR.. RDRAM sucks.

 

[Toymaker]

Ah, you had to ask the question.
Ace's hardware

 

[tapir]

PC-1066 RDRAM and DC-DDR are equal in performance at stock speeds. Since you've already got exactly the right memory configuration it would be best to go with DC-DDR in the form of a Granite Bay board.

 

[poldi1]

Since you allready got your memory at home I dont think there is any question wether to buy GB or RDRAM...speed is almost the same. AND besides RDRAM has been officially discontinued by Intel, so...thats any easy choice, for once )

 

[IQJUMPuw]

Another vote for DDR.

RDRAM is a little faster than DDR RAM, but you can overclock DDR RAM like crazy. Plus it's much cheaper.

 

[Curley]

This RDRAM being discontinued is getting better every month. RDRAM has more scaleability than DDR and EPOX has just released an i850e motherboard similar to the P4T533 using 4200RIMMS. I don't understand how the technology industry would let the best performance memory go to the wayside.

I would also disagree that RDRAM is "much more" expensive than DDR memory. To get the bandwith that RDRAM has, you have to have some good cas 2, PC3200 memroy or the XMS Corsair, Mushkin, etc that costs $100.00 for a 256MB stick. I also believe the Granite Bay motherboards are more expensive than the i850e at the moment.

I think if Intel drops RDRAM, someone will eventually pick it up. If not, I'm ready for Granite Bay. I just got my 2, 256MB sticks of cas 2 XMS Corsair PC3200 Corsair today!!!!!

 

[DX2Player]

SiS has got RDRAM with the new R658 chipset, Abit is putting out SI7 board soon with it, also will support PC1200 should give RDRAM the extra edge if its good. But since he already has the right DDR memory the duel DDR solution will be best for him.

Yeild why do you think RDRAM sucks?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: DX2Player
SiS has got RDRAM with the new R658 chipset, Abit is putting out SI7 board soon with it, also will support PC1200 should give RDRAM the extra edge if its good. But since he already has the right DDR memory the duel DDR solution will be best for him.

Yeild why do you think RDRAM sucks?

Yep, look for the SiS655. Evan did a review, should be at anandtech.com on monday or sometime this week.

 

[tapir]

They are equal in performance. In this case you can save yourself some cash by re-using your 2x DDR sticks. This configuration will work on any E7205 or SiS655 board using a 533MHz bus P4, like any of the ones you mentioned. And you will get the same performance as RDRAM.

 

[freshspace]

DDR all the way.

 

[RobCur]

i wouldn't touch ranbus or is it rimm? lol. with a 10 foot pole or even 100 pole for that matter *chuckle*

 

[Curley]

RAMBUS is still the best memory for the Pentium 4, even the Granite Bay can barely keep up. DDR is as fast as it will get and there are some PC1066 easily running at 600, 700, 800 FSB.

I would not hesitate to recommend RDRAM to anyone, Not that there is anything wrong with DDR memory, I'm running my second box on DDR memory, PC3200 DDR CAS 2 Corsair and it is fast!!!

Oh, buy the way, the price of DDR modules that will run as fast as RAMBUS cost me more that RAMBUS itself.

We finally have two good options for memory, two good options for processors, and two good options for video cards. Looks like a buyers market to me.

 

[lorlabnew]

Originally posted by: Curley
RAMBUS is still the best memory for the Pentium 4, even the Granite Bay can barely keep up. DDR is as fast as it will get and there are some PC1066 easily running at 600, 700, 800 FSB.

I would not hesitate to recommend RDRAM to anyone, Not that there is anything wrong with DDR memory, I'm running my second box on DDR memory, PC3200 DDR CAS 2 Corsair and it is fast!!!

Oh, buy the way, the price of DDR modules that will run as fast as RAMBUS cost me more that RAMBUS itself.

We finally have two good options for memory, two good options for processors, and two good options for video cards. Looks like a buyers market to me.

I kinda agree here with you, Curley..

I have new rig built with PC-2700 DDR, and memory performance is about the same as over a year old PC-800 RAMBUS rig. I'm not overly excited with that.

Btw, after long decisions I'm considering to replace above mentioned 845PE/PC2700 DDR rig, and get Asus P4T533 non "C" version (has 2 32-bit RIMM slots plus IDE RAID) for $170, and wonder what will give better performance - one stick or two? A single stick solution is about 30% more expensive (512MB for about $220). Are there other boards which support 32-bit RDRAM beside this Asus?

- I think this will beat any pricewise-comparable DDR solution ($400 for MB & 512 MB RDRAM in my case). I I'd go DDR, I could get GraniteBay board and XMS3200 or better, but it would cost probably more.

thx
dave

 

[Curley]

Originally posted by: lorlabnew

Originally posted by: Curley
RAMBUS is still the best memory for the Pentium 4, even the Granite Bay can barely keep up. DDR is as fast as it will get and there are some PC1066 easily running at 600, 700, 800 FSB.

I would not hesitate to recommend RDRAM to anyone, Not that there is anything wrong with DDR memory, I'm running my second box on DDR memory, PC3200 DDR CAS 2 Corsair and it is fast!!!

Oh, buy the way, the price of DDR modules that will run as fast as RAMBUS cost me more that RAMBUS itself.

We finally have two good options for memory, two good options for processors, and two good options for video cards. Looks like a buyers market to me.

I kinda agree here with you, Curley..

I have new rig built with PC-2700 DDR, and memory performance is about the same as over a year old PC-800 RAMBUS rig. I'm not overly excited with that.

Btw, after long decisions I'm considering to replace above mentioned 845PE/PC2700 DDR rig, and get Asus P4T533 non "C" version (has 2 32-bit RIMM slots plus IDE RAID) for $170, and wonder what will give better performance - one stick or two? A single stick solution is about 30% more expensive (512MB for about $220). Are there other boards which support 32-bit RDRAM beside this Asus?

- I think this will beat any pricewise-comparable DDR solution ($400 for MB & 512 MB RDRAM in my case). I I'd go DDR, I could get GraniteBay board and XMS3200 or better, but it would cost probably more.

thx
dave

I am running the P4T533 non "C" version, 1.6a at 533FSB 2.1GHZ with two sticks of 32bit 256MB PC4200 RIMMS 30-32NS. It is noticeably faster that my XP2000 with the fast DDR memory I quoted above. Use two sticks with the ASUS.

I believe EPOX has the same board as the P4T533.

EPOX

I did the same thing, priced out granite bay with low latency DDR and it cost more.

 

[lorlabnew]

Thx Curley,

Two sticks better performance? - OK I'll get two 256MB sticks then if I'll go with this board.... that would be for my own rig; and hoping for approx. 3500MB/s bandwidth under default setting of everything. Will use P 2.4B from my current box...

One more question, a bit different setup: I found D850EMV2L for $99 locally; I need a rig for friend and this is really good price. I primarily need stability (with decent speed) for that particular machine; I heard that while not officially supported (only PC-800), this board runs fine with 16-bit PC-1066 RIMM's, getting around 3200MB/s bandwidth; could anyone confirm? Even if not, PC-800 256MB is now for $79, can't beat that neither....

I was originally planning DDR box for this friend, but after adding up the costs, he might be better set with rambus based machine ... will have $ left for other components he needs, and performance same or similar as higher-end DDR setup.

I have one last question; did you noticed, while running you RDRAM rig, that it would work somehow snappier then DDR box? My P1.6A with 512RDRAM is definitely swifter (while in GUI at least) then anything else I have (incl. 2.4B rig) or worked elsewhere with. Using XPPro and SuSE 8.0 (dual boot); this snappy performance is same under Linux as well, and SuSE (KDE 3.0.5 at almost full detail) is about as fast as XP GUI ... I didn't manage to get this done on other machines...

thx
dave

 

[Curley]

lorlabnew,

Be careful with PC800 RDRAM. You will see RDRAM with 40ns and 45ns. Many intel boards with 533 FSB will not work or work correctly with the 45ns RDRAM, so it you decide to use PC800, make sure you get 40ns if it is samsung.

"Intel launched a new chipset, the i850E in May of 2002. This chipset requires a tRAC speed of 40ns, (for example, RDRAM 800MHz-40ns) when it operates with FSB 533MHz in the system."
Per Samsung

I have the same intel board on the way only because I bought it really cheap. Everyone is so focused on DDR platforms, that the I850E with 1066 RDRAM is really affordable.

Didn't understand your last question.

Good Luck.

 

[lorlabnew]

Originally posted by: Curley
lorlabnew,

Be careful with PC800 RDRAM. You will see RDRAM with 40ns and 45ns. Many intel boards with 533 FSB will not work or work correctly with the 45ns RDRAM, so it you decide to use PC800, make sure you get 40ns if it is samsung.

"Intel launched a new chipset, the i850E in May of 2002. This chipset requires a tRAC speed of 40ns, (for example, RDRAM 800MHz-40ns) when it operates with FSB 533MHz in the system."
Per Samsung

I have the same intel board on the way only because I bought it really cheap. Everyone is so focused on DDR platforms, that the I850E with 1066 RDRAM is really affordable.

Didn't understand your last question.

Good Luck.

I saw that mentioned somewhere about 40ns chips before; thx for reminding me.

Yeah, DDR is what everyone wants, and suddenly there are rambus boards available for so cheap I couldn't believe. The intel's board , while not twaekable, is probably rock solid stable and fast. Which memory you're planning to use with your D850EMV2 ?

Sorry if I somehow confused you in my last question; I wanted to say that my RAMBUS based box has noticeably faster performance in GUI work (operations like: open-close window, open-close application, resize, scroll window, see thumbnails, filmstrip etc; all these things are sizzling fast). I wanted to know if you think this can be a rambus advantage, or if it's just rather well tuned box with matching components.... my board in that box is D850MVL.

thx
dave

 

[Curley]

I plan to use PC1066 with everything now, even with 400FSB boards and processors. There are some really good PC800 40ns, Kingston I think, will do 1066 without a hicup.

As for your second statement, depending on your Hard Drive, Hard Drive Contoller, whether you have the IDE drivers in, yes the GUI seems to run snapier. You have to remember that the pentium 4's maximum data bandwidth is 4.2 GB per second and PC4200RIMMS provide the same 4.2GBs of data bandwidth at default settings. DDR is really stressing just to keep up with that type of bandwidth.

The Windows XP settings set to performance but maintain the same visual GUI can also be the reason.

 

[DX2Player]

Im using Asus P4T533 with 512 32bit RIMM 4200 and is kicks ass, have had since Aug and its still the thing to beat in benchmark comparisons. My board was the first version so I got lucky it worked well. Did some testing with sandra maybe somebody else here can post there results as well.

Sandra
-----------------------------
Memory Auto
Ram Turbo on
Vcore @ 1.55

2539.09 @ 133.64FSB
Memory = 3405/3399
Arithmetic = 6834 1439/3342
Multi-Media = 10144/12868

-----------------------------
Memory: 4x
Ram Turbo: On
Vcore: 1.55

2850 @ 150FSB
Memory = 3732/3727
Arithmetic = 7736 1614/3737
Multi-Media = 11393/13360

------------------------------
Memeory: 4x
Ram Turbo: On
VCore: 1.625

2964.6 @ 156.03FSB
Memory = 3881/3876
Arithmetic = 7176 1674/3927
Multi-Media = 11838/15025


Could not get into windows at 157FSB

 

[lorlabnew]

I have one more question guys if you don't mind: what is the "better" solution , if is it even possible to put the question this way?

P4T533 or P4T533-C ?

I noticed that most manufacturers of game rigs (as well as our local PC-builder shops) use almost exclusively the "C" version.....

Speedwise the boards are probably similar; the non-C version has RAID and no LAN, while C has LAN and no RAID; the only other difference would be the 32-bit vs. 16-bit RAMBUS ....

Anything else I'm missing what could help me to decide? I'm building game rig, with possible use (if it would help) of smaller 15GB 7200rpm Maxtor ATA133 HDD for swap 1GB parition (rest unused or backup space); that way I could actually get advantage of non-C ATA133 RAID - in non-RAID configuration (primary HDD will be WDC 80JB on regular IDE1 and CD-ROM on IDE2).

thx
dave