DDR, AMD760, and clock multiplier

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SammyBoy

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Mar 16, 2001
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Okay, here's my question. I am currently running an old IBM 300 p2 and am seriously in need of an upgrade. After hearing about the ease of over clocking the Athlon AXIA's to 1.5 GHz, I really would like one. But my dilema is this: Since I have no cash until mid-summer, I have time to make some choices. But, do I go with a DDR platform or SDRAM. If I go with DDR, I realize that AMD760 is the only chipset that justifies the extra money, but none of the boards have clock muliplier adjusters on them. I really shy away from FSB increases, because I've heard too many horror stories from friends and the net, but if that's the only way, I may be SOL. So, I either go with a A7V133 for the SDRAM platform, or some kind of AMD760 board for DDR. Oh yea, since I have to wait until mid-summer anyway, I also heard that the new Palamino core with have DDR optimizations. If that is the case, would it be better just to drop the money on a Palamino/AMD760 set, regardless of the FSB overclocking only? THanks

~SammyBoy
 
The A7V133 is not that far behind in perfomance if you cannot get good priced DDR RAM. A little more mature for those that want the DDR market to shake out a little before taking the plunge! Just do not get the A7A133 - the aLi chipset stinks (although the idea is good).

Pete.

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Yeah - I was presenting an option for those that cannot get DDR at a good price though. Not everyone lives in the states and DRR is still quite expensive in Japan for some reason.

Also - 128Mb sticks of DDR limit you to 256Mb on most DDR boards, im my opinion this is not a good strategy. You'd want 1 x 256Mb (which I think you can get in certain US retailers for ~ $100) and option to upgrade to 384/512MB later...

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Maybe, but 256MB is all most people will need for at least 5 years. Right now 128MB is plenty of memory for most systems. 5 years ago, 32MB was a lot of memory, but some hardcore people wanted 64mb, and 64mb still works for those systems. The same is true of 128MB vs. 256MB, the later should be good for 5 years at least.

Suicide is painless...........
 
Crashman - I hear what you are saying, but in my opinion I think you are little off in your reckoning. Joe public will in the next year or so be looking in excess of 128Mb minimum. Anyone running 2K ought to be in the 256MB anyway. The least I've ever seen it use is 80-85MB with nothing running. You've got to be a very basic user (and there are a lot I know) who needs less than 256MB. Also - prices are way down. You can get 256MB SDRAM for under $100 - most people can afford that with a new system. I hope the next gen DDR boards will come out with more slots - else everyone is in for a costly program. If you are still running 2K in 5 years, then maybe 256Mb will get you through - but are you still running any win95 machines? Are they your main machine?

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I sell refurbished systems with 24MB and Win95! I use a system with Win98SE and 256MB, simply because there is not a better performing version of windows available yet, and, although I only needed 128MB, I got an extra 128 to find out what difference it would make on performance (very little)! The extra RAM does come in handy when I am running many applications at once.

Suicide is painless...........
 
Crashman - sure we can always find examples of people running 'satisfactory' systems, but they won't get very far with Office 2000 using 128MB memory.

Oh sure - I'm sure it will run and will work - but it will be slow and awkward. We started off discussing the majority of users. IMHO the majority of users should be looking at 256Mb of memory now, with a view to 512 in a few years. Selling a refurb system will be adequate for some users, but is probably as niche as selling high end systems...

Each to their own.

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Peteb, I agree with Crashman. It would be nice to have more than two slots on a ddr board for mem, but in a few years, how much will it actually cost to replace a 128MB module with a 512? The 128MB at that point won't be worth much, and 256MB right now is plenty.
 
256MB sticks of DDR are available right now. I've got one in my system leaving one free slot. So total memory of 512MB is possible already in AMD 760 systems with 2 DDR slots. By the way I live in U.K and DDR is moderately available over here.
 
Great - but let's look at today's scenario - PC133 SDRAM has been around a long time - how many high performance PC133 512MB memory sticks do you see on the market?

You cannot currently get (that I have seen) a 512Mb CL/CAS2 stick. A lot of them are also ECC. Maybe in another couple of years we may see faster large PC133 sticks but there's nothing yet that I can see.

So yet - I can stisk a 512MB stick in my board, but based on precedence it may slow my top speed down. I know this a little off right now since really only 2.5DDR is available mainstream, but I wouldn't get a DDR system unless I kew I can get CL2DDR

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Yes. If you read the thread you'll see that I was engaged in a discussion with Crashman about his 128Mb stick recommendation and saying it was too low.

Also I was complaining (in another thread somewhere) because 512Mb for a board is too low - I have 768MB in mine right now, but would use 1GB if there were enough slots.

Until the DDR boards are mainstream with more slots, I feel they are crippled for the really high end user.

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Erm... the first couple of posts were good, but after that, it denegrated into a discussion/argument of whether 256MB is needed compared to 128MB. Personally, I would like to have between 256MB and 512MB, just because I can. Whether that is done in a SDRAM or DDR stick, I really don't care (no offense Crashman). I'd really like to know what people think about the various chipsets for DDR, what is the best to get, and where things will be midway through the summer, when I am able to purchase my parts. I just really would like to be able to sketch a roadmap that I will basically follow, and use outside resources to modify it as the market and products change and mature. Sorry if this post sounds angry, because it really isn't, just a little saddened that things started well but kinda fell apart. I welcome people replying to my posts, but could we please stay on subject? Also, with the revelations that the VIA chipset has some problems that are remedied with a soldering iron, I was wondering what people thought of that as well. I mean, if by the summer there are board revisions to the MSI and Gigabyte, and other brands, will it actually be worth it to get the VIA chipset? Anyway, please respond with your thoughts. Thanks!

-SammyBoy
 
Interesting perspective - it's often easy to forget that x people are reading your thread when having a 'discussion' about opinions! ;o)

For my opinion, I agree with the THG perspective on DDR athlon systems.

If you absolutely positively need the 10% uplift on SDRAM boards, or if it makes financial sense (i.e. you have access to cheap DDR and it is all the memory you're every likely to need, and you don't have an investment base of SDRAM PC133 already) then get the AMD760 chipset.

Otherwise, stay with PC133. For me - I'm not really chash limited on my system, bt I don't want to throw money away. I'll wait for the SMP chipsets and larger # of DIMMS before going DDR. I'm hoping that SMP will really leverage DDR. Also, VIA will have had a chance to condsider the life of the product and may improve their chipsets - maybe this is why Asus has not yet released a KT266 board - they are waiting for KT266A? 😱)

Pete

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see my post a little earlier today about the performance of large memory sticks, or lack.


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