pc133 or pc2700?

[cracker123]

obviously pc2700 is better than pc133, but what exactly is the difference between the two? is pc2700 really worth 70 bucks more? (512mb pc133=$30)(512mb pc2100=$100) thanks

[AllGamer]

these articles will answer you question
PC2700
http://www.exhardware.com/reviews.php?Id=78
PC133
http://www.via.com.tw/news/pc133.htm

[rond36]

First if you want to use PC2700 DDR SDRAM 184 pin DIMMs you need a motherboard that supports it. If you plan on using PC133 SDR SDRAM 168 pin DIMMs you need a board that supports it. In most cases to change memory types you need to change the motherboard because DDR SDRAM DIMMs will not fit in SDR SDRAM slots and the chipset on the motherboard can not use it even if it did.

DDR (double data rate) executes a cycle on the rising and falling of the system clock. SDR (single data rate) executes a cycle only once per clock cycle.

DDR is twice as fast as SDR RAM at a given system clock rate.

[deadkenny]

Depends on the usage. For a PIII system, the PC133 would perform just about as well as the PC2700, since the PIII can't really take advantage of the additional memory bandwidth. With a P4 it's the exact opposite. The PC133 would 'choke' the perfomance of the P4, which needs very high memory bandwidth. Even the PC2700 on a single memory channel board would deliver less than the optimal memory bandwidth. With an Athlon, the situation would fall somewhere between the extremes. The Athlon would be limited by the PC133, the optimal bandwidth being about the PC2100 level. Going from PC2100 to PC2700 with the Athlon doesn't yield much of a performance improvement.

[Aznmask]

Originally posted by cracker123
obviously pc2700 is better than pc133, but what exactly is the difference between the two? is pc2700 really worth 70 bucks more? (512mb pc133=$30)(512mb pc2100=$100) thanks

If money is a problem go for pc133. and save money for a good video card.. it pointless to spend $70 more for gain little speed..

[cracker123]

i am planning on getting an athlon 2000+ (the motherboard supports both ddr and sdr). would spending 70 bucks less for pc133 be worth losing the performance of the pc2100 ddr? how much of a performance hit would i take if i had the athlon and a gf 4200 64mb w/512mb of pc133?

[deadkenny]

Hard to give an exact figure without knowing at least the chipset. However, I would not recommend buying new SDRAM at this point. If you were taking it from an old system and simply putting off buy new (DDR) memory, then I would understand. SDRAM is a lot cheaper for a reason, it's old technology. BTW, do you already have the board?

[dawgtuff]

deadkenny,
You say pc2700 would be wasted on a Athlon xp? I'm thinking of getting a MSI KT3 Ultra w/ XP1600. Like cracker123, i'm stuck on what kind of ddr ram to get.

[cracker123]

i was planning on getting the ecs k7s5a mobo which supports pc1600 ddr and pc2100 and also supports pc100 and 133

[BipolarBill]

That's a decent board. Enjoy!

[cheapster]

I'm thinking of getting a MSI KT3 Ultra w/ XP1600. Like cracker123, i'm stuck on what kind of ddr ram to get

I just got my KT3 Ultra2, and faced the same decision. Of course my frugal nature took over when I researched it and found the number of posts that said the performance gain was negligible with the PC2700 ram vs. the PC2100. And Bestbuy had the crucial PC-2100 256 MB stick for $34.95 after rebate, so my choice was clear. I was convinced I made the right one a couple of weeks later when bestbuy again offered a 256 mb stick of PC-2100 ram for $39.95 after rebate (Kingston Valueram) I concluded that 512 mb of decent quality PC-2100 ram for about the same price of 256 mb of PC2700 was a no brainer. Others may disagree, but I am happy with my choice. FWIW

[dawgtuff]

cracker123- I looked at that mobo verrry closely. I decided against it because of QC issues. For $30 more the KT3Ultra is a better buy, plus it has good onboard sound.Good PC2100 is my ram choice.
deadkenny's right, an AthlonXP won't take advantage of fast ddr.

[deadkenny]

Originally posted by dawgtuff
deadkenny,
You say pc2700 would be wasted on a Athlon xp? I'm thinking of getting a MSI KT3 Ultra w/ XP1600. Like cracker123, i'm stuck on what kind of ddr ram to get.

Basically that's right, the performance increase going from PC2100 to PC2700 with an AthlonXP at 133MHz FSB is minimal. The only reasons for going with PC2700 would be future upgrade to a 166MHz FSB processor or OC'ing.