RAM question: Which setup would be faster?

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Yo,

I recently bought some RAM off ebay for a very good price. Its a 256MB stick of PC2100 DDR RAM. The problem is, it does not work in conjunction with my old RAM (two sticks of 256MB PC133).

So my question is, since I cannot use them together, which would give me the best performance?

1. 512MB of PC133 RAM

or

2. 256MB of PC2100 RAM

Your thoughts?

[MichaeltheGreat]

4 gigs of PC4200 DDR2.


Seriously, there's no performance difference in the RAM istelf that will ever make up for the difference between 256 and 512 if you're using Win2k or more recent (or equivalent era or more recent Linux distros) and normal, fairly current office or game apps.

[Asher]

Well, if all you use is 256MB of it, the DDR will be faster.

If you use > 256MB of it, you'll be paging to the glacial harddrives...and that will probably be slower.

[Asher]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
4 gigs of PC4200 DDR2.


Seriously, there's no performance difference in the RAM istelf that will ever make up for the difference between 256 and 512 if you're using Win2k or more recent (or equivalent era or more recent Linux distros) and normal, fairly current office or game apps.

I'm not a fan of DDR2's latency.

I prefer CAS 2 DDR(1) for today.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Asher
Well, if all you use is 256MB of it, the DDR will be faster.

If you use > 256MB of it, you'll be paging to the glacial harddrives...and that will probably be slower.

Eh?

So you're saying I should use the 256MB DDR instead of the 512 SDR?

Sorry, I'm lost...

[Asher]

It depends how much RAM you use, is what I'm saying. If your usual usage is under 256MB, then 256MB DDR is better. Else, 512MB SDR is better.

[Whaleboy]

Asher means how much your software uses, as opposed to how much you have installed. Running Word and Firefox won't go above 256, but run other software at the same time, you'll want more. If the 256Mb stick was such good value, then get another one?

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Asher
It depends how much RAM you use, is what I'm saying. If your usual usage is under 256MB, then 256MB DDR is better. Else, 512MB SDR is better.

Oh, I see...

If the 256Mb stick was such good value, then get another one?

Yeah, thats the plan... eventually. I was just wondering what would be optimal at this point in time. I thought it was a cut and dry speed issue, but now I see its more complicated.

Thanks everyone, I guess I'll have to weigh my options.

[Whoha]

Re: RAM question: Which setup would be faster?

Originally posted by JimmyCracksCorn
Yo,

I recently bought some RAM off ebay for a very good price. Its a 256MB stick of PC2100 DDR RAM. The problem is, it does not work in conjunction with my old RAM (two sticks of 256MB PC133).

So my question is, since I cannot use them together, which would give me the best performance?

1. 512MB of PC133 RAM

or

2. 256MB of PC2100 RAM

Your thoughts?

I'd have to say the more ram generally. Going to the Hard drive is very very slow.

[Vince278]

I thought the PC bus speeds are incompatible. In other words, you can't use PC2100 ramchips in a PC133 machine.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Originally posted by Vince278
I thought the PC bus speeds are incompatible. In other words, you can't use PC2100 ramchips in a PC133 machine.

Not sure. My machine is fairly new though, so it might have been backwards compatible with my older RAM (taken out of an older machine).

[Vince278]

I'm fairly sure the PC bus speed of a ramchip needs to match. Someone feel free to inform me otherwise, I'm curious.

[Asher]

You can use PC133 in many DDR boards, they're backwards compatible.