question about ram...
 

Hey, I am looking to completely replace the ram I own right now, and the maximum I can spend is 150 bucks. I would prefer to spend about a hundred to a hundred and twenty. I was looking at some duel channel ram, and wondered how reputable "pdp" ram is. Has anyone used them before? Here's what I was looking at: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...220-002&depa=0


I was also looking at some kingston value ram (dual channel 256 mb):
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...141-413&depa=0


Thanks for any help! :)

I got kingston, when I was looking to knock the price down bit. It hasn't given me a problem... but then again I do have 2 gigs of it.
edit:
I have 2 of these
can't beat free 2nd day shipping!

I cant afford that.

how about this

Hey, that looks pretty good... I heard somewhere that Buying duel channel ram and using them together on a duel channel motherboard is better than buying a single stick of ram. Is this true? Also: Is there anyway to tell what type of ram my motherboard supports? I dont know too much about ram (I know basics, etc, but I dont know about timings and I dont know if there's a significant difference between DDR ram, and DDR 400 ram (if there is any difference)). Is there a big difference between ddr ram and ddr400 ram, if any at all? If so, how would I make sure my motherboard is compatible with it?

If I remember right, the athlon mobo you got came with SIMMs (single integrated memory module), so having 2 sticks isn't as big a deal as if you had DIMMS(duel I M M).
as for 400:
the higher the number, the faster the RAM's clock speed, which means the transistors are lined up straighter.(the straighter the road, the faster the current moves), and I do think you would see a great difference between DDR and DDR 400.
For Mobo compatibility check the Mobo box ( or web). If I remember right, your Mobo does. (Im not promising)

Yea, It's a pretty popular motherboard (AZN8X - E DELUXE). I'll go check now (I'm pretty sure that it supported dual channelling. I'll look while I'm at it.)

Edit:

Yep:
http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/sock...d/overview.htm

You could go with two 256 sticks for a little cheaper, but I'd rather have the extra room to upgrade, personally.
The heat spreaders are nice for OC'ing too, which is why I assume you got an athlon.

I also have a third slot for ram I could always use. Two of the slots are dual channel

It's only 5 bucks difference.

yea, but I heard that performance is significantly increased when you use dual channel ram.

With an Athlon XP and ram running at the same clockrate as the fsb you wont notice a difference between single and dual channel. In benchmarks you may see an improvement of around 5%, but that means stuff all in terms of everyday use.

With the ram running slower than the fsb, say pc2100 (266mhz) on a double pumped 166fsb or pc2700 (333mhz) on a double pumped 200fsb you will probably see an improvement by running it in dual channel mode. If the ram's running faster, say pc3200 (400mhz) on a double pumped 166mhz fsb, you wont see any improvement at all by running dual channel.

If it's cheaper to buy two sticks, by all means do so, but dont expect to see a difference.

With P4's it's different, they benefit more by running in dual channel, due to the higher ammount of bandwith available through their quad pumped fsb.

Here is what I have :D

@ATMO: Thanks for the help! :up: I think I'll still buy dual the channel ram, only because it's cheaper. ...well, unless someone suggest a better stick of 512 that's cheaper, etc. I'm still looking around, but I'm going to buy today.

I have a 512 stick from a company called geil. It's worked fine so far and it was only around 90 bucks.

link
Now, this is the "value RAM" compared to the other I linked to earlier, and it doesn't have as much L2 or heat spreaders, which are important if your looking to OC that FSB, a decent amount. (which would be the only reason I can see in getting an athlon). I'd stick to either Corsair or Kingston, as they are tried and true brand names. Corsair having an egde in the Top-preformance marketshare and Kingston in the Value marketshare.

How good is OCZ? Do you think this looks good?:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...146-898&depa=0

Edit: @ shaky: On that other ram that you posted from kingston, it said
"hyperX". what does that mean?

I have their stuff that runs at 2-2-2-5 at 400MHz. So cool.

hyperx is kingston's high end ram

ooh, this looks pretty good then:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...144-113&depa=0

Edit: Yea, I'm going to buy it.

something's wrong at newegg. when i hit the "add to cart" button, the page just goes blank and stops loading.

Edit: Nvm. It works with internet explorer.

Edit edit: Yep. All bought and ready to be delivered.

Glad to help. Still think you'll be kicking yourself whenever you decide to add more ram. (especially with SIMMS)
But in the mean time, you've got (edit) 20 bucks to go and get yourself a steak.

I still have another slot for ram though. I have two slots for dual channeling, and one slot for any extra ram. It's as if I have two slots for ram, and one of them will have 512 mb (The two working together).

Plus, I cant use the second slot (the one used for dual channeling) with another type of ram anyway. I can only use the second slot for dual channeling.

RAM IS NEAT I LIKE IT A LOT HAVE GOOD A DAY