Memory question

[randycw]

I am looking at buying some more memory with an eye toward the future. I am going to (within 3 months) upgrade to a dual motherboard running 2 Athlon 1 GHz chips (overclocked of course). First I am sticking with the ! GHz because that's what I currently have, so I will only need to add dual mobo and additional CPU.

So for now, because memory prices are so low and seem to have stablized there, I figured I would buy 512MB worth of DDR. The question is which type? Crucial has free shipping, and their PC2100 CL2.5 and PC1600 CL2.0 are priced the same ($35.95 for a stick of 256MB). I am wondering which to go with -- any suggestions, comments, opinions are welcome.

[Rizzo]

I would go with the PC2100 because it will OC better than PC1600.

With the same CPU I would rather have PC-133 (DDR-266) CL 2.5 than PC-100 (DDR-200) CL 2, because the extra bandwidth is much better than the slightly different CLs.

[phil]

I am running 2x256Mb Crucial PC2100 at 150fsb CAS2 with no problems. Crucial just ROCK!!

[stall6g]

I've gotten the Crucial PC2100 to 162 fsb and I know that Hemi has had it to 180 fsb at CAS2 so I agree with the above mentioned opinions that Crucial ROCKS!!

[viperdog]

Originally posted by randycw
I am looking at buying some more memory with an eye toward the future. I am going to (within 3 months) upgrade to a dual motherboard running 2 Athlon 1 GHz chips (overclocked of course). First I am sticking with the ! GHz because that's what I currently have, so I will only need to add dual mobo and additional CPU.

** and you have an Athlon 1gig MP (Palomino)? The dual boards don't work with regular athlons....**

So for now, because memory prices are so low and seem to have stablized there, I figured I would buy 512MB worth of DDR. The question is which type? Crucial has free shipping, and their PC2100 CL2.5 and PC1600 CL2.0 are priced the same ($35.95 for a stick of 256MB). I am wondering which to go with -- any suggestions, comments, opinions are welcome. [/B]

** and the dual boards need ECC DDR memory I think. I don't know if ECC DDR will work in a single processor athlon board or not...**

Maybe someone else has more knowledge on this but I think going from single athlon to dual athlon could be a bit more complicated..than just a new mobo & 2nd CPU..

[randycw]

Interesting points Viperdog! From a previous post, I got the impression that it was simple enough to just add the dual mobo and 2nd CPU, however you're points seem valid enough to me. I am also unsure if it is the case though. Would some of you guys with dual processors please enlighten me?

I thought that a regular Athlon (NOT SMP) could indeed be used in a multiprocessor setting. Also does the memory need to be ECC or can it remain as non-ECC?

BTW... Thanks for the input on the PC2100. That's what I'll pick up. Now just need to resolve the other two issues.

[wbierman]

The Cruical DDR 256 ECC works just fine in my Asus A7A266s single CPU boards. If you want to go Dual CPUs then you will need "registered" RAM from Crucial. Plain DDR ECC will not work.

[randycw]

Okay registered RAM -- only about $10.00 more for 512mb. Thanks wbierman!

How about the SMP versus regular Athlon in a dual setup. Am I right that you indeed can use a regular chip in a dual setup, just that you will sacrifice a little bit of performance versus the SMP Athlons?

[stall6g]

Have no fears on running regular Athlons on a dual board. They will do SMP just that AMD does not officially recognize it.

[randycw]

Thanks for all the input. I will order the memory from Crucial in the a.m. (making sure that it is registered PC2100), and if you have seen my other post about my motherboard it looks like I will soon be ordering a new motherboard as well.

[Dustin]

Originally posted by phil
I am running 2x256Mb Crucial PC2100 at 150fsb CAS2 with no problems. Crucial just ROCK!!

I 2nd Phil! SDR or DDR, Crucial owns the memory market!

[Jodie]

Woah, wait a sec... The MP, clock for clock, is faster, but we're not claiming that a 1.2MP will outrun a 1.4 Tbird, right? If that's the case, I'm going to return these 1.4Tbirds and put in Dual 1.2MPs, but I doubt that's possible...

[Rick_Deadly]

Originally posted by Jodie
Woah, wait a sec... The MP, clock for clock, is faster, but we're not claiming that a 1.2MP will outrun a 1.4 Tbird, right? If that's the case, I'm going to return these 1.4Tbirds and put in Dual 1.2MPs, but I doubt that's possible...

Jodie, I think you're right in your assumption that the 1.4s will run faster. I've read a few articles on the MP's and it seems to give about a 20% performance increase. If this is true a pair of standard 1.3GHz Tbirds should still outperform a pair of 1.2GHz Athlon MPs.

Since you'll be running two seperate apps, that's another point for the 1.4s to be faster. Highly multithreaded apps will benefit the most from the MPs new architecture, but not to the tune of a 200MHz advantage.

For me its all theory. I'll be very happy to hear your facts, once you've played with your new systems. :D

[stall6g]

The new Athlon MPs do run faster clock for clock but as was stated earlier a 1.2gig Athlon mp will not outperform a 1.4gig Tbird. Another point in the Tbirds favor is the Price ratio. Simply put you're going to pay a lot more for a chip that is designed for MP. Now when Thoroughbred comes out with .13 micron process and SOI then we should see some major improvements.

[MikeTimbers]

My (limited) understanding was that the Palominos' hardware pre-fetch may be useful in some applications, but basically it depends.

Until they really hit the reviewers who can compare them properly, we just don't have enough data.

The only figure I saw was that a 1.2 Athlon can do the Super-Pi thing in 35 seconds and a 1.2MP the same thing in 20 seconds. That's a pretty big leap in performance, in my view.

I am going to get the first Palomino I see under £100.

[Dustin]

Originally posted by Rick_Deadly


Jodie, I think you're right in your assumption that the 1.4s will run faster. I've read a few articles on the MP's and it seems to give about a 20% performance increase. If this is true a pair of standard 1.3GHz Tbirds should still outperform a pair of 1.2GHz Athlon MPs.

I have to disagree. From every review I've read, you will get ~5% performance increase in 95% of everything. The remaining 5% can see up to a 20% increase.

[phil]

Well, my 1.2 Athlon 4 turned up today but I am having a little trouble from the mobo (MSI K7T266 Pro). I am going to return it after reading about how many problems people are having and maybe get a 760 chipset board.

[Dustin]

That's bad news.:( I hope you get it sorted pretty quick.

[phil]

Thanks mate....I will pull my T-Bird from my Iwill KK266R tomorrow and put that Athlon 4 in until I get a new DDR mobo. I have got to see how it performs :D