On Sun, 2002-04-21 at 12:15, Kenneth E. Lussier wrote: > Hi All, > > As I am sure that there are people on this list that are far more > knowledgeable about hardware than I am, I was hoping that someone could > point me in the right directions. I am looking to buy a new motherboard > because the one that I have is fairly limited in it's upgrade path. With > a new motherboard purchase, I am going to be making the jump into DDR > RAM (right now I still use PC100 SDRAM). One of the problems is that > there seem to be many different levels of DDR (ranging from PC1600 to > PC3200). I'd like to read up on what exactly these specifications mean, > if the are compatible, interchangeable, etc.
OK, the first thing you need to decide is whether you are going AMD or Intel. If you are going AMD, I can't help you much. I prefer Intel for the following reasons: 1. If your heatsink falls off or your CPU fan dies, the processor just slows down and stops. I doesn't die like AMD processors do. 2. There don't seem to be too many chipset choices for AMD processors besides VIA, and, based on MY experience and those of others I have read, VIA are not the best chipset manufacturers out there. 3. With Intel, you NEVER have to worry if there is a software comatibility issue. Some people like AMD for the following reasons: 1. The Athlon XP chips have superior floating point performance to Intel. This is why they call it an Athlon XP 2100+, even though it only runs at 1.7 GHz. 2. The prices of equivalently perfoming Athlons are generally cheaper than Intel P4, although this could change in the coming weeks with Intel's recent and upcoming price cuts. Another thing that made the AMD solution more attractive to many was that until recently, you couldn't buy a P4 solution that wasn't RAMBUS. And RAMBUS (RDRAM) was and is expensive. But now of course there are a great many chipsets that support DDR, including the Intel 845. If you decide on Intel, get a Northwood. These 0.13 micron technology chips are the next generation, with 512K cache, and copper interconnects. These are the cores that Intel will be taking to 3GHz core speeds and beyond by next year. So, once you weigh all these considerations and settle on Intel :oP (I'm biased, you should really get advice from someone who KNOWS AMD too) then the decision is what chipset to get. Right now, I am partial to the SiS 645DX. http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/oa/pentium4/645dx.htm This chipset supports the new 533 MHz (133 quad pumped) FSBs that the Pentium 4 will soon be using.It also supports DDR333 (PC2700) RAM and AGP 4X.A motherboard using this chipset will go a long way to "future proof" your new PC. The companion 961B southbridge from SiS supports ATA-133, USB 2.0, and has onboard LAN and audio. (AC-97 audio is compatible with Linux, I am using it now.) The only solution that uses this chipset right now is the ASUS P4S533 http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4s533/overview.htm but there will shortly be others. Soyo is working on one, as I'm sure A-Bit and MSI are. The ASUS unit substitutes the AC97 audio for C-Media CM18738 6-channel audio--very cool. Of course, there are excellent motherboard choices in the Intel 845 Area too: http://www.msicomputer.com/product/chipset/intel_845.asp http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4b266/overview.htm Which manufacturer you choose (among the reliable ones) will depend on your required feature set--do you want onboard audio, LAN, RAID? Keep in mind that ANY new motherboard you buy today will have NO ISA slots. You will need to replace any ISA hardware you currently use, or get the feature integrated on the motherboard. Also keep in mind that even though you may have an ATX case, you will likely need a new power supply. Not for more power, but the P4 motherboards have an extra 4 pin +12V connector to get more current to the processor core and to the AGP slot. RAM DDR means "double data rate," which is simply clocking data on both edges of the RAM clock. This means that DDR200 is really running at 100 MHz; DDR 333 is really running at 166 MHz, and so forth. The "PC2700" specs you see are related to memory bandwidth. PC2700 means 2700 MB/sec or 2.7 GB/sec. This number is essentially the data rate times 8, so DDR333 x 8 = 2664 or PC2700, got it? DDR333 is "almost as fast" as RDRAM at this point. RDRAM runs at 400 MHz, the same as the P4 system bus, but it is only 16 bits wide, as opposed to 64 bits wide for DDR. To compensate for this, RDRAM is used in pairs, like the old SRAM SIMMs. This is referred to as "dual channel" RDRAM. IMO right now DDR is the way to go...there is a much wider support base in terms of chipset support and chip manufacturers than RDRAM, virtually ensuring continued development and lower prices. > > <RANT> > > On a side note, speaking of hardware, I'd like to mention a very > disturbing experience I had at a computer show in Salem N.H. yesterday. > I remember when computer shows were full of hobbyists getting great > deals on inexpensive hardware from honest vendors. What I saw yesterday > was prices 2 and 3 times higher than retail, and people who had no clue > *PAYING* these prices. One example was the average price for an AMD > Athlon 1.3GHz 266/FSB CPU was $199.00. Average retail price is about > $95. Memory was $150 and up for a 128MB PC133 DIMM. I even heard one guy > telling a poor, uninformed woman that RAMBUS was the next big thing, and > that she should really pay the extra $200 for the memory for her son's > computer (he wanted $375 for 256MB RAMBUS). Of course, I couldn't resist > the chance to step in and help the woman. What happened to the good old > days???? > > </RANT> > I never go to hardware shows; to my mind, it's equivalent to buying Rolexes off a guy on the street corner. Sure you might get a fantastic deal, but if you don't, where's the support? I search pricewatch.com for prices and have a list of resellers that I use. You can check out a vendor you are unfamiliar with on resellerratings.com. Rich Cloutier President, C*O SYSTEM SUPPORT SERVICES www.sysupport.com ***************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *****************************************************************
