Stupid RAM clock speed question

[hobbes_fan]

Have you had a look at DDR3 prices recently? DDR1 is a hell of a lot more expensive than DDR2, nearly double the price of ddr2 per gb, 2x1 ddr2 $40, 2x1 gb ddr1 $90. I could buy a budget dual core for the difference. Why sink money into a dead format? It's like buying a AGP Video card or a CD ROM drive - waste of time and money. $50 nowadays pretty much covers the low end processors to the high end.

Sorry that build theory is awful and wastes so much money.

[sa547]

I recently helped a friend add more memory (and an extra 250gb SATA hard disk) to his two-year old Sempron machine to "breathe" better (even when using Word or browsing). Our priority was capacity more than clock speed, so we went around the nearby mall to see if there's some DDR400 (PC2700) still being sold.

Well, yes there was Kingston's 512mb but we checked the pricelist and were shocked to see that a 512mb DDR2 stick was several levels cheaper than what we were planning to buy.

Upgrade hell, yes and so expensive. At least he's blessed with more solid memory, now happier with the XP reduced loading time and able to use Limewire properly.

But the thing is IMHO, for sentimental reasons not everyone is willing to trade in their three-year-old PCs to spend money for new ones, even if those new machines carry more capacity and punch than ever.

[hobbes_fan]

It's not sentimental reasons. It's quite common to see PIII's on a enterprise and corporate level as well. An overwhelming majority of PC's are used for guess what? Internet and E-mail, and word processing. Not exactly the most resource hungry tasks around. Simply put why upgrade to the newest thing when all the functions you need to do will happily run on your current setup.

AS WK says he doesn't game and apart from a quicker *nix kernel compile there isn't any need to do a complete upgrade. At the end of the day you build a machine appropriate for your needs. You don't slap a 8800gtx in for a PC that will be used for playing minesweeper. But you don't buy a BD drive if you run a PII. It's a need vs want thing WK has on his hands - Does he need the extra RAM/ processing power? From what he's said clearly - no. Would it be an upgrade - yes. Is it absolutely necessary for him to upgrade right now? Is his hardware limiting him to the point that it's essentially non-functional? Clearly no.

Semprons were bargain CPU's when they came out so it's pretty clear your friend isn't a power user and isn't asking a lot from his PC. It's unlikely he's a gamer. Sure an upgrade to a quad is nice but if he does nothing to make use of the quads then it's pointless.

[grey_moon]

Originally Posted by hobbes_fan

You don't slap a 8800gtx in for a PC that will be used for playing minesweeper.

My house mate brought a 300GBP GPU and the only game he plays in football manager

[Ledgem]

On the topic of RAM, what's the deal with laptop RAM limits? I'm extremely miffed because my Macbook Pro has a hard limit of about 3.5 GB (Napa chipset; Santa Rosa can do 4). I have two RAM slots, a 64-bit processor and operating system, but the damn memory controller is 32-bit (or so I've read) and hence the limit.

So great, Santa Rosa and the rest should be able to go above and beyond. When we get 4 GB DIMMs these systems should be able to do 8 GB, being limited only by how many slots are available and what DIMM capacities are. But it's advertised that 4 GB is the hard limit? Why?

(This question came up as I'm now considering getting a second 2 GB DIMM for my system and then putting the 1 GB displaced DIMM into my girlfriend's new Macbook to boost it to 1.5 GB; maybe I should just get the 2 GB for her system and remove the two 512 MB DIMMs...)

[Kurz]

I don't disagree with trying to add longevity to a system.
But adding Old ram Does not = Future Proof.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_proof
http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...rm=futureproof
How is he future proofing when the RAM is already obsolete?

He is just adding Life to the system.
I agree with RAM being the best upgrade you can ever make.

[WanderingKnight]

How is he future proofing when the RAM is already obsolete?

Because it's three times as expensive. I'm going to have to upgrade soon, mostly due to inertia than due to a real need. If I get a 90 USD stick of DDR RAM now, it's a dead weight when upgrading. Bye bye 60 USD.

Besides, my main focus will be on building a new system altogether. Now that I completely switched to Linux, I just get baffled by imagining the possibilities (and then reality smacks me in the face and I realize it's gonna take some while to gather all that money... ).

[Ledgem]

Shoot WK, if I'd known a few weeks earlier I would have offered to send you my "old" Sempron system As of now it's been donated to a women's shelter. I get more in the long run (tax rebate!) but I would've gotten a fuzzier feeling knowing that my system was helping out someone on these boards. I'll let you know if I come across a deal on CPU+Board deals, if it'd be useful to you.

[hobbes_fan]

Originally Posted by Kurz

I don't disagree with trying to add longevity to a system.
But adding Old ram Does not = Future Proof.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_proof
http://www.urbandictionary.com/defin...rm=futureproof
How is he future proofing when the RAM is already obsolete?

He is just adding Life to the system.
I agree with RAM being the best upgrade you can ever make.

Yeah but you're not considering what the PC is used for. There's a saying " horses for courses" - use the right tool for the job. Using his current usage is there anything that warrants a complete overhaul? Personallly I'd just build a budget dual core system but the fact of the matter is for his purposes his PC is still viable for at least one more technology generation.

[Kurz]

I completely understand.
I just don't agree with the words Future Proof.

I didn't know there was a misunderstanding till now.

[Potatochobit]

There is also a saying, "why trade in your clunker if you're just going to buy a jalopy"

future upgrading your motherboard with one that supports the same type of memory as you are currently using is not exactly an upgrade now is it? Especially when we are talking about DDR1 and single core processor boards which I think this one is.

In my opinion, if you're going to replace the mother board, you pretty much bought a new computer and are just reusing a few old pieces from your previous one.

DDR3 will still be too expensive this year most likely, but if you're going to do an upgrade, then do as far an upgrade as you can go.

buy at least DDR2 or buy nothing.

now I'm not giving you a reason to neglect buying memory for your current computer, if you can find some good deals on DDR memory, take it. I upgraded my old computer too, but don't think of this investment as 'planning ahead' because older memory will be phazed out eventually. consider it a more of 'I need this now' to be efficient.

[grey_moon]

Future proofing memory is general things like buying* faster memory when the mobo can't use it fully. You are hoping that either a bios update might allow you to utilise it (unlikely) or if you do buy a new one then you can reuse the memory at full speed.

A better example is the eeePC, lots of people upgraded the memory them selves and didn't want to move off the stock xandros. Now that kernel is limited to less then 1GB so people were buying a single 1 GB module. The thing is the mobo will support 2GB and that is only 3GBP difference in price. It makes sense to buy the 2GB module even if 1GB is going to be wasted for now.

*edit*

*Personally I only buy tech when it is on the sweet spot of pound per power. I hate buying bleeding edge that makes my wallet shrivel up.

[Kurz]

Originally Posted by Potatochobit

There is also a saying, "why trade in your clunker if you're just going to buy a jalopy"

future upgrading your motherboard with one that supports the same type of memory as you are currently using is not exactly an upgrade now is it? Especially when we are talking about DDR1 and single core processor boards which I think this one is.

In my opinion, if you're going to replace the mother board, you pretty much bought a new computer and are just reusing a few old pieces from your previous one.

DDR3 will still be too expensive this year most likely, but if you're going to do an upgrade, then do as far an upgrade as you can go.

buy at least DDR2 or buy nothing.

now I'm not giving you a reason to neglect buying memory for your current computer, if you can find some good deals on DDR memory, take it. I upgraded my old computer too, but don't think of this investment as 'planning ahead' because older memory will be phazed out eventually. consider it a more of 'I need this now' to be efficient.

Finally someone understands what I am saying ^^

[WanderingKnight]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Shoot WK, if I'd known a few weeks earlier I would have offered to send you my "old" Sempron system

Thanks for the offer! It's all right, there's no problem. I'd rep you but it seems I have to rep other people first >_>