One more question about DDR3

JohnJSal

JohnJSal

Active Member
I've sort of asked about DDR2 vs. DDR3 before, but I began to think of this issue in a new light as I was reading some articles about DDR3 RAM in a couple of PC magazines. It seems that DDR3 might become the standard within the year (at least these mags think it's possible) so I was wondering, for someone building a PC right now, would it be smart to buy a mobo that uses DDR3 instead of DDR2? I know the cost of the RAM is very high, but if DDR3 is going to become the standard soon, it seems like you are almost intentionally obsoleting your system by going with DDR2 at this point.

Granted, DDR2 seems more than adequate, especially at the higher clock speeds, to handle anything that will come up anytime soon, and probably for me I shouldn't even worry about it, but I couldn't help wonder.

As a side note, how often are mobos replaced in terms of upgrading (not because of malfunction or any kind of problem, just routine upgrade)? This seems like one of the last things to go, since it involves much more work to replace (and probably new RAM anyway).

Thanks.
 
One ststement applies bect to this namely that the hardwares are moving at a much faster pace then the OSs to run on them! Vista was long overdue while before the long gap and perhaps having seen Vista in 2005 would see XP already outdated while you look one miinute at DDR2 and then discover that DDR3 is out and then DDR4?

By the time you get system setup something else suddenly appears! For system buoght new already prebuilt the estimates that they have alreasy lost 80% retail within the first 2yrs. time. Yet it took 6yrs. for the next version of Windows? besides XP Pro 64 abd MCE that is released in 2005 while XP Pro and Home 32bit editions were seen not too long after the ME flop.
 
at the moment, DDR2 is very cheap for the memory sizes you get (over here, its like 50 euro for 2Gb, while DDR costed 120euro) at the moment, DDR3 is way too overpriced for what you get in return, and even if DDR3 will become relative standard this year (wich would be at the end of this year on its fastest I suppose) DDR2 wont suddenly disappear :) so if you're building a pc now, and you dont need all the attention on say a lan party or so (I gues you get my point :P ) I'd stick with DDR2, jsut because its so much cheaper (for basicly the same performance)
 
The main difference besides still being 240pin with a slight position change of the locking tab to fit in only DDR3 type slots is what is seen for memory speed. DDR2 leaves at 800 while DDR3 starts there and goes upto 1200 possibly 1325mhz for the fastest.

The one constant about memory is always high prices on the newest and high prices also on the oldest vendors will stock like PC100 and PC133 memory. That costs for maintaining an inventory when someone wants to restore an old system explaining the high price on outdated memory.

I readily have to agree with Archangel on the point there about either waiting for the prices to come down or simpy going ahead with the current memory available for the time being if you are in need of a good running system right away. While pondering about AM3 boards and DDR3 in the late summer of 2007 I had to work with what was affordable as well as effective to see the current build replace an older 939 case.
 
PC eye said:
DDR2 leaves at 800 while DDR3 starts there and goes upto 1200 possibly 1325mhz for the fastest.

While pondering about AM3 boards and DDR3 in the late summer of 2007 I had to work with what was affordable as well as effective to see the current build replace an older 939 case.
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DDR2 does not stop at 800MHZ, they make DDR2 1300. The standard ram for AM2+ boards is DDR2 1066.

There is no AM3 with DDR3 board to as you say (pondering on) in late summer 2007 that was AM2+ and DDR2. AM3 with DDR3 is not even going to be released till the 4th quarter 2008!
 
Pros of DDR3:
Higher Bandwith
Lower power use
Supposed longer lifetime(won't notice;))

Cons:
Latency times

IMO, I would get DDR2, no CPU demands the bandwith that DDR3 offers. And the performance decrease from DDR3's latencies, is known to be in nanoseconds difference of DDR2. The only difference that I would 'see' with today's components would be the amount of money spent on the RAM. In other words, go with DDR2.
 
WhiteFireDragon said:
i compared ddr2 and ddr3 and the general trend is that ddr3 has higher timings right? why is this so?
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Mainly because it's fairly new compared to DDR2, and manufacturers haven't been able to fully optimize the timings and specs yet, as they have with DDR2.

I showed a comparison in another thread on this subject as well:

DDR2-1066 has timings of 5-5-5-15 ($65 for 1GB)
DDR3-1066 has timings of 7-7-7-21 ($152 for 1GB)
 
StrangleHold said:
DDR2 does not stop at 800MHZ, they make DDR2 1300. The standard ram for AM2+ boards is DDR2 1066.

There is no AM3 with DDR3 board to as you say (pondering on) in late summer 2007 that was AM2+ and DDR2. AM3 with DDR3 is not even going to be released till the 4th quarter 2008!
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It doesn't stop there but most of the boards do! AM2+ falls into a different catagory of board there. If you are planning a build at this and not late in the year or 2009 you would look at what "is available" presently. For most AM2 models DDR2 800 is the standard.
 
[-0MEGA-];860875 said:
Do the new quad-cores need an AM2+ motherboard, or will an AM2 motherboard work as well?
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They will work on a AM2 board with a bios update but they will run on AM2 standards-DDR2 800 max- PCIe 1.1 and Hypertransport 1000/2000 instead of up to 2600/5200 and you will lose the voltage control that the AM2+ board has, it can lower or raise the MHZ and Voltage on each core with the Phenom, plus with the AM2+ and the Phenom you can set the memory controller voltage and speed seperate from the processor, well not the processor but the cores.
 
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PC eye said:
The new Phenon 9500+ and 9600+ quad core models require an AM2+ board.
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Yes they will, you can run one on a AM2 board. About all of Gigabyte AM2 boards already have the Phenom bios update but like I said above you lose the features of the AM2+ boards
 
I tend to doubt that you would see the best results on all AM2 models Gigabyte makes. The AM2+ boards see a design change not simply a bios revision that will extend a degree of support in order to see the new models run. For a new build with a Phenon in mind you would use an AM2+ type board for the best results.
 
INTELCRAZY said:
Pros of DDR3:
Higher Bandwith
Lower power use
Supposed longer lifetime(won't notice;))

Cons:
Latency times

IMO, I would get DDR2, no CPU demands the bandwith that DDR3 offers. And the performance decrease from DDR3's latencies, is known to be in nanoseconds difference of DDR2. The only difference that I would 'see' with today's components would be the amount of money spent on the RAM. In other words, go with DDR2.
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Thanks. Then it's decided! I'll just pick a mobo that supports higher clock speeds for DDR2, but I'll probably just buy 800mhz RAM for now. I'm sure the biggest difference between 800 and 1066 is the price, not the performance. :)
 
Generally many use 667 memory on a DDR2 800 board and oc the memory itself. For stock you simply go for the fastest standard the specifications show. Since DDR2 is now starting to see lower prices you may find a good buy on 2gb of 1066 memory if you price shop a little. In fact newegg now sees a 2gb kit of Kingston Hyper X 1066 memory for less then I paid for 800 memory back in August. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134218
 
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