Mainboard for Athlon/DDR

The xxxx in PCxxxx refers to the maximum bandwidth (transfer rate) of the memory in MB, e.g. PC2100 is rated to transfer at 2,100MB/sec, or 2.1GB/sec. Memory can generally be underclocked, so PC2100 or PC2400 will work just fine if used as PC1600 memory. Aside from the 4-digit number, DDR memory also carries a CAS latency rating (CAS=Column Address Strobe) that refers to how long the memory takes to do certain operations internally. The lower the CAS latency, the better. Currently, DDR SDRAM has two CAS latency ratings, CAS2.5 and CAS2. As it stands right now, CAS2 DDR is generally no more than 10% more expensive than CAS2.5, so if you want the absolute fastest, you might as well get CAS2.

Note that only DDR SDRAM is described in this manner; older SDRAM is rated by its actual MHz (PC133 operates at 133MHz, PC100 at 100MHz, etc). PC133 actually has a maximum bandwidth of 1.06GB/sec, not 133MB/sec.

As it stands right now, there is no Athlon+DDR setup rated to use/require PC2400 memory. The best (non-overclocked) Athlon+DDR setups are Athlon-C's with PC2100 CAS2 memory. PC2400 memory is for people who want to overclock their systems, i.e. bump the system's FSB a bit higher than spec, or run CAS2.5 PC2400 as CAS2 PC2100. PC2400 might also be nice if somebody releases a future CPU rated to use it.

A little oddness--a few weeks ago, PC2400 memory was selling for less than PC2100 memory. Since PC2400 memory can be used as PC2100 memory just fine (see first paragraph), you might as well get PC2400 if it still costs less.

Right now, your best bet is to get PC2100/PC2400 memory and an Athlon-C processor. The A7A266 is based on the ALi MAGiK 1 chipset; while it's generally slightly slower than the AMD761 chipset, it has the advantage of not containing any VIA hardware (like the buggy VIA686B southbridge).

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."

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<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by o1die on 07/05/01 06:36 AM.</EM></FONT></P>