What motherboard should I buy?

[blkdvl]

Quote--"I've seen them new on E-Bay for $40 because they aren't DDR."


 NIB does'nt always mean new , sealed, never opened. I've bought components twice on eBay and got bit in the bellybutton ...twice.If your going to gamble on an AUCTION,(i.e. no warranty, no return/exchange at all) do yourself a favor and spend the extra 20% and buy it from a reputable retailer like m-wave or new egg so you can return/replace it if its junk.

  Personally I will never auction buy components again.

  The last time I ordered memory from Crucial, the Fedex guy was knocking on my door before I got the email confirming my order....literally.Best place I've seen yet for service and support.

[Newman]

QUOTE--- PC-133 is just as fast on normal clock settings as PC-150 - just you can overclock the latter a bit higher than the other. DDR changes the basic way to handle datastream so it automatically brings speed benefits.


Actually it does.. even without O/Cing PC-150 faster internal clock speeds. Mine runs at 6ns, most stock PC-133 runs at 7.5ns. That makes a BIG difference.

You may have had a bad MB. I've had this one since they came out, almost 2 years, and have never had problems with it under 98SE, 98SE/ 2K dual boot, or as it is now, 2K.

Newman

[Staga]

It is possible to run PC150 chips faster than PC133 but to do that you'll need to crank down waiting times etc from computers BIOS and only difference you'll see is in different benchmarks.
You may get couple FPS more in games but is it worth the cost?
For me it wasn't but YMMV

[bloom25]

Newman, unfortunately Hussein is right here.

Unless you are overclocking your PC150 memory is only going to be running at 133.33 MHz.  Let me try to explain something about ram:

The 7.5 ns rating is the minimum cycle time for the ram.

(Using Frequency (Hz) = 1/ Period (Seconds)

1/.0000000075 = 133333333.33 Hz or 133.33 MHz.

Memory rated for 6ns would then be capable of running at a maximum clockspeed of 1/.000000006 = 166666666.66 Hz or 166 MHz.  This tells your your stick of "PC150" is rated to run at up to 166 MHz.  It has been conservatively marked at 150 MHz.

Just because the ram *can* run at 150 MHz+ does not mean it is doing so.  It's most likely that your board has a syncronous CPU FSB and memory bus.  That tells me immediately that unless you have overclocked the CPUs FSB, your ram is going to be running no faster than 133.33 MHz.

What the PC150 ram gives you the ability to do is to overclock the CPUs FSB (and thus increase it's clockspeed) without worrying about running your RAM beyond it's limits, which can compromise stability.  (You could also run at CAS 2 timings at 133 MHz and boost performance slightly.)

[eskimo2]

Originally posted by bloom25
Newman, unfortunately Hussein is right here.

Unless you are overclocking your PC150 memory is only going to be running at 133.33 MHz.  Let me try to explain something about ram:

The 7.5 ns rating is the minimum cycle time for the ram.

(Using Frequency (Hz) = 1/ Period (Seconds)

1/.0000000075 = 133333333.33 Hz or 133.33 MHz.

Memory rated for 6ns would then be capable of running at a maximum clockspeed of 1/.000000006 = 166666666.66 Hz or 166 MHz.  This tells your your stick of "PC150" is rated to run at up to 166 MHz.  It has been conservatively marked at 150 MHz.

Just because the ram *can* run at 150 MHz+ does not mean it is doing so.  It's most likely that your board has a syncronous CPU FSB and memory bus.  That tells me immediately that unless you have overclocked the CPUs FSB, your ram is going to be running no faster than 133.33 MHz.

What the PC150 ram gives you the ability to do is to overclock the CPUs FSB (and thus increase it's clockspeed) without worrying about running your RAM beyond it's limits, which can compromise stability.  (You could also run at CAS 2 timings at 133 MHz and boost performance slightly.)

Good God!  You mean that there's actual MATH behind RAM names?!  
I thought they just assigned them random yet bigger numbers.

Last night I ordered a stick of Crucial Ram; 512 DDR, 2100 something? It was $127 from Crucial, and I figure I can use it no matter what I end up doing. I should have it in a few days, others have said that they ship fast. Once I get it I'll quickly find out if my problems are beyond bad ram.

eskimo