Author Topic: 256sdram question  (Read 295 times)

Offline CurtissP-6EHawk

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256sdram question
« on: April 16, 2003, 09:59:13 PM »
I have a Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 Motherboard. I currently have a Kingston 256MB 133MHz Non-ECC CL3 DIMM KVR133X64C3/256 memory chip. On Kingston's web page they suggest the following:

Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 Motherboard
Part Number Description MSRP  
KVR100X64C2/64 64MB PC100 DIMM CL2 $26.00      
KVR100X72C2/64 64MB PC100 ECC DIMM CL2 $28.00      
KVR100X64C2/128 128MB PC100 DIMM CL2 $49.00      
KVR100X72C2/128 128MB PC100 ECC DIMM CL2 $56.00      
KVR100X64C2/256 256MB PC100 DIMM CL2 $95.00      
KVR100X72C2/256 256MB PC100 ECC DIMM CL2 $108.00      

In my system window, it says 256MB of RAM. Does this mean that the current chip I have is or is not performing 100%?
The motherboard manual shows that it supports only 3.3V SDRAM DIMM.


What is Latency 3?

Offline jonnyb

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256sdram question
« Reply #1 on: April 17, 2003, 10:31:16 AM »
The Kingston models you show are indeed SDRAM DIMMS.  The PC100 and PC133 refer to the bus speed of the memory.  Your Duron runs on a FSB speed of 100, so putting in 133 memory will not offer any performance advantages as it will be limited to running at 100.

The latency is how many clock cycles it takes to fetch data from the memory.  The lower, the better.  Your current memory has a latency of 3.  The recommended ones have a latency of 2.

If you are looking to upgrade, I'd suggest getting out of the Duron series of chips and into the Athlons.  You will receive a large performance increase (due to more cache as well as higher clock speeds).  You can easily upgrade your entire system with a new motherboard, memory and cpu for under 250 dollars.  If that is a stretch, your best bet is to get rid of the Duron and go with the Athlon.  A 1.4 Gig Thunderbird can be had for about 50 bucks.

Offline CurtissP-6EHawk

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256sdram question
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2003, 04:34:26 PM »
Now I have gone and confused myself again.
I was just reading my user's manual and it says:

CPU
AMD Athlon (K7) Socket A Processer
256K/64K 2nd cache on die
Supports 500 MH~1GHz and faster

Does this mean my motherboard is ok but I need (as you already said) trash the Duron 800 processer and replace it with an Athlon Processer as well as additional SDRAM as suggested by the Kingston website?