Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations bkrike on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Upgrade or not to upgrade??? 2

Status
Not open for further replies.

luccian34

Technical User
Feb 16, 2006
9
US
I have a Asus P4T533-c motherboard. I currently have 512 of RDRAM. I have been searching for more RAM to bring it up to at least 1gig. However RDRAM is so expensive I am wondering if it wouldn't be more cost effective to change out my board and go with a different type of RAM? I got this board as a package with a P4 2.6 chip and the RAM. I don't even know what speed the RAM is. Thank you in advance for any advice you may have.
 
(For reference, lowest price NewEgg has for a 512 RDRAM is $209.)

If you buy the RDRAM, how long do you think you'll use this system before you want to upgrade? If you're pretty happy with it otherwise and you think you'll keep it for a year or so, get the RDRAM. If you expect this system to be too slow in a matter of months, then it doesn't make much sense to sink more money into it now for something you can't use in your new system.



 
Well I have been using it about a year. It has been pretty good system. If I was to go ahead and upgrade the board do you have any suggestions for a new one? I would like to use the P4 2.6 chip since it still has some life in it.
 
Don,t know what the use is, RDRAM as you know is expensive. Mostly due to lack of acceptance & therefore limited market.

As BaudKarma pointed out it depends on your future intentions and current requirements. 512 is satisfactory for most uses even with XP though you will see peppier performance overall with 1GB mem. For a gamer not even close but then neither is the P4 '478' pin chip. 478 unless you mis-stated 2.6, therre is a 775 celeron chip at 2.66MHz.

If you are like some of us and maintain a stable of older systems and want to change the mobo out I think you could do this and at less cost than the RDRAM. Please check compatability of all your current components first.

See these links as a starting place

Mobo

Mem Several paired options


rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all
 
I think it would be poor economy spending over $200 on 512mb of RDram when for LESS you could have yourself a newer, faster motherboard and a whole gig of DDR3200.
Only downside is you will probably have to re-install.

Personally I would go for an Intell chipset and the 865PE was amongst the best for socket 478.

Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
 
This ASUS set up I have has been very stable for me. Though AMD are a bit cheaper. Any thoughts on those over P4's

By the way thanks for the replies. It has been a big help.
 
luccian34
That last link I gave was for a socket 478 Intel chipset motherboard, which is a direct replacement for the one you have.
You would use your existing chip but this board would require the much cheaper DDR ram
As stated this board and a gig of value Corsair/Kingston or similar PC3200 ram could be purchased cheaper that the one stick of RDram you were looking at.
The result would be: A faster more modern setup "USB2" for instance, with a CPU upgrade path to the fastest socket 478 processors with 800front side bus.
Upgrading to anything newer will mean changing much more hardware:
The power supply/CPU/graphics card (PCIexpress) you would end up basically buying a new tower.
If that's what you want to do? then an AMD64 is a fine choice and at any given price point it is generally accepted that they represent the best value against performance (best bang for buck)
But as I said, upgrading your present machine to Athlon64 will involve replacing so many of the key components that you would be better off buying a whole new tower.

Martin


We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.
 
Oh I see that now. Thank you very much. It has been a huge help!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top