New mobo soon - should I go for DDR-2?

"Nimo O'Leary" wrote in message
...
Advice please on DDR-2 and future trends.

I am in the UK and I will build a new PC soon for home/small office
use. It will be nothing fancy. No games. Some video and audio
playing. Will probably use a 2800+ to 3000+ Sempron with 768 MB (or
even 1024 MB) memory. With only a basic graphics card or reasonable
on-board graphics.

Will DRR-2 become standard and replace ordinary DDR on almost all
forthcoming mobos (in the same way that DDR replaced SDRAM on all new
mobos at the time)?

Yes to the memory question. Eventually. Right now, it is the more expensive
solution, and not necessary for the particular machine you described.

Now, for the new video solution being touted, PCI-express, I am not so sure.
Most applications don't even use 8X AGP to full capacity. Given you have no
plans to get a 'fancy' video card, don't let the sales droids talk you into
a PCI-X solution, unless you eventually plan to upgrade your machine to do
CAD, or Games.

-----------

Here is my situation in more detail .....

I am still an SDRAM user and I don't have any DDR at all in any
machine.

I do not want to buy a mobo to take only ordinary DDR memory which
can not be used in upgrades in 12 to 24 months from now.

At the moment most new mobos use DDR but I *guess* that DDR-2 on the
majority of new mobos may be not far away. I know DDR-2 costs more
than DDR (maybe £200 UK for 1GB of DDR-2 versus £140).

*Right now* going to DDR2 is the more expensive way to go. For office use,
it is totally not necessary. MS Word will not run any faster. That will
change within the next year for memory. Of course, the longer you can hold
off, the cheaper it all will get...


But what is the use of getting ordinary DDR memory if no new upgrade
mobo which I can buy in perhaps 24 months from now will support it?
It will be a bit like my SDRAM where there is almost no decent new
mobo on the market at the moment which will support SDRAM.

Or will DDR and DDR2 be kept separate products for separate markets
(high performance and standard performance) into the future for a
couple of years or so?


Most likely, motherboards will be divided along shich type of graphics card
they support. I can see most all motherboards being designed for DDR2, but
having AGP or PCI-X versions.

-----

Maybe a Sempron 2800+ can't make use of DDR-2? Maybe Sempron
successors won't fit Socket 754 so I end up in the sorry situation
where I have to throw out the processor and ordinary DDR memory for
an upgrade in 12 to 24 months time?

You have to decide if you want to go Intel or AMD. If you go AMD there is no
support for DDR-2 at this time you have to go with DDR. With Intel you can
go with DDR or DDR-2 depending on the chipset the MB has i915 are DDR the
i925 is DDR-2. Do go with a PCI Express Motherboard for future expansion.
AGP will be around for a while but if you are looking 1-2 years of use for
this system get the latest technology you can afford to get.

"Greysky" wrote in message
om...

"Nimo O'Leary" wrote in message
...
Advice please on DDR-2 and future trends.

I am in the UK and I will build a new PC soon for home/small office
use. It will be nothing fancy. No games. Some video and audio
playing. Will probably use a 2800+ to 3000+ Sempron with 768 MB (or
even 1024 MB) memory. With only a basic graphics card or reasonable
on-board graphics.

Will DRR-2 become standard and replace ordinary DDR on almost all
forthcoming mobos (in the same way that DDR replaced SDRAM on all new
mobos at the time)?

Yes to the memory question. Eventually. Right now, it is the more
expensive solution, and not necessary for the particular machine you
described.

Now, for the new video solution being touted, PCI-express, I am not so
sure. Most applications don't even use 8X AGP to full capacity. Given you
have no plans to get a 'fancy' video card, don't let the sales droids talk
you into a PCI-X solution, unless you eventually plan to upgrade your
machine to do CAD, or Games.

-----------

Here is my situation in more detail .....

I am still an SDRAM user and I don't have any DDR at all in any
machine.

I do not want to buy a mobo to take only ordinary DDR memory which
can not be used in upgrades in 12 to 24 months from now.

At the moment most new mobos use DDR but I *guess* that DDR-2 on the
majority of new mobos may be not far away. I know DDR-2 costs more
than DDR (maybe £200 UK for 1GB of DDR-2 versus £140).

*Right now* going to DDR2 is the more expensive way to go. For office
use, it is totally not necessary. MS Word will not run any faster. That
will change within the next year for memory. Of course, the longer you
can hold off, the cheaper it all will get...


But what is the use of getting ordinary DDR memory if no new upgrade
mobo which I can buy in perhaps 24 months from now will support it?
It will be a bit like my SDRAM where there is almost no decent new
mobo on the market at the moment which will support SDRAM.

Or will DDR and DDR2 be kept separate products for separate markets
(high performance and standard performance) into the future for a
couple of years or so?


Most likely, motherboards will be divided along shich type of graphics
card they support. I can see most all motherboards being designed for
DDR2, but having AGP or PCI-X versions.

-----

Maybe a Sempron 2800+ can't make use of DDR-2? Maybe Sempron
successors won't fit Socket 754 so I end up in the sorry situation
where I have to throw out the processor and ordinary DDR memory for
an upgrade in 12 to 24 months time?