 PC-100
vs PC-133 168 pin SDRAM memory modules. What's up with that? It's just a
matter of speed. Your memory choices come in various 'flavors' and 'sizes'.
Flavors: In the former standard PC-66 memory the chips talk to the
motherboard at a speed of 66 Mhz. With the PC-100 and PC-133 memory chips
that talk at the new faster speeds of 100 Mhz and 133 Mhz respectively.
Sizes: 32M, 64M, 128M, 256M. Faster is better, right, so what's the catch?
Well, the trick is that only newer motherboards, designed for the PC-100/133
actually recognize and keep up with this faster speed. Also, you CANNOT mix
and match the speeds, so if you want to use the PC-133 memory modules, you
have to be sure that your motherboard supports the increased speed and that
only PC-133 chips are installed, in order to gain any benefit. That's all.
| SSDIRECT Flash
Feb 2001: We now recommend up 128M system
memory on new systems. Pricing on new PC-133 168 pin memory chips (SDRAM)
has finally dropped (marginally) this month below the cost of the
corresponding PC-100 chips. Comparison: The price this month of the PC-100
32M DIMM is $55, the the PC-133 64M DIMM is an even better deal at $70
each. |
| SSDIRECT Flashback
Sep 1999: You may have noticed that the
price of individual 168 pin memory chips (SDRAM) more than doubled over
the past month. This has been somewhat of a surprise to many of us as the
chip prices over the previous year had been dropping month to
month. Recent plant closures and natural disasters (ie the earthquake in
Taiwan) have diminished the supply of these (and other) high-tech goodies,
causing a sudden increase in cost for the remaining available items. FYI:
Last Aug 99 we were selling the 32M DIMM at $60, this month the same part
hit $150 (and the 256M DIMM is $875 ... what is that?). Luckily,
this sudden increase has seemed to leveled off and is expected to
gradually decrease over time. We update our price lists twice each month
about the 1st and 15th. Due to these latest memory price increases, our
complete system prices actually increased this month .. the first time in
recent memory. Hmmm. |
Recommendation: Memory today is
cheap and plentiful. Although systems can run with only 32M system RAM under
Win9x, 128M is easily within the reach of the average buyer and 64M is common
on even the barest of systems..
|
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Specifications subject to
change without notice. |
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