DDR Memory

DDR prices haven't shown any of their historical price rises for the past few weeks and we certainly hope it stays that way. Even better would be some nice price cuts, but when the industry knows that it needs to push DDR2 to stay current with Intel's marketing and roadmaps, it will likely not drop DDR1 prices in fear of undermining its efforts to get DDR2 onto and quickly off of store shelves and into your system.

Until DDR2 becomes a bit more widespread and prices come down, it's still DDR1's time to shine in the cost per megabyte area as well as real world performance.

If you're shooting more for capacity than you are latency and cost, a half gig stick of PC3200 would be a good choice for good performance, pricing, and overall value. Corsair's PC3200 512MB Value stands out as an option that can be had for less than $85 shipped and that is capable of keeping your system going for some time to come. Throw in the lifetime warranty that is almost the standard among the best memory manufacturers and you have yourself a good combination without forking over too much cash.

For the overclocker in all of us, memory is a big deal. One module that stands out as a great value and even a great performer is Corsair's PC4000 512MB XMS module. IT isn't going to give you the most extreme overclock, even considering the Hynix chips used, but it is still very acceptable and, more importantly, stable.



Video Cards - NVIDIA
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  • nurazlanshah - Wednesday, October 13, 2004 - link

    does it make any difference if i have 128mb to 256mb 9800 or 128mb 6800 to 256mb 6800?
  • Rainman - Monday, October 11, 2004 - link

    I ordered the 5700 for under 100 from Ewiz and unfortunately it is a 5700LE, which is significantly slower. I notified Ewiz of this and they still haven't updated their site.
  • T8000 - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link

    Since these are meant to be OEM cards, you are most likely to find them at a local systems integrator. Just ask, since they are not allowed to market them, but they sure sell them if they can.

    I also did, and pay'd 199 euro's for my 6800LE. With Rivatuner, I could softmod it to 12 working pipelines and 6 vertex shaders, as the last four pipelines gave artefacts. So it performs like a full 6800 now.

    The x800SE is sold by Dell in some areas and I think it will be priced close to the 6800LE, as the performance without softmod is also close and these cards compete in the same OEM segment.
  • thebluesgnr - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link

    #2,

    where did you see the X800SE and 6800LE for sale? If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for your 6800LE?
  • T8000 - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link

    I think there is no reason to recommend a FX5900 over a 6600GT for PCI-E, since there is not even a $10 price difference.

    Also, there is no mention of the 6800LE AGP, that also falls in the sub $200 price range, if you manage to find one, like me. With a softmod, this card has a good chance to become a full 6800, like mine did.

    On the ATI side, I think the x800SE deserves to be mentioned.

    So, I think this price guide is not complete on the video part. Also, I think it is not right to not recommend a PCI-E card that is a lot faster because it is a few dollars out of the $200 price range.
  • iversonyin - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link

    i think FX5800 deserve a mention as budget value card at $109 with a gaming control pad

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