AMD 64 - Sorting out the truths and advantages (1 Viewer)

I could be wrong but I believe the difference in the Athlon 64FX is that it uses dual-channel memory instead of single-channel.

Is this the right time for 64-bit? I don't know if it is now, but it could be soon.

Intel already has the 64-bit Itanium processor and a 64-bit Windows XP already exists for it. But you don't hear much about it. It is very expensive and nobody buys it. At the desktop level Intel doesn't have anything, and AMD is poised to eat their lunch, especially with the new 64-bit Windows XP that will run on AMD. There is some speculation that this week at the Intel developers conference they're going to announce plans for 64-bit processing on the desktop to follow AMD's lead. If they do, it will be interesting to see how they reconcile these plans with their new Prescott core which is expected to reach speeds as high as 5 GHz.

Right now the driver situation for the 64-bit Windows XP preview is pretty bad. If you can find a 64-bit driver, it probably isn't optimized for 64-bit and the performance is no better than 32-bit. But with it being a public preview, there is pressure on the vendors to get their 64-bit drivers up to speed.

My advice: bump your RAM up to 1 gig while you wait for 64-bit Windows XP to mature (by year-end maybe?). Windows XP will be a lot more comfortable with 1 gig, as will Photoshop, and all those programs running in the tray won't be so much of a burden.

Yep, as wayne said- maxing out your board with RAM will make a bigger diff in running application headroom, probably more than you'll see in the early stages of un-optimized 64bit apps.

-V

seems a bit steep, although it might mean replacing your existing chips. i would say if it has 4 channels (even if it's dual channel) you could get a second pair of chips for less than that price.

Although i dunno how comfortable you are opening a case and installing ram (although if you ever played atari, it's about the same as putting in an atari cartridge.

-V

That price is 2x the going price for RAM. Find out the specs on the RAM and buy it elsewhere.

Oh no, RAMBUS.

Ok, well, you will spend a fortune upgrading ram.

But www.pricewatch.com shows some promise as to RDRAM pricing. Search on "rdram 256mb pc800 nonecc" or "rdram 256mb pc800" You'll need to buy 2 sticks of 256MB RDRAM to get up to an additional 512MB needed for a total of 1GB of system RAM.

http://store.yahoo.net/s168/ge25pcnorard1.html

http://www.upgradenation.com/sam2580nonra1.html

http://www.jazztechnology.biz/product/MBP800256

that is why i NEVER buy a brand name computer, proprietary stuff sucks.. i also have an Athlon 64 and love it.. i definately wouldn't spend $450 on a ram upgrade, you can get a whole computer for that price..

Craig

The first option will probably give you two 128MB RDRAM sticks.

The more I look at it, I think the 256MB module is probably what you want (just order 2 of them, as required since you need pairs for the additional RAM). So that'll be $310 for 2 sticks of 256MB RDRAM.

Ron, since your system uses Rambus RAM, you definitely have to add memory in pairs. To add 512MB, you'd want two of the 256MB modules at $155 each. One 512MB module isn't going to work unless you buy two for $796!

But you need to check something first. Your Dell Dimension 8250 has four slots grouped as two banks with two slots each. Does your system have four 128MB modules occupying both banks, or two 256MB modules occupying only one bank and the other bank is empty?

You can either open the case and take a peek, or check the manifest of components that Dell should have provided with the system. When you ordered the system from Dell, you might have been given the choice. If so then you probably remember it because a system configured with four 128MB modules filling both banks probably cost a little less than a system with two 256MB modules filling only one bank.

If you peek inside, note that even if only one bank is filled, the second bank will have blank modules installed. These modules have no actual memory chips, they just have some resistors to terminate the bus. You should see a notable difference between them and the actual RAM modules. The RAM modules probably have a metal heat spreader plate, while the resistor modules are practically barren.

If only one bank has RAM and the second bank has resistor modules, then you can just replace the resistor modules with a new pair of 256MB modules.

But if both banks have RAM, then you can't simply add more RAM. You have to replace one or both banks. You can replace one pair of 128MB modules with a pair of 256MB modules. This won't get you to 1 gigabyte, but it will get you to 256 + 512 = 768MB. That's still better than 512MB but it's a harder decision to spend $310 on an upgrade that replaces half of what you already have instead of doubling it.

Ron, If you're up to a little tweaking, you can probably free up a few more resources by managing some of Windows bloated services that run in the background.

Blackviper. com has put up a decent guide that explains what many of these services and processes do and how to manage them.

Just be sure to document what you do and back-up anything important first.