DDR2 RAM

[Jesus]

ok, so im looking into buying a new system, and ive decided to go for an AMD 64bit AM2 processor.

the motherboard ive chosen to go with it supports DDR2 RAM, in fact, i believe it wont support standard DDR ram.

so, what are the major benefits/differences between the two? obviously everyones gonna say "blah blah DDR2 is the future, you need it..." but... why?

 

[|Overlord|]

DDR2 runs at higher clock speeds then DDR1 does, however, the memory latency and timings are higher then what DDR1 modules ran at. If your'e gonig with a DDR2 based setup at the moment, it's better to go the intel route IMO with Core2/Conroe. In the way of performance, AMD hasn't seen anything with a over-exciting increase in performance in moving it's current core design to a new socket adding support for DDR2 memory in comparision to socket939. Though, if you are wanting to buy an AMD system these days and are moving from socket754 or older it does make sense to go with a AM2 based setup, it's just that Core2 setups are better at this point in time.

Accordingly also, AMD's next socket move with AM3, it is rumoured that the processors will be backwards compatible with AM2 mainboards.