DDR1 Versus DDR2 Notebook Memory

[Apoptosis]

When DDR2 came out on Desktop computers to replace DDR1 many enthusiasts saw lower performance numbers across the board. Today Legit Reviews looks at the latest Sonoma platform from Intel and figures out if DDR2 is good or bad for notebooks. If you are a mobile user or interested in memory read on!



http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=212

[gvblake22]

Very nice/unique article. Don't think I have seen anything specifically testing DDR1 and DDR2 laptop memory yet!
I just have one question, why did you not run all the same tests between the different benchmarks or run similar/equal tests for each benchmark for both DDR1 and DDR2?

[NAiLs]

Nice article, Nate!

I'm still happy with my PQI PC3200 DDR1 SODIMMs that you suggested. Those things haven't gone down in price one bit since I bought them, which makes me feel good about that. Having 2GB of memory in a notebook helps a ton too. I switched from 512MB to 2GB and I was very impressed in performance gains. Dual channel mode is also sweet!

I'm impressed how much smaller the memory chips are on the DDR2 modules compared to the DDR1. I'm curious how much weight that saves.

It's tempting to switch to the PCIe platform on my notebook, but I don't even know if it's worth it. The big reason I'd switch to PCIe would be to get a PCIe video card, not for DDR2 memory. I'm told there is one company out there that does make an AGP version of the mobility x800... but I can't find that.

Anyway, great article! Just sharing my thoughts on the DDR1 modules I bought.

[Apoptosis]

gvblake22

why did you not run similar/equal tests for each benchmark for both DDR1 and DDR2?

Sadly the ASUS M6N notebook runs at 333MHz, Just like the majority of Intel Centrino platforms. You either have 266MHz or 333MHz memory support... On the other hand the new Intel Sonoma platform allows for use of Dual Channel DDR2 in either 400Mhz or 533Mhz. What makes the difference here is what CPU is used. On our 2GHz dothan with the 100MHz FSB we could get DDR2-400. To get DDR2-533 we had to run out 2.13GHz Dothan with a 133MHz FSB...

It is all confusing, but those benchmark numbers are as close as we can get at the time being. Thee limitations might also be why no other sites have run an article such as this.

[gvblake22]

gvblake22

why did you not run similar/equal tests for each benchmark for both DDR1 and DDR2?

Sadly the ASUS M6N notebook runs at 333MHz, Just like the majority of Intel Centrino platforms. You either have 266MHz or 333MHz memory support... On the other hand the new Intel Sonoma platform allows for use of Dual Channel DDR2 in either 400Mhz or 533Mhz. What makes the difference here is what CPU is used. On our 2GHz dothan with the 100MHz FSB we could get DDR2-400. To get DDR2-533 we had to run out 2.13GHz Dothan with a 133MHz FSB...

It is all confusing, but those benchmark numbers are as close as we can get at the time being. Thee limitations might also be why no other sites have run an article such as this.

AAHHH, I see. Good job then!