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To Buy Dinner at Spago's or Too Much RAM?

Memory -- it just doesn't thin the wallet the way it used to. A 512 MB ECC registered SDRAM stick now sells around $100. Good folk who feel they aren't doing enough for their computer can double the RAM to allay any guilt. For those of us who used to whip out RAM measurements in the bathroom stalls, this is a humbling reality.

Some meaningful factoids:

	RAM type	bandwidth	comments
	SDRAM	800 MBps	aka PC133 (100MHz is PC100. No new developments in this format).
	DDR266	2.1 GBps	aka PC2100 (DDR200 is PC1600, DDR333 will be PC2700).
	RDRAM	3.2 GBps	PC800 RDRAM. PC600 is less. PC1066 will go 4.2 GBps
	nDRAM	12.8 GBps	Still vapor RAM. DDR and RDRAM advances will most like appear first.

If you have a Pentium III, your motherboard may use SDRAM or RDRAM (never both simultaneously). RDRAM is the slightly more expensive alternative. Depending on who you ask, the 1/4 mile dragstrip race more often tips towards PC133 SDRAM over PC800 RDRAM. If you have a Pentium 4, you may be able to use SDRAM, DDR, or RDRAM. Various magazine tests show PC800 RDRAM is fastest. Check your mobo manual for details. PC1066 is coming for 533MHz busses (P4 runs on a 400MHz FSB) and will be called RIMM4200. RDRAM investment is probably a good idea for the Intel-only crowd, as future development seems to be heading toward upper end environs. The desktop landscape is being invaded by DDR. Athlon XP or MP owners may have access to PC100 or PC133 SDRAM, DDR200 or DDR266 SDRAM. DDR266 SDRAM is fastest, and DDR333 is just out for the 166MHz bus. Don't be seduced by 'PC3000' RAM, it's an overclocked version of PC2700 for the same crowd. Get as much as you can afford, to keep swap file usage to a bare minimum. Without devoting too much space here, if an NLE begins using the hard drive's swap file as working memory, you've just flushed all advantage down the toilet. How does this happen? Win2K occupies 94.9 MB at boot. Launch Photoshop your total is now 106.7 MB. Add Premiere 6.02 to the bag (with no project loaded) and your checkout total is 238.9 MB. If you only have 256 MB, doing ANYTHING from here reduces the CPU to managing disk I/O, not real time transition processing. So get lots of RAM, unless you run Win98 - right. Looking from a CPU's view, memory is the first of many bottlenecks. From the weakest link perspective, memory isn't. Still, faster memory loads CPU instructions faster. Mucking with CAS settings in mobo BIOS can quicken the process, but it's similar to overclocking CPUs -- higher speeds makes for more spectacular crashes. Still, one can argue that fear kills absolutely while speed kills occassionally, albeit indiscrimately. Still, it's the basis for good, solid computing Darwinism. The big picture view is the henious bottlenecks lie elsewhere. And saying I've got 2 gigs of RAM can still wow a lesser man.

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