SDRAM vs RDRAM on my system

[bhawkh60]

I've got a question.
What would be better on my ststem. I have an i820 chipset MOBO with 512 meg of SDRAM on a riser board which means it has to run through a translator to do anything. Would 128 meg of the proper RAMBUS be better or not? thanks.

[Gogeta_787]

How can a board suport both SDram and RDram ?

i think the 820 cchipset is for sdram only man

i dunno how a board can have both Dimms and Rimms

[Placid]

Depends on what OS you use and what programs you run.

128mb isn't very much. Old style rdram in single channel operation is not much faster than sdram.

[bhawkh60]

RDRAM is the standard for the i820. It also supports an optin to install a DIMM riser board to use SDRAM instead which is how it is in it's current configuration. I wanted to buy 128 of RDRAM though which would be A LOT faster, but also less memory, any ideas?

[Placid]

A old but good review comparing using rdram or sdram with a i820 board and other sdram boards here.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1151&p=8 (Link)

In my opinion if you run winxp 128mb isn't going to help over 512mb of sdram because the OS will be using virtual memory too much.
You might get a higher sandra mem score but in actual use the system will probably be more sluggish.