> While shopping for a high-end machine, I note to my chagrin that many
> highend vendors are using i840 boards, which require Rambus memory (RDRAM
or
> RIMM). The problem - 128MB of RIMM memory is about $1,000.

    Ouch, I knew it was alot but THAT MUCH!?

> Just out of curiosity, does anyone know from experience if this massive
> overpricing is justified? It looks to me like this is memory manufacturers
> trying to simply increase margins.

    Well aside from that always being a case, it is a new technology that
only the highest end consumers will purchase so of course it is way
overpriced.

> I saw one system that had 5400rpm IDE drives and Rambus memory... :(
>
> So the net question: what does Rambus get you?

    Not much, while RAMBUS does theoretically give you higher bandwidth,
memory bandwidth is no longer the largest bottleneck in a system (the FSB is
I believe). While RAMBUS may give you better performance if you are running
a HUGE database with multiple processors, I doubt the highend desktop user
would experience much benefit, nevermind enough benefit for the price!

> Philo <- staying with BX, thank you very much.

    Heck I'm still on socket 7! :) TTYL

                         PCBUILD's List Owner's:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>