DDR2 memory

[snagel]

I have recently been looking at a new laptop DELL. The same computer was shown last night for Presidents day on QVC.com The laptop has Windows 7 installed. It states that it has DDR2 memory 4GB. My son is looking at an ACER With Windows 7 with DDR3 4GB memory. What is the difference and which is better if either is better than the other. Would you please explain.


Any other thought would be appreciated

[MilesAhead]

I don't know all the hw nitty gritty but I notice the new HP Pavilion AMD Phenom II machines are all coming out with DDR3. Must be faster/better. Even the < $700 machines that only give you the slow 100 Mb/sec wired ethernet and no BDROM drive have the DDR3 it seems.

[doctorhardware]

I would stay away from acer I have one and I am on my 3 motherboard. They run very hot. This is why I am on my 3 motherboard for my laptop. I have a HP and it does not run as hot as the acer did. On thing is I do not know if Nvidia fixed their over heating problem so you might want to stay away from them also.

[snagel]

re: doctorhardware

I would stay away from acer I have one and I am on my 3 motherboard. They run very hot. This is why I am on my 3 motherboard for my laptop. I have a HP and it does not run as hot as the acer did. On thing is I do not know if Nvidia fixed their over heating problem so you might want to stay away from them also.

So who is Nvidia?

My son had a HP and had motherboard problems with it. He was told by the area technician that he'd be better off getting a new laptop rather than trying to replace the mother board on the HP.

I guess the way I started the thread and then I had added more to the first part it turned out to be two problems.

Which would be the better to have DDR2 or DDR3 RAM? Would there even be a reason why I would want to pass because of the DDR2 ram?

[doctorhardware]

Nvidia is the graphics card chip set. In the past it had problems with the chips running very hot too. There was thread here that discussed the problems with Nvidia graphics card chips. For laptop use I stay away from Nvidia based video chips. The hp laptop that I have has the ati radeon video chip set. Some of the newer DDR2 ram can be almost as fast as the new DDR3 ram. As far as the speed differences ask Dr_ml422 he has 2 desktops one that has DDR2 and a socket AM2+ cou and a desktop withe a socket AM3 cpu with DDR3 memory. He can tell you the differences of each system doing video encoding.

[atifsh]

in short ddr 3 will run faster, but thats not the only thing to look for. a good mobo/chip on ddr2 can be same or better on crappy mobo with ddr3.

for future ddr3 will be common thus will be cheaper, ddr2 is already going high

on second, stay away from nvidia chip even if its newer models, they are rebranding many of their previous models. or stay away from dedicated graphics altogether if ur not gonna play any games on laptop. it will stay cooler