THE PENTIUM 4
Story Filed: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 9:45 AM EST
Jul 31, 2001 (JAGfn.com via COMTEX) -- THE PENTIUM 4 WITH RAMBUS MEMORY IS CHEAPER THAN A PENTIUM 4 WITH SDRAM MEMORY.
From Hager Technology Research
www.Fredhager.com
The Pentium 4 with Rambus Memory Is Cheaper Than A Pentium 4 with SDRAM Memory.
By James Rockwell
The purpose of this article is to explain why Pentium 4's with Rambus memory will cost less and provide more performance than Pentium 4's with SDRAM memory.
A Pentium 4 with SDRAM memory performs from 7 to 30% slower than one with Rambus RDRAM, memory according to all the benchmarks performed so far, including one from tomshardware.com. So, I am reducing the GHZ rating on each system with SDRAM memory by a conservative 10%, for comparison purposes.
The new Intel 845 chipset, which supports SDRAM memory, will probably cost a little bit more at introduction than the 850 chipset, which supports Rambus RDRAM memory. But to be conservative, I am using an equal price for chipsets in this comparison. The four layer motherboards will also be equally priced between those supporting SDRAM memory and the motherboards supporting Rambus RDRAM memory.
I am using the current price, as of today, of $13 for 128MB name brand SDRAM (PC133) and a price of $48 for 128MB Rambus RDRAM (PC800) memory. Rambus 128MB RDRAM memory is $56 right now ($28 per 64MB module), but should be $48 or less by late August, when the SDRAM Pentium 4s will be shipping. SDRAM memory is already being sold below the manufacturers' cost, so I doubt it will go down much in price. It may even go up a little by the end of the year.
Rambus (PC800) memory and SDRAM (PC133) memory prices
pricewatch.com
The 1.3GHZ, 1.4GHZ, and 1.5GHZ P4 will be priced the same in August, so I am excluding the 1.3GHZ and 1.4GHZ P4 from this analysis, as they will probably be dropped by Intel. The 1.9GHZ and the 2.0GHZ should be introduced by the end of August. The pricing is supposed to be in effect on August 26 according to:
theregister.co.uk
hwextreme.com
As Of 8/26/01
Quantity 1000 Pricing P4 Chips
GHZ W/Rambus
SDRAM Performance Loss is 10%
Effective GHZ W/SDRAM
P4 Price W/128MB SDRAM
2.0GHZ $562
2.0
-.20
1.8
$575
1.9GHZ $375
1.9
-.19
1.71
$388
1.8GHZ $256
1.8
-.18
1.62
$269
1.7GHZ $193
1.7
-.17
1.53
$206
1.6GHZ $163
1.6
-.16
1.44
$176
1.5GHZ $133
1.5
-.15
1.35
$146
Now as you can see from the above table, if you were going to buy the fastest P4 (2.0GHZ) with 128MB SDRAM memory, you would pay $575 and get a P4 running at 1.8GHZ. If you bought a 1.9GHZ P4 with 128MB Rambus memory ($375 + $48), you would only pay $423.
This would be an incredible savings of $152, and you would get a faster computer in the bargain.
Another example is, if you were going to buy the next fastest P4 (1.9GHZ) with 128MB SDRAM memory, you would pay $388 and get a P4 running at 1.71GHZ. If you bought a 1.8GHZ P4 with 128MB Rambus memory ($256 + $48), you would only pay $304.
This would be another great savings of $84, and also a faster running computer to boot (pun intended).
There would also be a savings and higher performance for the 1.8GHZ P4. Buying a 1.7GHZ or 1.6GHZ P4 would cost only $5 more for a higher performing Rambus P4.
It will be much cheaper to buy a lower GHZ P4 with RDRAM memory than to buy a higher GHZ P4 with SDRAM memory. A lower priced Rambus memory P4 provides higher performance than a higher priced P4 with SDRAM.
Even if they gave away SDRAM memory for free in a 2.0GHZ, 1.9GHZ, or 1.8 GHZ P4, it would still be cheaper to buy a higher performing P4 with Rambus memory!
Any corporate IT purchaser worth his salt will know Rambus Pentium 4 solutions are more cost effective, and in my opinion, most will make the proper buying decision based upon price for performance. Hopefully Rambus advertising and the press can save the consumer from making a mistake.
Even the hardware benchmark sites, many of which have been very critical of the price of Rambus memory in the past, are siding with me on this. They know that SDRAM memory should not be used in a Pentium 4. This point is illustrated by Thomas Pabst, editor of tomshardware.com (a benchmarking site), and has been very critical of Rambus memory in the past because of the high price it used to be.
According to Pabst, "I personally would consider everyone as close to crazy if he should choose Pentium 4 plus i845 and PC133 SDRAM. Intel will try to use the blue men and the rest of its marketing machine to capitalize on the Pentium 4 nametag for i845-systems. However, this sad performing solution is just another sign that Intel is running out of ideas. I have to say that I am more than tired of half-baked solutions that are sold as new products."
The P4 with SDRAM is a bad solution for the consumer, for Intel, for the box makers, and for the majority of the memory manufacturers. Unfortunately, the consumer could be mislead into paying more for an under-performing P4.
Intel's and the box makers' reputations will suffer when many consumers who buy a Pentium 4 with SDRAM memory find out how they needlessly paid more for less performance.
The memory manufacturers, who are mostly in dire straits, and losing hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter, will lose money on every single Pentium 4 sold with SDRAM memory (unless the price of SDRAM memory goes up a lot). If SDRAM P4's were not available, they would be making a profit on every Pentium 4 sold (they still make money on Rambus memory). I am sure that Intel does not really want to hurt those memory manufacturers who have been very supportive of Intel.
A Pentium 4 with SDRAM memory may have been a good solution when Rambus memory was expensive, but that time is gone. Rambus memory is now cheap and getting cheaper every week. In fact, Rambus memory is less than half the price of what SDRAM memory was last year.
Rambus memory is cheap.
In closing, I hope Intel, a company I greatly respect, will encourage the box makers to drop the idea of a Pentium 4 with SDRAM memory. The Pentium 4 with SDRAM memory was a good idea when Rambus memory was expensive, but that time has come and gone.
It would be better for everyone (the consumer, Intel, the boxmakers, and especially the memory manufacturers) if the SDRAM Pentium 4 quietly and quickly faded from view.
Click here for more analysis from Hager Technology Research.
By Fred Hager
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