Actually DDRam is "double data rate", the double speed twin of SDRam, but the concept is correct. The RAM passes data at double the speed of SDRam. However, remember that your computer will adjust the data rate DOWN to the slowest RAM in the bus, so check your specs and see what the data bus speed is and make sure you match RAM with it. If your computer is older and the motherboard will only support RAM up to 133mh, you can stick faster RAM in it but the data it is going to pass at 133mh. There does come a time to let go and buy new. As computer hardware matures and is refined, the performance upgrade to a fast CPU and a lot of RAM makes worlds of difference.

Remember too that the processor only moves (processes) data from hard drive to RAM and programs execute in RAM. SO the faster your RAM is, the better response times you will see. The days of a 166mh CPU and 128mb of RAM are long over. Software is much more sophisticated and needs horsepower. A program like BIAB does a lot of binary math and the more horsepower you have, the better. Sure it will run on anything, but how well?

I go back a long way. My first PC was an 8086 CPU. Then a 286, then a 386, then a Pentium 100.... my slowest PC (of 5) now is a 2.6gh dual core. I remember a friend thinking that a program that said right on the box "Requires minimum of Pentium 100" would run on his 386 because he had a whopping 32mb of RAM in it. I could not make him understand that the data needed to be processed faster and in bigger byte sizes for his fancy new game to work. So he loaded it anyway, and the little stunt plane would fly an inch, stutter, fly another inch, stutter again.... I loaded it on my Pentium and it was fine.

You can get a decent Dell for $450 these days. WELL worth it. And if you need to make payments, Dell has credit accounts and you can pay in installments.

//edited to make a small correction in how I explained bis and RAM speed

Last edited by eddie1261; 07/13/11 10:01 AM.