DDR vs DDR2

[nighthawk101]

Ok, Im pretty much set on the 2 viewsonic 19" LCDs for when I get back... now I wanna talk ram.

My board supports 4 gigs of DDR or 2 gigs of DDR2. Right now have 2x512mb of Kingston HyperX. I wanna upgrade to 2x1GB sticks. Obviously DDR2 costs more, but I have more upgrade possibilities with DDR.

Is the performance gain from DDR2 that much more than DDR and it is worth the price? Moreso, does it offset the potential to upgrade past 2 GB?

[thefordmccord]

Well, DDR2 is a little cheaper now for 1 gig kits. The 2 gig kit of corsair DDR2 is about 20 bucks higher than DDR. The DDR2 is a little faster, but I don't know if it is noticeable. If I were you, I would buy DDR2 just because it would be more likely to work in whatever your next motherboard may be.

[nighthawk101]

Is there that much of a difference in the "value" ram of say Kingston or Corsair between the more expensive ram?

[thefordmccord]

I run the value ram. I used to run hyperX and I can't tell any difference between the two.

[nighthawk101]

does your value ram have the heat spreaders and does the ram actually get THAT hot to make one necessary?