single or double-sided Ram???

[Vince604]

I was just wondering what's the difference between single and double-sided ram? Are the performance level the same??

And would there be a performace decrease if I had both single and double-side ram in my system? I have 2 128mb double sided SDRAM and 1 128mb single-sided ram in my old computer..

 

[slvr_phoenix]

In SDRAM single sided (high density) can be used only in modern PCs. Old PCs don't always read the memory right because they calculate how much RAM to access based on the number of chips on the stick, not taking into account that each chip might contain twice the storage.

So for old PCs you should use double-sided (low density) RAM to ensure that it will work correctly in your system. Otherwise, the PC might end up convinced that your memory has only half the storage capacity that it is actually capable of.

To my knowledge, in SDRAM there is no real performance difference between the two. (Unlike with RDRAM which increases latency by the number of chips, so high-density is slightly faster than low-density.) So any modern PC that can properly use the single-sided (high density) SDRAM should be happy with whatever combination that you use.

<pre>If you let others think for you, you're the
only one to blame when things go wrong.</pre><p>

 

[Vince604]

Well I'm using a AMD Athlon 1.3 and I consider old so yeah.. Hmm okay then thanks for the info!

So your saying single sided RDRAM is better? I thought that having double-sided will keep the heat temperature down and have the same latency?...

Thx again

 

[slvr_phoenix]

So your saying single sided RDRAM is better? I thought that having double-sided will keep the heat temperature down and have the same latency?...

For RDRAM, having double-sided increases the latency as RDRAM's latency increases with each memory device. If the increased latency is actually noticable to you is another story though.

While RDRAM does get hot, in a properly set up case, if you aren't overclocking your RDRAM, then single-sided shouldn't overheat anyway. If the air flow in your case is pretty stagnent around the memory of if you are overclocking your RIMMs, then double-sided will help prevent the memory from over-heating.

<pre>If you let others think for you, you're the
only one to blame when things go wrong.</pre><p>

 

[FatBurger]

My double-sided gets very hot, and single is even hotter.

The latency difference for single- and double-sided is negligible, the overclocking benefits of double-sided outweight it.

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Don't step in the sarcasm!

 

[AMD_Man]

FatBurger, I would say that your RDRAM will always be hot because you're overclocking it extremely high.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Yes, but notice the stipulations that I applied:

1)in a properly set up case

2)if you aren't overclocking your RDRAM

THEN: single-sided shouldn't overheat

Unlike you, not everyone overclocks, so not everyone needs double-sided.

However, I agree that if you are going to overclock, the heat distribution benefits of double-sided far outweighs the minor performance increase of single-sided.

Though I had a funky thought the other day. If you had single-sided then you could mount tiny heat sinks onto the heat spreaders because you would only need to put them on one side, right?

<pre>If you let others think for you, you're the
only one to blame when things go wrong.</pre><p>

 

[FatBurger]

RDRAM gets hot, period. I'm not overclocking that high, and it's always hot, even at stock speeds.

My case has decent airflow. I never said single-sided overheats, just that it runs hotter and therefore hits the overclocking limit sooner.
No, you couldn't do heatsinks because there are two sticks, and you'd only be able to put heatsinks on one of the sticks. Or maybe neither, I can't remember which way single-sided faces. The CRIMMs might be in the way, but I think I remember the single side facing out, in which case you could put heatsinks on one side.

I mean, I guess you could put really, really think heatsinks on, but I don't think it'd help much.

<font color=orange>Quarter</font color=orange> <font color=blue>Pounder</font color=blue> <font color=orange>Inside</font color=orange>
Don't step in the sarcasm!