High density ram and chipsets

[BurntKooshie]

Yes, I've searched for this topic, a bunch of threads came up, but none of them helped.

I know that high density ram doesn't like some Intel chipsets. I know that some AMD/VIA chipsets will accept it.

I was wondering if the AMD 750 chipset supported the high density DIMMS. Better yet, I'd love to know how one can tell through the techdocs of a chipset if it will support high density DIMMS. (Meaning, if someone can explain to me how the chipset is able to differentiate between densities, or however it works, that'd be really cool).

Hope someone can help.....RAM is so cheap these days....

 

[Modus]

I run into this issue often enough upgrading clients' old Socket 7 systems with newer SDRAM. There's a lot of misinformation -- some people actually think PC133 SDRAM won't run at 66 MHz -- but you're right to attack chip density as the main culprit. I'd never thought of checking tech manuals to know for sure, I just pop in the RAM and see if it works.

Modus

 

[BurntKooshie]

I had a problem with my Mushkin PC133 in my good 'ole i430TX motherboard...hehe. It worked, but the stuff was new enough so that it would only "find" 1/4 the amount! I put in two 64Mb DIMMS, and it saw a total of 32Mb! That's okay, it was for my athlon which came a few days later, I just wanted to see if it would work

Unfortunetly, I'd rather not spend the cash on the ram if it's not going to work as the stated amount of memory. Of course, it's so bloody cheap, I might as well anyway - even if it works as "half the chip", I'll still end up with more memory! But if it were 1/4, then I'd be scewed out of cash, as I'm thinking of getting some generic 256 Mb (PC 133 - dunno what CAS it has) dimms - I only need them to work at 100Mhz...heh.

I guess....BUMP

 

[BurntKooshie]

See? This is why we need a "highly technical forum" I ask an otherwise simple question, and it drops to the bottom of the page due to posts, many of which would have been more content appropriate in other forums :Q.

BUMP. (Seeing as there's no "chipset" forum, and it doesn't fit in with processors or overclocking...)

 

[AndyHui]

The Intel 430TX chipset certainly doesn't like high density SDRAM. The largest density per chip is 64mbit....taking only 8 x 8 SDRAM chips or 4 x 16...but not the 16 x 4.

All Intel chipsets, regardless of maximum mbit per chip supported, do not like (?? x 4) organised ram chips on DIMMs.

 

[BurntKooshie]

cool info! Now....what about the amd 750?

 

[AndyHui]

The problem with the technical data AMD releases (if at all) is that I usually find it useless.

 

[Shmorq]

I don't know what high density RAM 'officially' is, but the memory controller on the 750 chipset supports SDRAM chips using 16, 64, and 128 Mbit densities.

 

[wyvrn]

I had to pull out the RAM that my idiot brother in-law (who of course knows nothing about computers) decided he would install on the AMD k6-2 system I built for his sister. Causing Windows to crash about every ten minutes. The RAM I had in there was Infineon single-sided and it worked fine. The double sided sticks did not work at all (only half of each 64 MB stick recognized in the BIOS).

 

[BurntKooshie]

AndyHui - I have to agree. While I find the technical documents about AMD's products easier to find, they also tend to be less enlightening that Intel's

The stuff I'm hoping to get is 32x4, which obviously wouldn't work in Intel based boards...heh. Well, considering it should be ~70 bucks for 768Mb, maybe I'll just go for it anyway

 

[Modus]

LOL So you're going to just put in 4x what you want and let it ignore the rest? Heh, I guess that works, and seeing how cheap RAM is. Such a shame though. You'll have the only TX board I know with 768M of ram.

Modus

 

[BurntKooshie]

LOL! No! But I could do that....hehe.

No, I couldn't put that much in anyway - the mobo has only 2 dimm slots

The whole reason why I started this thread was because I wanted to know if 256Mb 32x4 ("high density&quot SDRAM was compatible with the AMD750 chipset. I mentioned the old TX motherboard as an analogy of the problem with "higher density" ram than the chipset was "expecting" That old motherboard still works...still has a chipset in it, and I might turn it into a linux...er...well, not box as it has no case, but.....hehe.

Seriously though, this is for my ATHLON system, not my old Cyrix-on-a-440TX-motherboard system

Thanks for the replies....