High density SDRAM w/ 440BX chipset boards...anyone remember?

[StuckMojo]

uh...its been so long, i dont remember anymore...do/did any BX boards support "high density" sdram?

i got 128M kingston dimm from staples on black friday for like $10. i just today finally put it in a board i had lying around. anyway, it only sees it as 64M. its a bx-6 rev2. i just updated the bios, no help.
i've got another board here, some crappy soyo, also a 440bx. i haven't tried it in that one yet.

anyone remember what the deal was? is it not going to work in any bx board?

 

[Bartman39]

No... It will only detect 1/2 of the ram but should be ok to run that way...?

 

[oldfart]

Nope. All BX boards need low density. 128 Meg per side max.

 

[Jhhnn]

It's actually a little more complex than that, but it's safe to say that bargain memory won't work right in a BX board because of memory addressing issues- this guy lays it out pretty well-

http://homepage.hispeed.ch/rscheidegger/ram_bx_faq.html

 

[StuckMojo]

crappy.
i'll have to find another board w/ a 128 in it to swap with....i think i've got a a7v with 2 x 128 in it...

 

[Blain]

Don't be so quick to jump grasshopper!

I once had an AOpen AX6BC that operated with a stick of LD high density PC-133 and reported the memory module size correctly.
In fact it's still running in a friends system.

 

[AndyHui]

It's not a motherboard issue....it's a chipset issue. Read more in the AnandTech FAQ: about High Density SDRAM.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Blain
Don't be so quick to jump grasshopper!

I once had an AOpen AX6BC that operated with a stick of LD high density PC-133 and reported the memory module size correctly.
In fact it's still running in a friends system.

What you claim to have done is technically impossible. With Intel i440BX, you cannot have more than 128 MBits per SDRAM chip, 128 MBytes per DIMM side.

For the technically interested, that's because for 256-MBit SDRAM you'd need 15 address lines on the memory bus, while the BX has only 14.

 

[Blain]

I don't remember the module size. But I was surprised when the RAM ran fine on the BX board.

 

[Slammy1]

I just ordered a 32M chip for my P3B-F last night (special at Best Buy, $23 for 256 MB). It doesn't look good from the linked article, but I did my research on the ASUS web site. In response to a question about using a 128 MB PC133 DIMM on a P3B-F they said it will run ANY unbuffered PC133 DIMM up to 256 MB so long as it's PC100 compliant (which the PNY I bought said it was). If it don't work, and it seems like it won't based on the linked articles, then I'll have a reasonable reason for a return. I pick it up today, I'll probably post my results tonight.or tomorrow if anyone is really interested.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

this high density is not that high density.
440BX chipset can't use the so-called high density ram - the cheapy double side 256MB dimm with 32Mbitx4 type chips.

 

[Peter]

No it can't. They need to be 16x8. DIMMs with 256 MBytes of 32x4 look exactly the same, but actually form a single row from their 16 chips, which then is 256 MBytes, exceeding the BX's limit again.