Low Density VS High Density DDR

[KurskKnyaz]

I just purchase a stick of 1GB high density DDR ( $27 after MIR at buy.com). I heard about all the compatibility issues but my motherboard supports it. What about performance?

I heard in two places that high density is FAR slower than low density at the same spec. I was unable to find any benchmarks on this. How true is this and does anyone have a link to some benchmarks?

Also, I will buy a 2nd module and run this memory in dual channel mode. Am I going to run into problems because the memory is high density?

Thanks for any advice.

One more thing, this memory runs at 200 MHZ but I only need it at 150 to overclock my CPU. Can I safely lower the CAS latency from 3 to 2.

 

[Lithan]

I never heard that it was any slower. High density in memory is just like high density in hard drives. one chip (platter in HD's) stores more. Take 256meg sticks for instance. LD sticks were 16 chips with 16megs per chip. HD's would be 8 chips with 32megs per or 4 chips of 64megs. So a lot of older rigs didn't handle it (basically if yur board handled 1gig sticks, it probably was fine with HD, but there were still some compatibility problems). Haven't even heard of HD vs LD since the days of socket A. I assumed everything was considered HD these days.

As for dual channel mode, depends on your board. A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of socket A boards early NF2 (and even some more recent ones) flat out refused to run 2x1gig in dual channel. Most of my boards would run 20-30mhz faster FSB (usually 210-250 FSB) with 2x512 dual channel or 2x1gig single channel... only a couple (of a dozen or more) boards I owned ran 2x1gig dual channel over 200mhz. If you are running Intel, I cant say for sure. I only ran a couple Intel boards and I always picked ones that were known to work fine with the memory I was using.

About the latency... totally dependent on the memory. You have to test yourself. Some memory flat out will not EVER run CAS 2 stable. Some will if you drop the mhz enough. Some prefers it (BH5, which couldnt even run CAS 3... wouldnt post).

 

[sutahz]

I think everything is high density these days.
As far as performance, if there is any difference it's very negligible.
My socket A NF2 (Abit NF7-S 2.0) ran 2x1GB fine.
$27 is a good price, does that include shipping and tax for you?
I'm guessing dual-channel will work, not that it's really required.
150MHz to overclock, got yourself a thunderbird?
Last time I heard of low density/high density being an issue was SDRAM, not DDR-SDRAM.
Have fun and go crazygonuts.

 

[KurskKnyaz]

The price was $27 after S&H, no tax, and rebate. Great Price. I'll get myself another one if my motherboard works with this one.

I'm currently running a Northwood 1.6A at 2.4 GHZ with stock cooling. It is rock solid. I just had to set my CAS latency from 2.5 to 3 to reach 150MHZ FSB pn my PC 2100 DDR. I figured that if this memory run at CAS 3 at 200mHz FSB then it should be able to do CAS 2 if I underclock it to 150MHZ. is that a fair assumption?