Low-Density VS. High-Density

[littletemple]

What is the difference in low-density memory and high-density memory? Is there a performance or stability difference?

 

[vi edit]

Ummm....

Low density Floppy disks were 720k...high density ones were 1.44Kb

 

[littletemple]

Not the floppy disk but memory like sdram?

 

[Yomicron]

I believe there is no difference in performance or stability, just manufacturing. Your motherboard might not be able to read High-density RAM.

 

[littletemple]

How do you tell the difference between the 2?

 

[Yomicron]

<< How do you tell the difference between the 2? >>




lets say you have a 32MB DIMM that says 4M X 64, it would have half the density of 8M X 32 (I think)


Or you can count the number of chips on the DIMM, if you have 2 DIMMs of equal size but one has chips on both sides and the other one doesn't, then the one with more chips has a lower density.


EDIT: also there is no "high" and "low" density RAM just "higher" and "lower." There are about 8 different levels of density that you can buy.

 

[sharkeeper]

There are plenty of guides already available on the web so I won't get into the ABC's of memory terminology!

If you plan to max out your mainboard's memory capacity, a little research into your chipset and any vendor specific information is necessary.

For example, a 512MB double sided PC2100 DIMM is considered high density, as is a 256MB SINGLE side PC2100 DIMM. It's important to RTFM to know both the chipset limitations (if they're explained and a good manual will) and the rules of memory placement depending on the board layout.

As for performance and stability, high density ram is often blamed for overclocking less then low density ram. People with KT266A boards running at 200MHz (true) FSB can provide plenty of testimonials here.

In any case, it's always better to have a single 256MB DIMM over a pair of 128's OR a single 512 over a pair of 256's. I think you get the idea...

Cheers!

 

[littletemple]

Can you mix and match low and high density chips on the same mobo at the same time? I have a ECS K7S5A

Somebody want to sell me some kingston value ram 256mb that is low density. I have crucial memory and i think that is high density.

 

[AndyHui]

Usually yes.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

basically 2 different definition:

same 256MB dimm,
one uses 8 chips of 32MB - this is high density.
one uses 16 chips of 16MB - this is low density.

same 256MB dimm, same 16 chips.
one uses 32x4 type chips - this is so-called high density, the cheapy one, not supported by most intel chipsets.
one uses 16x8 type chips - this is the common one, cannot say it's high or low density.