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Questions on PC-3200 RAM

T

tmchow

Senior member
I just picked up two Dell 400SC servers at a killer price today with 2.4ghz 800MHz FSB cpus.

They only come with 128MB ECC ram and I want to upgrade to either 512MB ECC or 1GB ECC.

Questions:
1. what is dual channel ram? and do I want it?
2. Do i need to buy RAM in pairs for this for better performance?
3. what is difference between unbuffered and registered? I noticed that ECC ram comes in both flavors.
 
1. Two sets of traces; two buses, t the RAM.
Single-channel PC3200: 3.2GB/s. Dual: 6.4GB/s.
Yes, you want it (for a P4).

2. Yes. I'd recommend 2x512MB. 1GB should be fine for awhile yet. They don't really need to be the same, but it helps. If I win kit os cheaper, get tha. Otherwise buy2 of th same model.

3. Unbuffered gives the controller direct access to RAM, whereas registered has a go-between controller. It adds 1 cycle to access times, but for a P4 especially, that's nothing to worry about. Registered ECC is most common, as many motherboards cannot (except for pretty recent ones) use large amounts of RAM directly, where registered RAM abstracts it, keepin track of addresses internally. Registered typically has the price advantage.
 
Originally posted by: Cerb
1. Two sets of traces; two buses, t the RAM.
Single-channel PC3200: 3.2GB/s. Dual: 6.4GB/s.
Yes, you want it (for a P4).

2. Yes. I'd recommend 2x512MB. 1GB should be fine for awhile yet. They don't really need to be the same, but it helps. If I win kit os cheaper, get tha. Otherwise buy2 of th same model.

3. Unbuffered gives the controller direct access to RAM, whereas registered has a go-between controller. It adds 1 cycle to access times, but for a P4 especially, that's nothing to worry about. Registered ECC is most common, as many motherboards cannot (except for pretty recent ones) use large amounts of RAM directly, where registered RAM abstracts it, keepin track of addresses internally. Registered typically has the price advantage.
Click to expand...


Wow, thanks for the quick reply. Gotta love this forum!

So looks like I will do dual channel ram for sure, just not sure whether i will do 2x256 or 2x512.
 
512 is a minimum foR any rEal use at the moment. 1GB will be good for some time.
Looks like the unbuffered Buffalo is pretty cheap at Newegg 😕

edit: missing letters--I want my Model M back
 
Originally posted by: GnomeCop
sell the ram that came with it back to dell and get 2 new sticks of ram.
Click to expand...


Can you do this? I've heard reference to this before.

I do'nt really need the 128MB RAM, 40GB HD or the 48X CDROM for that matter. How much do they reimburnse? Do I just call them and say "I do'nt need these parts, will you buy them back?"
 
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