What the heck is this "low density" "high density" memory stuff?

[SaltyNuts]

I wanted to order some of the cheap $39 256 meg SDRAM sticks from 1st choice or pcboost, but the cheap ones ("high density&quot are supposedly only for systems that can accept 1.5 gigs+ of memory. Me, having an MSI i815ePro which can only accept 1024 megs of memory or less must pay almost double that to get the "low density" memory.



I have never heard this before. The i815 is a relatively new motherboard, and I can't believe how much memory a system can accept would affect what density it can handle.


Can anyone confirm this and give me a reason why this is true, if it is? Thanks!

 

[John]

Your answer is here

 

[SaltyNuts]

Hey, thanks. I can't believe it. The guy at the bottom concludes:

"16x8/32x4 is the chip type,
16x8 works in all chipsets,
32x4 only works in non-intel chipsets."



The high-density memory does say it is 32 bit. So I assume it is the 32x4. Does this mean the PIV can't even use the high density memory, or was that just in the P3 chipsets? If so, that would put the PIV at yet another cost disadvantage. Thanks for the link.

 

[Kingofcomputer]

If you go to pricewatch, you'll see some vendors even say they're 32x64,
yes, 32x4 chips module is also using 32x64 configuration.
32x4 should not be called high density, it's just a different architecture.
kingston valueram 256M KVR133X64C3SS/256 is 32x8 (8 chips) vs KVR133X64C3/256 is 16x8 (16 chips),
I'd say such single side module is really high density memory.

 

[HannibalX]

nice Nic, lol I about fell outa' my arm chair readin' that!