Anne said:
I bought a box of this stuff from a clearance house.
(We still have systems running DDR). I went to the RamBo
website, and entered the model number, and it did not
find it. As it is RBDR400HY1024K, one would guess it is
1 GB of PC3200. I searched for this in 4 search engines,
and could not find specs. It must be obscure, or else
they changed their part numbers. Then I tried RightMark
memory utility. It can't read an SPD. Anyway I tried it
with default BIOS setting, and memory test goes 1 hour okay.
When I overclock (FSB >200 MHz) then it starts to falter.
I have used Legend or Crucial before. Anybody had good/bad
experience with RamBo?
Judging by the "RB" standing for RamBo, I'd say they
contracted to have some modules made for themselves.
The HY could mean Hynix chips are used, but the module
manufacturer could be a fly-by-night nameless wonder.
At the 1GB level, the only thing to watch for is
"high density" memory. One formulation of that, would
involve x4 wide chips, and the 16 chips in the module
would be sitting in one bank. Such memory used to
sell on Ebay, and the advertisement for it, would
show a list of "compatible" chipsets. It's not the
kind of memory, which should be released into general
usage, because sooner of later, that stick of RAM ends
up in a machine it's not intended for.
Low density memory, using x8 chips arranged in two banks,
is more the norm and works in any unbuffered DIMM application.
Crucial or Kingston would only sell low density in a
UDIMM (unbuffered DIMM).
Registered memory or RDIMMs, is where that (high density)
x4 wide memory belonged in the first place - the registers
separate the memory array electrical load from the Northbridge,
and make high density memory work better. UDIMMs lack buffering,
which is why the high density formulation works less well
there. (Mushkin used to keep five or six pages of test
results on their web site, but it was never archived, and
the info is gone now. In their testing years ago, only one
chipset could drive more than one module of that stuff.)
(Some background info)
http://reviews.ebay.com/Myth-Low-Density-vs-High-Density-memory-modules_W0QQugidZ10000000001236178
(People still selling it - in this one, no "compatible chipset" list is provided)
(If a person finds it doesn't work in their computer, they'll "sell it onwards".
Ethics dictate they should slap on the "compatible chipset" list in the advert.
Brazen volume selling of this stuff, doesn't seem as common now.)
http://cgi.ebay.com/samsung-1GB-PC3...625?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588a039129
To read the SPD, give CPUZ a try. I'd use the non-install
version, and you can run that from the folder you unzip in it.
There should be a drop down box, so you can go slot by slot
and read out the SPD table on each module.
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
CPUZ can also dump a report file, and in there, it should
copy the entire 256 byte SPD for each DIMM. Then, you can
use the appropriate JEDEC document, to decode the contents.
If it said the memory was "1 bank", and you counted 16 chips,
then you'd know the width was nibble wide (x4).
(JEDEC DDR SDRAM SPD table definitions)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030417070529/http://www.jedec.org/download/search/4_01_02_04R11A.PDF
You can also learn about module composition, by reading the
part number off the memory chip. Some manufacturers install
heat spreaders on the memory, purely to hide the part number,
or to hide the fact the memory is UTT. If the module has
bare chips, you can get a part number and look that up.
You'll soon know whether the chip is an x4 or an x8 type.
Have fun
Paul
