Ram

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Bassman
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Paul Bassman

Hi Folks,

Have been playing about with PC's for 25 years just as a hobby, and am
completely addicted. I want to buy the Athlon 64 FX53, am ready to order.
One thing is stopping me and I hope you can help. I haven't a clue what
registered ram is? It say's in most reviews of the Evesham PC the firm of
choice, that the registered ram is slow, so, please can you tell me, does
this defeat the object of playing games for example. I would have my Choice
of a very fast CPU fast hard drive etc, but the ram would bring speed down
to say a XP 2000, do you think Rambus ram could be used with this
motherboard, just what the eck is registered ram and why is it slow?
Thanks!!
Paul.
 
| Hi Folks,
|
| Have been playing about with PC's for 25 years just as a hobby, and am
| completely addicted. I want to buy the Athlon 64 FX53, am ready to order.
| One thing is stopping me and I hope you can help. I haven't a clue what
| registered ram is? It say's in most reviews of the Evesham PC the firm of
| choice, that the registered ram is slow, so, please can you tell me, does
| this defeat the object of playing games for example. I would have my
Choice
| of a very fast CPU fast hard drive etc, but the ram would bring speed down
| to say a XP 2000, do you think Rambus ram could be used with this
| motherboard, just what the eck is registered ram and why is it slow?
| Thanks!!
| Paul.
|

Ever heard of ECC ram?
 
Ever heard of ECC ram?
Click to expand...

ECC != registered

You can get memory in four flavors:
* unbuffered
* unbuffered ECC
* registered
* registered ECC

Registered modules have additional components (registers) placed between
the incoming address and control information and the SDRAM components.
These modules are typically used in Servers due to their added
reliability (they place much less of an electrical load on the memory
controller and therefore make it possible to have as many as 16 or 32
modules in a large system).
 
Hi Folks,

Have been playing about with PC's for 25 years just as a hobby, and am
completely addicted. I want to buy the Athlon 64 FX53, am ready to order.
One thing is stopping me and I hope you can help. I haven't a clue what
registered ram is? It say's in most reviews of the Evesham PC the firm of
choice, that the registered ram is slow, so, please can you tell me, does
this defeat the object of playing games for example. I would have my Choice
of a very fast CPU fast hard drive etc, but the ram would bring speed down
to say a XP 2000, do you think Rambus ram could be used with this
motherboard, just what the eck is registered ram and why is it slow?
Thanks!!
Paul.
Click to expand...

Registered RAM has a set of registers on the address and control lines.
The registers reduce the load on the lines and they also reduce the length
of the lines. If you have an unregistered DIMM with 8 RAMs then the
address and control lines from the processor must drive the 8 RAMs
directly, i.e. there are 8 loads on the each line. Also the lines must
travel from the processor, up onto the DIMM and then fanout to the RAMs on
the DIMM. On a registered DIMM the lines from the processor drive the
input of the register, 1 load instead of 8. In addition the lines
terminate at the register which is placed near the connector so the length
of the lines are much shorter. Registered DIMMs significantly improve the
signal quality of the address and control lines. Systems that use
registered DIMMs can support more memory then those that use unbuffered
DIMMs. The downside is that there is a small increase in the access time
(bandwidth is uneffected). As a practical matter the performance loss from
the increased latency is very small, completely unnoticeable in fact. On
the otherhand the performance gain from having more RAM is huge. The
improved signal quality also improves the reliability of the system. On
top of that registered RAMs always include ECC (error correcting codes)
which will correct single bit errors and detect double bit errors.
Unbuffered DIMMs are available with ECC but they usually don't include it.
So an unbuffered system is less reliable for two reasons, the signal
quality is worse so there is increased probablility of an error, and if
there is an error there is no way to detect it let alone fix it.
Registered systems have better signal quality so there is less likelyhood
of a bit error and they have ECC so even if you have a bit error the
processor can correct it.
 
ECC != registered

You can get memory in four flavors:
* unbuffered
* unbuffered ECC
* registered
* registered ECC
Click to expand...

I don't remember ever seeing registered no parity RAM. I'm not saying it
isn't possible, but I'd be interested in seeing a URL for info on some.
 
| |
| > | >> Hi Folks,
| >>
| >> Have been playing about with PC's for 25 years just as a hobby, and
| >> am completely addicted. I want to buy the Athlon 64 FX53, am ready to
| >> order. One thing is stopping me and I hope you can help. I haven't a
| >> clue what registered ram is? It say's in most reviews of the Evesham
| >> PC the firm of choice, that the registered ram is slow, so, please
| >> can you tell me, does this defeat the object of playing games for
| >> example. I would have my Choice of a very fast CPU fast hard drive
| >> etc, but the ram would bring speed down to say a XP 2000, do you
| >> think Rambus ram could be used with this motherboard, just what the
| >> eck is registered ram and why is it slow? Thanks!!
| >> Paul.
| >>
| >
| > Ever heard of ECC ram?
|
| ECC != registered
|
| You can get memory in four flavors:
| * unbuffered
| * unbuffered ECC
| * registered
| * registered ECC
|

Yes, but unbuffered ECC is very very hard to find and likely more expensive
(due to its rarity) than registered ECC. 99% of the time, when you see ECC
ram it is registered.
 
I don't remember ever seeing registered no parity RAM. I'm not saying it
isn't possible, but I'd be interested in seeing a URL for info on some.
Click to expand...

You won't find it. Registered RAM is used in servers, no one in their
right mind would put non-ECC RAM into a server.
 
The prize go's to General Schvantzkoph whose explanation has made me happy,
so much so, I now want registered ram! I found your explanation very easy to
understand. Many thanks to everyone else who took the time to explain, which
I found very helpful. Thanks again Paul.
 
The prize go's to General Schvantzkoph whose explanation has made me happy,
so much so, I now want registered ram! I found your explanation very easy to
understand. Many thanks to everyone else who took the time to explain, which
I found very helpful. Thanks again Paul.
Click to expand...


Your welcome
 
The prize go's to General Schvantzkoph whose explanation has made me
happy, so much so, I now want registered ram! I found your explanation
very easy to understand. Many thanks to everyone else who took the time to
explain, which I found very helpful. Thanks again Paul.
Click to expand...

For best performance you should buy your RAM as two identical model sticks
of equal size. This will enable you to make use of the dual channel
memory controller. I know some RAM makers sell what they call matched
pairs, but it seems to me very unlikely they'd offer a significant
performance boost. Or, in fact, any at all.
 
For best performance you should buy your RAM as two identical model sticks
of equal size. This will enable you to make use of the dual channel
memory controller. I know some RAM makers sell what they call matched
pairs, but it seems to me very unlikely they'd offer a significant
performance boost. Or, in fact, any at all.
Click to expand...

A matched set implies that one stick won't crap out significantly
earlier than the other if you attempt the highest overclock your
system is capable of. In some cases of poor motherboard/ram
compatibility it might mean whether your computer runs reliably or
not.

Although you should be able to get two matched singles ram sticks
through most distribution channels when buying at the same time,
don't underestimate the ability of your local vendor to $crew things
up.
 
Jason> Yes, but unbuffered ECC is very very hard to find and likely
Jason> more expensive (due to its rarity) than registered ECC. 99% of
Jason> the time, when you see ECC ram it is registered.

Not true at all. Kingston makes unbuffered DDR 3200 ECC ram that costs
less or about the same price as non-ECC ram.

Really some of the super non-ECC DDR ram with the cool expansion
coolers is really expensive ;-). However, you probably won't see much
performance difference but you your system will really look cool!

Most systems use non-ECC ram.

Does it really make much difference these days weather you use ECC or
non-ECC. That's if your system can use both?

Later,

Alan
 
|
| Jason> Yes, but unbuffered ECC is very very hard to find and likely
| Jason> more expensive (due to its rarity) than registered ECC. 99% of
| Jason> the time, when you see ECC ram it is registered.
|
| Not true at all. Kingston makes unbuffered DDR 3200 ECC ram that costs
| less or about the same price as non-ECC ram.
|

I guess I stand corrected then, but I have never seen any at any of the my
wholesalers, so I assumed it wasn't made in mass quantities.
 
Jason> Yes, but unbuffered ECC is very very hard to find and
likely Jason> more expensive (due to its rarity) than registered
ECC. 99% of Jason> the time, when you see ECC ram it is
registered.

Not true at all. Kingston makes unbuffered DDR 3200 ECC ram that
costs less or about the same price as non-ECC ram.

Really some of the super non-ECC DDR ram with the cool expansion
coolers is really expensive ;-). However, you probably won't see
much performance difference but you your system will really look
cool!

Most systems use non-ECC ram.

Does it really make much difference these days weather you use ECC
or non-ECC. That's if your system can use both?
Click to expand...

YES! I use ONLY RAM labelled "Special Sale" or "Huge rebate"!

When I installed my MB I got two 512 sticks of DDR3200 ram in whatever
Fry's had that was cheap, it's worked perfectly. I've heard some have
had problems with the ASUS K8V and RAM, try getting whatever is cheap,
it'll work! <G>
 
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