Re: [expert] OT: Determining Memory Speed
Thanks Tom and Olaf for your replies. I will have a play with Sandra and see what I come up with. Brian. At 01.24 27/06/2003, you wrote: Does anyone know of an easy way to work out the rating of SDram (ie. 66, 100, 133)? Obviously, in cases where it isn't actually written on the stick. _ Hot chart ringtones and polyphonics. Go to http://ninemsn.com.au/share/redir/adTrack.asp?mode=clickclientID=174referral=Hotmail_taglines_plainURL=http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilemania/default.asp Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] OT: Determining Memory Speed
On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 09:24 am, Brian Schroeder wrote: Does anyone know of an easy way to work out the rating of SDram (ie. 66, 100, 133)? Obviously, in cases where it isn't actually written on the stick. Oh well, Google it is, then http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=179 http://www.chipmunk.nl/DRAM/ amongst the gazillion hits -- john in sydney Mandrake Linux 9.1, Kernel version: 2.4.21-0.18mdk OpenPGP key available on www.keyserver.net 1024D/3E4A902F B38A AB0F 8658 D9E1 4900 3050 08FA D4FA 3E4A 902F Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] OT: Determining Memory Speed
On Sunday June 29 2003 07:16 pm, Brian Schroeder wrote: Thanks Tom and Olaf for your replies. I will have a play with Sandra and see what I come up with. Brian. At 01.24 27/06/2003, you wrote: Does anyone know of an easy way to work out the rating of SDram (ie. 66, 100, 133)? Obviously, in cases where it isn't actually written on the stick. Ram is what it'll do. Use Sandra if you want, but any info you get from it is suspect, probly incorrect. Memory most often runs at the same mhz as the FSB, cept for some motherboards that allow setting the ram mhz asyncronis to FSB. On those boards it's a serious performance hit to set mhz timing of the ram below the cpu's FSB speed (eg, 100mhz for the ram when usin a 133mhz FSB cpu). As I said before, the only ram timings that really matter are mhz, cas, and bank-interleaving. Best timings are highest mhz the ram (and cpu) can run at with -0- errors at cas2, 4-bank while keeping a reasonable PCI bus speed. Memtest86 is a decent check, very much better than Sandra, and memtest86 will display the ram's (as timed in bios) mb/sec in the upper left corner so you can see what is achevied by changing bios timing options. 'Cept for ram with SPD onboard the stick, and SPD enabled in bios (which IMO it never should be), ram doesn't dictate what speed it runs at, the motherboard and bios timings do. The only part left to the ram is whether or not it can keep up ;) -- Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] OT: Determining Memory Speed
On Thursday June 26 2003 06:24 pm, Brian Schroeder wrote: Does anyone know of an easy way to work out the rating of SDram (ie. 66, 100, 133)? Obviously, in cases where it isn't actually written on the stick. 66, 100, 133, etc. are just marketing labels. Ram is what it'll do. The more important specs are ns and cas rating, but quality ram will most often outperform it's specs. Generic ram often won't live up to it's label. 1000/mhz = ns. The most important bios timings are mhz, cas, and bank-interleaving. I've got a mix of pc100 (6 years old) and pc133 ram sticks, I've been usin all along at 135mhz, cas2, 4-bank interleaving. The pc100 was sold as 8ns, cas2, but I've used it for years at 1000/135 = 7.4 ns Set to cas3 it'll do 155mhz (6.45ns) and still pass an overnite run of memtest86 with -0- errors. My daughter's computer is using 66mhz ram, so old it was manufactured before the marketing labels were even invented, reliably at 112 mhz, cas3. 'Course the ram quality is only half the story. Equally important is the motherboard quality, the caps it uses, and a little over spec IO voltage (+5 to 10%), and a decent high quality PSU with very steady output. Most quality mobo's furnish over spec IOv by default, usually 105%. Corsair XMS, probly te best ram currently available, won't run worth a damn on a PC Chips motherboard, with substandard caps, fed by a wobbly generic oem PSU. -- Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
Re: [expert] OT: Determining Memory Speed
At 01.24 27/06/2003, you wrote: Does anyone know of an easy way to work out the rating of SDram (ie. 66, 100, 133)? Obviously, in cases where it isn't actually written on the stick. AFAIK, putting the module in a computer that clocks them faster than they can wont't break them, simply you'll have crashes and crashes :-)) Anyway, if they are not-so-old they should come with a SPD chip soldered on them, you should be able to read it with some app. If you aren't, there is a Mac OS X (or 9?) app that is able to read and modify the content of that chip, you could find it and ask the author. Or you can put the stick in a windows box and use SiSoft Sandra. Or you can run SiSoft Sandra inside Wine or VmWare. Olaf Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
