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Question difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #1  
May 20th, 2007
Could someone please educate me on this matter. I have googled it and have found nothing.

What is the difference between memory modules with black chips on one side and black chips on both sides?

I have 4 identical memory sticks...only difference is the number of black chips. Two of them have four and the other two have eight.

DDR2 SDRAM
PC2-4200
533MHz

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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #2  
May 20th, 2007
It doesn't look like they're identical as there are differences of the chips.

Would you please list the make and model of the different modules?
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #3  
May 20th, 2007
It doesnt always matter. Its just how they are made up.

e.g some "512mb" stiks are really four 128mb black chips whereas others are made up of eight 64mb black chips.
Last edited by jbennet : May 20th, 2007 at 12:53 pm.
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #4  
May 20th, 2007
In terms of construction, a bank of RAM is any number of chips put side-by-side to build a 64 bit wide array of memory. The most popular widths of memory chips are 8 bits and 16 bits.
That means you could construct an array with four or eight chips.

Modules with less chips and the same amount of RAM generally are faster modules and will overclock better.
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #5  
May 20th, 2007
Here is the make and model:
(oh and I made a mistake in the chip count in the previous post, sorry)

(8 black chips on one side)
Samsung M378T6553CZ3
2x512 MB
DDR2 SDRAM
PC2-4200
533MHz

(8 black chips on both sides)
Kingston KVR533D2/512R
2x512MB
DDR2 SDRAM
PC2-4200
533 MHz
Last edited by Sweet_Erika : May 20th, 2007 at 6:07 pm.
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #6  
May 20th, 2007
I seem to be having memory issues with my computer and so this is why I am asking about the number of chips. The Samsung memory came with my Dell. I took that out and installed 4x512 Kingston memory sticks. I am having a lot of blue screens that Microsoft says are related to RAM. I have tested my RAM over and over with Memtest 86 and with Microsoft's mem test. It's brand new memory, so I don't know what the problem is.
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #7  
May 20th, 2007
Dells are very particular. You have to use the exact speed.
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

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May 20th, 2007
But they are the same speed
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #9  
May 20th, 2007
Wierd. Are the same:

Voltage?
EEC/Non-EEC?
Parity/Non parity?
Buffered/ Unbuffered?
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Re: difference between memory w/black chips on one side and both sides?

  #10  
May 20th, 2007
They are all the same. Maybe it is just a way for Dell to get people to buy their memory and not other brands, lol.
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