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

[Sweet_Erika]

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

Thanks =)

[dcc]

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?

[jbennet]

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.

[dcc]

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.

[Sweet_Erika]

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

[Sweet_Erika]

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.

[jbennet]

Dells are very particular. You have to use the exact speed.

[Sweet_Erika]

But they are the same speed

[jbennet]

Wierd. Are the same:

Voltage?
EEC/Non-EEC?
Parity/Non parity?
Buffered/ Unbuffered?

[Sweet_Erika]

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.

[jbennet]

I got my memory for a dminesion 5150 off of crucial and it worked fine?

[Sweet_Erika]

Maybe I have a bad module? It seems highly unlikely, but anything is possible. All of the mem tests have passed though..hmm.

I am going to put the original memory back in and see how that works.

Thanks for all of your help jbennet and everyone =)

[dcc]

What is the model of your computer?

[Sweet_Erika]

Dell Dimension E521
AMD 64 X2 dual core 3800
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2

Any other specs you need, let me know.

Thanks for responding dcc. I really appreciate it =) Maybe you can shed some light on this issue.

[dcc]

Erika...Those Kingston modules are not included in the ones suggested at Kingston.

In order to run you RAM in dual channel the modules have to have the exact same specs.

The RAM that you bought is what Kingston calls "value" RAM which doesn't have the best reputation for dependability. As with most everything else you get what you pay for.

[Sweet_Erika]

I have bought Kingston's value RAM before in the past (for a different computer) and didn't have any problems.

I didn't know that Kingston had RAM that was lower end. I mean, I knew that is was called "value" RAM, but I wasn't too sure of what they meant by that. I thought all of their products were high quality...thanks for telling me otherwise.

I looked up the memory you suggested. It is cheaper in price than the memory I bought.