Upgrading ram in Dell Dimension 4600c

Ultimate Dev'r · Join us on #cemetech-vaporware (Posts: 7297)

Then how do you explain this?

Kllrnohj · ☢ PH34R |\/|3 (Posts: 8196)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820161678

Kllrnohj · ☢ PH34R |\/|3 (Posts: 8196)

that would be a motherboard problem, NOT a cpu problem (unless of course you were using an Athlon64 or above)

Kllrnohj · ☢ PH34R |\/|3 (Posts: 8196)

For every computer, except the Athlon64 series (A64, AX2, Opteron, and FX), the memory is controlled by the motherboard, and the CPU communicates with the RAM THROUGH the motherboard (CPU<->Northbridge on Mobo<->RAM). In the A64 series (and above), AMD moved the memory controller ONTO the CPU itself. The motherboard no longer communicates with the ram, it is a direct CPU<->RAM link. So it either could have been a problem with your CPU, or it was trying to set the RAM at a speed it couldn't handle (in which case you go into the BIOS and manually set all of the RAM options)

Ultimate Dev'r · Join us on #cemetech-vaporware (Posts: 7297)

I'll have to try that...

Kllrnohj · ☢ PH34R |\/|3 (Posts: 8196)

No, they don't speed it up at all Wink

The raw amount of bandwidth availble to the CPU is still the exact same, however, there is a drastic reduction in latency. So when the CPU requests data from the ram, it doesn't have to wait nearly as long for the data to actually arrive. There are 2 reasons for the reduced latency. One, the memory controller is now much physically closer, and two, the CPU can communicate with the memory controller at any time, as both are operating on the same frequency (whatever the core clock of the CPU is). When RAM communication has to go through the FSB, the CPU must first wait to be able to communicate at all with the northbridge (as the FSB is 200mhz, and the CPU is in the 2ghz-2.6ghz range)

It may sound like I am just being nitpicky, but there is a difference. Intel jumped to DDR2 very quickly, as DDR2 offers more bandwidth, which the P4 needs, at the cost of much higher latency. AMD's chips, however, prefer lower latency to more bandwidth. DDR2 CAS latency was as high as 5 (and still is on cheaper sticks), with an average of 4 when it came out - its now down to 3 (for the more expensive sticks), comparatively, DDR has an average CAS latency of 3, with as low as 2 being common. In fact, if you overclock the FSB (raising the memory mhz and bandwidth) at the cost of raising the CAS latency, you might actually lower memory performance on an AMD system.