Quick RAM Question.....

rubberhead

Quick general RAM question....

Which is better SDRAM (say...average PC100) or ROMBUS RIMM (which I know absolutely nothing about!!)

Reason I ask.....I have to pcs with pretty much identical specs....except for the ram. One of these pcs I get to keep, the other I've to give to someone else but I get the choice, which is nice. Each has 512mb ram (2 X 256 sticks).

The details on one of the RAMBUS Rimm sticks are:

Infineon
HYR1612840G
A1S1395102801
256MB/8
800-45

In the event that it turns out they are practically the same, would PC133 SDRAM be better cos I have that too in a different pc I might dismantle?!

Cheers

Ruu_Old

Chuck the one with the RAMBUS ram, its far too expensive to buy.

rubberhead

Good point Ruu, thanks for the super-fast reply! 512mb at the mo is good enough but if I ever did want to upgrade....hmmm

I always seem to come across free SDRam too but I figured if the Rambus Rimm was a lot better, it might be worth it! (It looks nicer with all the chips encased behind a heat shield!) Guess not!

cheers mate

irlrobins

Just to back up what Ruu said ^.

rubberhead

Good call..... The price of it never even entered my mind....just did a quick bit of checking the usual online shops for an extra 512 for example and ...yeh .....about an extra 50 bills! Christ! :eek:

Thanks guys

Ruu_Old

Yep Rambus have the evil monopoly on it and no one makes it apart from them.

PogMoThoin

One of ye mods should do a sticky on rambus ram. pops up all the time & the answer is always that it's cheaper buy a new rig.

irlrobins

Mmmm, haven't seen that many queries about it. Just coincidence we've had two in the one week.

I could add something to FAQ though. Care to donate the text?

Ruu_Old

Something like, RAMBUS Inc. are a sue-happy, money grabbing shower of fockers! However, with the help of Wiki and to avoid the lawsuits this might be better. Add/delete as you wish. I think I got the main points correct. Look at the amount of times they tried to sue!

RAMBUS Ram (RDRAM) is licensed by the RAMBUS Inc., so no other company manufacturers this type of RAM. It fits into the RIMM slot as opposed to the DIMM slot in most PCs today. RDRAM was brought in to replace SDRAM and to challenge DDR SDRAM. The memory chips themselves put out significantly more heat than SDRAM chips so heatsinks are needed on RIMM devices. It is very complex to manufacture and also costs a good deal more than SDRAM.

rubberhead

So like basically, they are'nt any better but they are more expensive, yeh?!

I'm still definitely gonna go with the SDRAM but it's interesting to find out this kinda stuff!
One thing you (whoever you are) should add to the sticky which I just read about is that you MUST use the same amount of ram in each slot on the mobo (or use CRIMM blanks if any of the slots are free.....I though they were just pointless bits of plastic!)
Basically in my case...I have 2X256mb stick at the minute and if I wanted to upgrade, I'd have to put in another 2X256, costing me a small fortune! (unless I picked that up wrong!)
Something tells me Rambus'll be goin out o business quite the fast! How are they not already!? Do they do other over-priced stuff?

Ruu_Old

RDRAM would be faster than SDRAM but as I mentioned it does have its problems with overheating. Intel are starting to use more RDRAM in their systems I believe. Enough of my RAMBUS bashing.

irlrobins

Ruu wrote:

Something like, RAMBUS Inc. are a sue-happy, money grabbing shower of fockers! However, with the help of Wiki and to avoid the lawsuits this might be better. Add/delete as you wish. I think I got the main points correct. Look at the amount of times they tried to sue!

Thanks Ruu. I'll add to FAQ now.

K.O.Kiki

Well, RAMBUS is used in some games consoles (GameCube for instance), and maybe servers.
Other than that, it's been overtaken by DDR & DDR2 in popularity.