Sdram / Ddram

ConsultClifford

Can anyone explain the difference between SDRAM and DDRAM plze in lay mans terms?
ie if i want to make my pc more performant which should i go for?

Tnx

Creamy Goodness

i always think of it as a clock hand moving really fast.

SDRAM -> uses data whenever it passes the 6 on the clock
DDRAM -> uses data whenever it passes the 6 and 12 on the clock

thats my terms of it but i might be wrong

ozt9vdujny3srf

SD ram comes in speeds of up to 133mhz, its pretty much obsolete now seeing as it actually costs more than ddr r\m.

ddr(double data rate) ram it operates at a clock of at least 266 mhz (afaik) and the fastest i've seen is 460/466 (not sure)

ddr ram is definitely what you need

Probly a crap explanation but if it aint good enough for ya i am sure someone else can do better!

king_of_inismac

DDR ram is the better choice and with the prices that its available aat at the moment, its hard to resist.
However, if your purchasing ram for your existing PC , you have to first check if the Motherboard supports DDR ram. AFAIK if your motherboard has SDRAM already in it, it means ya cant put DDR ram into the machine....

Adrian

how do you check what type of ram you have. Whether it be ddr or sd rd or whatever.

i_am_dogboy

if you look at the connectors on your ram, there are 2 gaps on sd ram, only one on ddr, they arent cross compatible but some motherboards have ddr and sd ram sockets, if you dont wanna bother pulling out the ram use some sort of benchmark, if the bandwith is around 1000mb/s or less then its sdram, if it's much higher you have ddr or rambus

BigEejit

If you are afraid of making a mistake about what type of ram goes into your machine, just open your desktop (providing that that does not break any warranty) and look for the name and manufacturer of the motherboard .. then go to that manufacturers website (google can locate it for you) and pop the model of motherboard into the first search box on the site!! ... look for the manual ... if you still cant decide, then post up the details here, some kind soul may be able to help

(if its an old machine it may have EDO ram or similar which if I recall correctly also only has one slot in it)

SickBoy

Originally posted by BigEejit
(if its an old machine it may have EDO ram or similar which if I recall correctly also only has one slot in it)

That depends on if it's a SIMM or DIMM but that's a whole other topic...

ozt9vdujny3srf

Be careful, by the sounds of things you have a factory built pc! (probasbly). If so, make sure the ram is not customised ram that can be only purchased from your pc manufacturer. What you should really do is have a skulk around the for sale board. THere are a lot of good deals to be had there