Mr. Geeky's RAM Blog

Peeps ask me all the time, "Mr. Geeky, what's this biz about low density RAM? Is it just a bunch of hooey? Why do I care, anyway?"
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There is a lot of confusion regarding high density versus low density memory for older computers, which is why the good folks at GeeK NoiZe have asked me to make some sense of it all.

In common parlance, the terms "high density" and "low density" are sometimes used to refer to the way memory is organized at the chip level, and sometimes they are used to describe single channel versus dual channel RAM. Both can be relevant.

When dealing with RAM from major manufacturers, people often use the terms high density and low density to refer to single channel versus dual channel memory. The memory is organized on the module either in two banks or one bank of memory. It is possible for a module to have chips on both sides but still be organized as a single rank (single channel) memory module. There are many older motherboards that cannot recognize single channel RAM. When you install single rank memory in a motherboard designed only for dual channel RAM, it most likely will not work.

(Please note that there are a small number of desktop computer motherboards that actually require single channel memory and will not work with dual channel double-sided low-density ram. Please consult your computer or motherboard manual to confirm compatibility.)

The more accurate definition of high density versus low density memory has to do with how the individual chips are organized on the memory module. Many older desktop computer motherboards are not designed to recognize RAM made with high density chips. High density memory was designed originally for use in servers. How is it different?

A typical low density 512MB module would be organized as 2 banks of 32 x 8 (32 Mbits and a data width of 8 bits). A high density chip structure for the same size module might be 2 sided 64 x 4 (4 chips per side) or one sided 64 x 4 (8 chips on one side). There are a lot of different ways the chips on a memory module can be organized, many of which do not comply with the JEDEC standards which were current at the time that the older desktop motherboards which use SDRAM and DDR memory were built.

I think that single sided RAM is especially fine as a side dish with eggs and jam, so whenever the good folks at GeeK NoiZe have some, they let me eat it for breakfast. I think high density chips have a special crunch that is just delightful, so I eat those as well.

Which is why you will rarely find any high density RAM at GeeK NoiZe. It's mine. YUM!