Posted 09/18/09 at 01:05:28 PM by The Maximum PC Staff

What determines whether the RAM on an i7 mother-board runs as dual- or tri-channel memory? Is there a difference between RAM sticks, or is the only difference in how they are placed in the motherboard slots?

The Dell XPS desktops that have Core i7 can run as dual-channel when they have DIMMs in four slots, with 4GB or 8GB RAM. The same machine can run as tri-channel with DIMMs in three slots for a total of 3GB, or in six slots for a total of 6GB or 12GB (though I don’t know who needs 12GB of RAM.)

Could the same 2GB sticks be used in dual- or tri-channel machines depending only on how they are placed in the slots?

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Posted 08/21/08 at 09:32:49 AM by Chris Moody

Tom’s Hardware reports that Intel will demonstrate Hynix’s just announced 16GB 2-rank DDR3 DIMM at this year’s IDF. This comes on the heels of Elpida Memory’s 16GB FB-DIMM in DDR2 flavor that I covered a few weeks ago.

Hynix’s new DDR3 DIMM uses MetaRAM’s DDR3 MetaSDRAM technology letting manufacturers pack four times the amount of mainstream DRAM onto these sticks and still be a drop in solution, using the standard DIMM power and thermal envelope.

Intel will also demonstrate a server with 160GB using Hynix DDR3 R-DIMMs and Meta SDRAM technology in the Advanced Technology Zone.

DDR3 MetaRAM is similar to the previous generation of DDR2 technology that enables significantly more memory in a server. An added benefit of the DDR3 MetaRAM technology is that enables larger memory capacity without negatively impacting the operating frequency of the DDR3 memory channel. It is the only technology that has been demonstrated to run 24GB of DDR3 SDRAM in a channel at 1066 million transactions per-second (MT/s). Using 3 of 16GB DIMM, users can achieve 48GB per channel running at 1066 MT/s, while other competing solutions max out at 16GB per channel at 1066MT/s.

I thought we’d never have machines using Vista’s (Ultimate and Business) 128GB RAM limit in it’s lifetime, but perhaps there is hope! If you have deep pockets you could fill the average 4 slots in an enthusiasts machine with 64GB of RAM. It most likely would be overkill. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what the performance stats would look like?

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Posted 08/07/08 at 10:27:51 AM by Chris Moody

Elpida Memory, Inc. based in Japan announced that it is going to launch a 16-gigabyte Fully Buffered DIMM (FB-DIMM), the world's largest capacity. It is based on its own unique integrated packaging technology (stacked FBGA or sFBGA) with 2-gigabit DDR2 SDRAM. Elpida has achieved development of FB-DIMM products that feature an ultra thin thickness of 7.7mm.

The chip was designed with the ultra high-end servers and workstation market in mind.

Sample shipments of the new 16-gigabyte FB-DIMM will begin later this month. Mass production is expected to get underway in the 4Q of 2008.

Now if they would just come up with 8 Gig DDR3 sticks for my next desktop build, I’d be very happy indeed!

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Posted 06/27/08 at 02:40:09 PM by Paul Lilly

GeIL (that's capitable 'I' capital 'L') is going Hollywood with its naming scheme for a new technology the company claims will result in higher quality memory shipping from the factory. Called Die-hard Burn-in Technology (DBT), GeIL says the new system will virtually eliminate early failure among memory modules and catch defects that otherwise would have went unnoticed.

Take a look at the new technology, and learn what you can do to both detect and prevent RAM defects after the jump.

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