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    RAM ECC etc

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by -Recoil-, May 18, 2007.

  1. -Recoil-

    -Recoil- Notebook Consultant

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    Is ECC and unbuffered the same, or is there no relation at all?

    if a RAM module is unbuffered does this mean its ECC or non-ECC? (if related)
     
    -Recoil-, May 18, 2007
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  2. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    ECC is Error Correction. It can either be registered (most common) or unregistered. Registered usually buffered. So, you can get ECC in either flavor, but buffered almost always implies ECC. You shouldn't need to worry about that in laptops. Buffered/ECC RAM is primarily for workstations and servers. Search for ECC on this page to read more about it.
     
    Pitabred, May 18, 2007
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  3. -Recoil-

    -Recoil- Notebook Consultant

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    just another quick question.. is pc4300 ram for desktop and pc4200 for laptop?
     
    -Recoil-, May 18, 2007
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  4. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    Not necessarily. A SODIMM is for a laptop, and a DIMM is for a desktop. The PC4300/PC4200 designations really only tell you about the speed of the chips, not their package.
     
    Pitabred, May 18, 2007
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  5. -Recoil-

    -Recoil- Notebook Consultant

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    ahh ok...

    its just that CPU-Z reckons that in my Acer Aspire it has PC4300 RAM, yet i can hardly find PC4300 RAM on the net... its all PC4200
     
    -Recoil-, May 18, 2007
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  6. Evolution

    Evolution Vox Sola

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    Same thing here with my acer aspire but I found this explanation when I did some searching.

    "The confusion around DDR2-533 (PC4200 vs PC4300) is simple: PC rating for DDR2 modules can be calculated by multiplying the clock by 8. That would result in PC4264 for DDR2-533 memory -- which could be rounded either down to PC4200 or up to PC4300"

    This explanation sounds about right too me...
     
    Evolution, May 18, 2007
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  7. -Recoil-

    -Recoil- Notebook Consultant

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    so if i wanted to add another 1gb to it, would PC4200 be no problem adding to the PC4300? (both the same speeds: 533mhz)
     
    -Recoil-, May 19, 2007
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  8. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    If they're both 533MHz, there'd be no problem, no.

    If they're actually different speed, though.... there also wouldn't be a problem though. (It would work just fine, but all of your RAM would then switch to running at the speed of the slowest stick)
     
    Jalf, May 19, 2007
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