RAM Flashcards
SIMM
Single Inline Memory Module
DRAM
Dynamic Random Access Memory
Modern DRAM Bits
32 bit and 64 bit
SDRAM
Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory, tied to system clock
DIMM
Dual Inline Memory Module
Laptop DIMMs
Micro-DIMM
Small-Outline DIMM (SODIMM)
DDR Ram
Double Data Rate, very fast
Dual Channel Architecture
Using two sticks to increase throughput
Current RAM Speeds
DDR3/4/5
DDR3
240 Pin
SO DIMM 204 pin
8 bit bandwidth buffer
Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) to overclock
Max 16 GB
Triple or Quad Channel sometimes
I/O is quadruple clock
Speed is double I/O
PC Speed is 8x speed
DDR4
Higher density and lower voltage than 3, faster data rates
288 pin
SO-DIMM 204 pin
Max 64GB
I/O is x8 clock
I/O = Speed
PC is 8x speed
DDR5
Includes Power Management Integrated Circuit to deal with power management rather than mb
288 pin
SODIMM 262 pin
Max 256GB
Bandwidth and Speed = Clock x8
PC=Speed x8
Double-sided RAM
basically two sticks of RAM smacked together, some mb can’t use
RAM Latency
Delay in response time
RAM for Techs
Make sure the RAM latency matches the needs of the mb
ECC RAM
Error correction code, detects and corrects single bit errors
Can detect but not correct double-bit
Slower than non-ECC
Rare
Registered/Buffered RAM
Small register added to RAM stick to solve electrical issues
Use one or other not both
Working with RAM
Very sensitive to ESD
Don’t touch contacts
Make sure the RAM is right for the PC
Do I need more RAM?
Sluggishness
Excessive hard drive accessing
Virtual Memory
Use of HDD space for page/swap file
Used when you overtax RAM
“Virtual Ram”
Automatic process for any OS
Disk Thrashing
excessive HDD use when Windows has to constantly use the page file
System RAM Recs
32-bit Windows min 2gb, best 4gb
64-bit Windows min 8gb, best 16gb, 32 for high end
macOS min 4GB, 8+ for performance
Linux depends on distro, mostly similar to Windows and macOS
Determine current RAM capacity shortcut
Win + Pause/Break
(Systems Control Panel applet)
Task Manager shortcut
Ctrl+Shift+Esc
Serial Presence Detect
automatically detects installed RAM to set up
Service Mode
Make sure this is turned on when working on a laptop to ensure battery power is cut off
RAM Issues
Page Fault
Non-Maskable Interrupt (Blue screen)
