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System Memory

nOOb

n00b
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
26
So what is the point of having memory that runs about 400MHz? Doesn't the best mother board only support a maximum of DDR400? I need ot know so that i can get the right kind of memory for the comupter that i am building and i am wondering if i should get something higher than PC3200. And perhaps someone can explain what 1 2 2 6 means in relationship to RAM. Also, what the significance of having a RAID 0 setup for 2 harddrives?
 
The non-standard >PC3200 speeds are signs that the memory maker tested the mem at those speeds. Some can go higher with maybe tighter timings, others might not go 1MHz higher without loosening the timings. If you plan on overclocking the FSB, get the best you can afford from a good brand such as Kingston Hyper-X, Corsair XMS, Buffalo w/WinBond, etc..

The timings are usually said different ways from person to person, but I'm guessing 1-2-2-6 is: <Command Rate 1T>-<CAS Latency 2>-<Ras-to-Cas Delay 2>-<Active Row Timing (name varies, it's always called tRAS though I think) 6>

As for what they do, I would Google it. A good starting point is getting a few pages of info from here
 
woah...

1-2-2-6?

CAS latency of 1, i didnt think that was possible...that means it refreshes every cycle surely?
 
The reason people, like myself, run RAID0 is for performance. The HDDs are still relatively slow compared to other components in your system, so anything you can do to speed them up is a bug plus.
 
the 1 2 2 6 timings were just made up. Needed to learn about them. And is a 3 4 4 8 timing bad(be aware that this is for Kingston Hyperx Series 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-4000)
 
Ohhk..

Let me explain.

Less latency is memory is less time your processor <cache and whatnot> spends waiting on your memory to respond. That is a good thing. The only reason you would want/need memory faster than the rated spec for your processor buss. DDR400 for 200mhz FSB. Is because you want to overclock and not worry about your memory fitzing up the problem.

On the drives. Raid0 is called striping. what this does is takes your data and spreads it evenly across two drives. It's like this. Lets say you had one glass of water and you wanted to pour it into the sink. So you just dump it in. Now lets say you had two equal glasses. Each half full to equal the amount of water you previously had. So you dump them both in at the same time. The reality of the matter is with both glasses dumping you get better flow. The same is true for data. With two drives pumping the requested information it gets to your other components faster. This in turn equals better performance.

Truth be told the above example is where Dual Channel memory really came from. Dual channel memory in essence is Raid0 for memory. Shhh don't tell anyone.

Now Raid0 is nice. You will also hear about other types of Raid in your reading. You might wonder what solution is better for you. I will give a painfully brief explanation of each. The amount of space available in raid0 is equal to all drives in the configuration. IE total of all drives in raid0 configuration. All drives need to be matched size for best utilization. Minimum of two drives.

Raid1. Raid 1 is a basic raid setup also referred to as mirroring. what happens is you have the same data on both drives. While this does assist in data read speeds it isn't all that great at all for write speed. Because you have to write the same data to both drives. You need a minimum of two drives for this configuration just like Raid0. The amount of usable space in raid1 is equal to one drive. Drives need to be matched size for best utilization.

Raid5. Raid 5 is a bit different and also very expensive. Not very common at all on the lower end IDE systems. More of a server side solution. You need a minimum of three drives for Raid5. Though most that you come across will be with 5 or more drives. What raid5 really does is provide on the fly data integrity. the amount of space you have is equal to N-1. N being the number of drives in the raid array minus 1. If a drive fails in a raid five configuration the other drives in the raid array can take over and maintain the data at the cost of speed. The system has to figure out what was on the dead drive based on information in a stripe on the existing drives. Of course he more drives in a raid5 array the less demanding this really is on the system. Another nifty aspect of raid5 is the use of what we call a hot spare. With a hot spare the total space you have available is N-2. One of the drives is doing nothing. Just waiting to take over and be integrated into the raid array when another fails. All drives should be matched size for best utilization.

I know this might be confusing but I hope I helped to explain just a few things that will help you get along better in the forums.
 
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