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Tech Chat Single-sided and dual-sided DIMMS

 
General Technical Discussion
Last Post by Nuvistor 2 months ago
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sideband
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Hi Guys, showing my ignorance in computer tech here. I have (by todays standards) and oldish ASUS desktop computer that came with 4 gigs of RAM. It only has two slots and it was always my intention to fit another 4 gig alongside. Typically it never happened until last weekend when my son scrapped an old gaming computer (but the DIMMS are OK) he said. Well there were three of them, 4 gigs each so I decided on my 'upgrade'. I noticed that two of the DIMMS only had chips on one side, one has chips on both sides but still only 4 gigs.

So now my question....what is the difference? There seems to be conflicting information on the Web. The general suggestion is that the double-sided DIMM is better (faster) than single-sided whereas another site says the opposite. 

I've tried all three and they all work although with one of them, when I check system status it comes back with 6 gigs rather than 8. Currently I'm using the double-sided one with a single sided one and the system status is saying 8 gigs (with 7.xxx useable).

So basically is it OK to use double and single together? Is there any difference between them? I get the impression that the computer is slightly faster with the double although it's faster anyway with two singles.

 

 

 

 
Posted : 03/03/2025 2:32 pm
Nuvistor
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@sideband If it’s correct there is an explanation on this forum third post.

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/single-vs-double-sided-ddr-dimms.883653/

 

Frank

 
Posted : 03/03/2025 5:40 pm
sideband
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Well that makes sense regarding the high density chips used on the single-sided DIMMS. As to whether there is a speed difference I still don't know....one explanation I came across....the dual-sided ones are slower because it takes longer for the electricity to cover both sides......!!

So really as I've only two slots, it must be OK to use either single or double-sided since either type work and return 8 gigs. I just have to decide if there is any speed difference between them. 

 

 
Posted : 03/03/2025 6:58 pm
Nuvistor
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@sideband If the original 4GB memory caused the OS to swap out a great deal then just having the extra memory will speed the machine up. 
You will need to use a memory intensive routine/application to check for true memory speed increases. Anything else could be affected by I/O, CPU and cache use. Overall machine speed needs them all to be more or less matched.

i used to see these types of problems on the mini computers I worked on. The sales person would go in talking up the extra speed of the new discs they were trying to sell forgetting to mention the bottle necks in the older processor or memory.

 

Frank

 
Posted : 03/03/2025 10:17 pm
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