[PLUG] Determining Memory Chip Speed

Larry Williams larryw at holbrookmasons.org
Tue Sep 13 19:04:05 UTC 2011


On 09/13/2011 11:41 AM, Richard C. Steffens wrote:
>
>  dmidecode says "Current Speed: Unknown" for both of those.

When I run dmidecode I get speeds for my modules, showing as DMI type 17 
(also as type 6, showing current speed in ns). Just a guess, perhaps the 
sticks or the MB don't support speed reports.

>  Is there some other way -- short of taking the cover off the box --
>  to find out what speed the chips are?

Well, leading to the second question, if you're gonna crack the case and 
add RAM, may as well do it now to see what they are. If they're OE 
installed then they probably are the same speed as the MB can handle; 
check online for system specs (You'd want to meet those specs anyway 
when buying RAM).

>  Second question: Can I add a 1 GB module to the third socket or do I
>  need to replace the two 512 MB modules with 1 GB modules to get to 2
>  GB?

My HP came with 2x512 @ 533MHz. I added 2x1024 @ 533 (at the time I 
couldn't afford 4 sticks). If you can afford it, make all the sticks 
identical in size and speed. I seem to recall something about a 
performance hit using different sized modules, but I can't back that up. 
Different speeds means the slowest will set the standard.

Larry




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