# What is double sided ram and is it better than single sided ram? Need answer



## dark_angel

Hi all,
      A friend of my father asked him whether double sided ram is better than single sided. I have never heard of ram being referred to as double or single so am wondering what it means and which one is better so i can tell my father so he can tell his friend.


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## PC eye

Dual sided memory is very much the standard now. The older single side simm saw the IC chips on one side only there and were typically DDR value memory used on older systems. On some older prebuilt systems you had to use only single sided dimms on those while boards ordered for custom cases often supported both dual and single sided.


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## SirKenin

Single Sided DDR DIMMS are rare. They are typically OEM and they have very limited compatibility. Every motherboard out there can support Single and Dual sided RAM. The trick is having the manual there so you can figure out which RAM has to go into which slot if you're going to mix them.

Dual Sided is 8 chips on each side, Single sided is 4 or 8 chips on one side. Single Sided DDR2 modules are exceedingly common (in fact, there's more SS DDR2 than there is DS DDR2), and don't have the same problem that SS DDR had.


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## dark_angel

ahh ok thanks for clearing that up for me. I just hadn't heard of Ram being referred to as double sided which is what had me confused.


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## nyhk

normally it is about the number of ranks. And it is actually possible to have single rank modules with chips on both sides


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## PC eye

SirKenin said:


> Single Sided DDR DIMMS are rare. They are typically OEM and they have very limited compatibility. Every motherboard out there can support Single and Dual sided RAM. The trick is having the manual there so you can figure out which RAM has to go into which slot if you're going to mix them.
> 
> Dual Sided is 8 chips on each side, Single sided is 4 or 8 chips on one side. Single Sided DDR2 modules are exceedingly common (in fact, there's more SS DDR2 than there is DS DDR2), and don't have the same problem that SS DDR had.


 
Single sided DDR dimms rare? OEM? I have a 1gb single sided Corsair value memory dimm bought retail sitting in a drawer here used on an old case. They weren't rare then when first bought. In fact that was bought for one old case where the pair of Corsair xms series dimms were seeing errors according to memtest.

Not all boards would run dual sided dimms like the boards seen in HPs, Dells, and few other prebuild systems since it saved the companies money by ordering boards that had to take their replacement memory by number. Some boards on the other hand wouldn't run single sided DDR memory. They required dual sided.


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## nyhk

When installing dimms you need to know how many ranks and how high a density the memory controller will handle. Many older boards have 3 dimms but can only handle 4 ranks.   So you cannot just mix as you please


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## PC eye

the thing you see mostly at this time is very a univeral type standard where DDR2 and now DDR3 will be used on boards by all companies rather then one type over here while another over there. You simply look at the specifications for any one board to see what it supports.


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## SirKenin

PC eye said:


> Single sided DDR dimms rare? OEM? I have a 1gb single sided Corsair value memory dimm bought retail sitting in a drawer here used on an old case. They weren't rare then when first bought. In fact that was bought for one old case where the pair of Corsair xms series dimms were seeing errors according to memtest.
> 
> Not all boards would run dual sided dimms like the boards seen in HPs, Dells, and few other prebuild systems since it saved the companies money by ordering boards that had to take their replacement memory by number. Some boards on the other hand wouldn't run single sided DDR memory. They required dual sided.


 
I appreciate that you like to feel important, and that you like to exude that you actually know something... But I'm going to have to correct you.

OEMs, like Dell and HP, used OEM RAM. They also used low density modules. It was the high density, single sided DDR modules that were not only rare, but caused a lot of problems. They only worked in a limited number of cases. 

Incidentally, I sell HP, Compaq and Dell systems daily. Off lease units, and they run double sided DDR DIMMs just fine. In fact, there are two sitting out in the showroom that have DS DDR DIMMs in them... and four here in my office.

The reason that your Corsair was giving problems was not because it was DS DDR..  But it would be rather pointless explaining to you what it actually was unfortunately, as like everything else you just wouldn't get it.


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## PC eye

SirKenin said:


> I appreciate that you like to feel important, and that you like to exude that you actually know something... But I'm going to have to correct you.
> 
> OEMs, like Dell and HP, used OEM RAM. They also used low density modules. It was the high density, single sided DDR modules that were not only rare, but caused a lot of problems. They only worked in a limited number of cases.
> 
> Incidentally, I sell HP, Compaq and Dell systems daily. Off lease units, and they run double sided DDR DIMMs just fine. In fact, there are two sitting out in the showroom that have DS DDR DIMMs in them... and four here in my office.
> 
> The reason that your Corsair was giving problems was not because it was DS DDR.. But it would be rather pointless explaining to you what it actually was unfortunately, as like everything else you just wouldn't get it.


 
The picture here shows what the memory actually looked like and is still in use in that old case not being Nitendo memory performance memory by one of the leading manufacturers.





The old prebuilds saw their own brand tagged on memory you had to buy through them. The boards they used were often limited to low end single sided memory. 

What you seem to miss was things like the reviews on Corsair's older value ram sold retail at vendors as well as their performance gaming memory they are well noted for. Simple basic facts.

Why would anyone install Nitendo memory on a pc? DS ram is for hand held gaming systems. 

 "The *Nintendo DS* (sometimes abbreviated *NDS* or *DS*) is a handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_DS

As for the old board it certainly wasn't just one pair of 512mb performance memory that saw errors with memtest but the next pair of 1gb of Value Ram seeing far more errors as well as not being able to set the fsb to 200mhz in the bios. Gee? That fresh battery put in a year or so later suddenly saw an Atholon XP3200 on the post screen again!

When tested on the next build that also used DDR400 memory both sets saw 0% errors by memtest. Gee that was also the board that saw a cpu fan quit and the cpu reach the 85C threshold temp and not one scratch!


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## SirKenin

No, PC, they were not limited to SS.  I've been dealing with them for 10 years now.  In fact, over the years, where SS DIMMs failed, DS (that would be double sided, as in chips on both sides of the module) DIMMS worked.  The other bugger, as I mentioned, was the high density SS DIMMs.

I'm scared to ask what kind of a mentally deficient brain comes up with associating a discussion of double sided memory (abbreviated DS for ease of typing) with a game console and even goes so far as to search for a wiki link for same and post it...and then rolls his eyes at his own stupidity no less.

It's the same ill mind that can't comprehend that if you underclock RAM to any significant degree, it will give errors and has absolutely nothing to do with being double sided, rather far more to do with timings, etc....and the same bent noodle that thinks that changing a battery in some old scrap pile bears any relevance to this discussion.

And, has the time to waste to show me a picture of Corsair XMS RAM, like I may have never seen it before and have no idea what DS (double sided for the mentally deficient) RAM looks like.

I dunno PC eye, but the more you speak the more I can't help but think that the closest you've ever been to being a tech is in your wet dreams as you drive your garbage truck to the next driveway.   That's the only simple, basic fact I can think of that would mutually pertain to our dialogue, unfortunately.


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## INTELCRAZY

SirKenin said:


> No, PC, they were not limited to SS.  I've been dealing with them for 10 years now.  In fact, over the years, where SS DIMMs failed, DS (that would be double sided, as in chips on both sides of the module) DIMMS worked.  The other bugger, as I mentioned, was the high density SS DIMMs.
> 
> I'm scared to ask what kind of a mentally deficient brain comes up with associating a discussion of double sided memory (abbreviated DS for ease of typing) with a game console and even goes so far as to search for a wiki link for same and post it...and then rolls his eyes at his own stupidity no less.
> 
> It's the same ill mind that can't comprehend that if you underclock RAM to any significant degree, it will give errors and has absolutely nothing to do with being double sided, rather far more to do with timings, etc....and the same bent noodle that thinks that changing a battery in some old scrap pile bears any relevance to this discussion.
> 
> And, has the time to waste to show me a picture of Corsair XMS RAM, like I may have never seen it before and have no idea what DS (double sided for the mentally deficient) RAM looks like.
> 
> I dunno PC eye, but the more you speak the more I can't help but think that the closest you've ever been to being a tech is in your wet dreams as you drive your garbage truck to the next driveway.   That's the only simple, basic fact I can think of that would mutually pertain to our dialogue, unfortunately.



Why would you rag on someone's mentality? 

Double = 2 Banks|| Single = 1 Bank

Double requires a transition time between banks, Single doesn't. This is only noticeable on a very high performance system like a big server or supercomputer.  

End of story.


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## Cromewell

I'm going to call this one settled.


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