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sonoma with dual-channel DDR?

post #1 of 16
4/3/05 at 4:09pm
Thread Starter 
I am considering purchasing a Toshiba Tecra A4. Despite the Sonoma chipset, in only supports DDR memory. Does anyone know if dual-channel DDR would be supported in this setup, hence an advantage to matching my RAM? Thanks
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post #2 of 16
4/3/05 at 11:18pm
Yes, you can use dual channel DDR in this machine.

Dual Channel DDR PC3200 should have approx the same bandwidth as single channel DDR2.
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post #3 of 16
4/4/05 at 2:27am
Thread Starter 
Thanks smilepak. The specs for this machine note PC2700 DDR. You mentioned using PC3200. Should this machine be able to support PC3200 or were you just giving a hypothetical comparison. Thanks.
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post #4 of 16
4/4/05 at 9:56am
I would believe that the new Sonoma chipset should be able to use PC3200 due to the higher bandwidth of the FSB. Also DDR-II has proven only to be marginally faster than DDR-I so it isn't a huge difference.
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post #5 of 16
4/4/05 at 2:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelX30
I would believe that the new Sonoma chipset should be able to use PC3200 due to the higher bandwidth of the FSB. Also DDR-II has proven only to be marginally faster than DDR-I so it isn't a huge difference.
Yes you could use DDR-PC3200 on the Sonoma chipset, which is better. The standard DDR-2700 that comes with the Tecra is good too. But would recommend PC3200 for the higher bandwidth.

And in terms of bandwidth, the DUal Channel DDR proves only a small differences between Single Channel DDR-2.

Dual Channel DDR2 is only 5% faster than Single Channel DDR2.
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post #6 of 16
4/4/05 at 3:10pm
Smile--are you sure that the a4 would work with 3200? I thought I remember reading somewhere on the forum that the modules (3200 vs. 2700) use different voltages and are notched differently. I think that the 533 and 400 MHz modules are "interchangeable" in the sence taht you coud go from 400's to 533's (or vice versa, if you wanted -- but I wouldn't know why you would want to) but not from 333's to neither 400's nor 533's. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
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post #7 of 16
4/4/05 at 3:15pm
DDR PC2700 and DDR PC3200 uses the same voltage. It is DDR2-3200 and DDR2-4200 which uses different voltage compared to DDR.

DDR uses i believe 2.5v while DDR2 uses 1.8v if I remember correctly.

DDR-PC2700 -> 333Mhz
DDR-PC3200 -> 400Mhz
DDR2-PC3200 -> 400Mhz
DDR2-PC4200 -> 533Mhz

You could use PC2100, PC2700, and PC3200 DDR interchangablely. However you can not stick in DDR2 in a DDR slot, vice versa as they are different voltage.
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post #8 of 16
4/4/05 at 5:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by smilepak
...And in terms of bandwidth, the DUal Channel DDR proves only a small differences between Single Channel DDR-2.

Dual Channel DDR2 is only 5% faster than Single Channel DDR2.

Yeah, but isn't that 'cause the current implementation of Sonoma technology hasn't been optimized for dual-channel memory? Or did I read tomshardwareguide.com wrong??
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post #9 of 16
4/4/05 at 5:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by uschou@yahoo.co
Yeah, but isn't that 'cause the current implementation of Sonoma technology hasn't been optimized for dual-channel memory? Or did I read tomshardwareguide.com wrong??
That is correct. The intel 915PM chipset, though improved in bus speed and bandwidth, it is no where near the desktop counterpart. So the reason for Dual Channel DDR2 to have only 5% improvement over single channel is because the bus is unable to utilize the amount of bandwidth output by the dual channel.

ANother thing is the latency of the memory also contributed to the limited improvement. However, over time as manufacture starts to develop a better latency memory, DDR2 will burn pretty well. They have features on them over DDR.

As Corsair put it many times, DDR2 start where DDR left off. So, think of DDR when it was first released. It was lagging at the start as well. Over time improvement to the memory making it a primer memory. If DDR2 starts where DDR left off, meaning the DDR2 memory we see now are first generation memory.
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post #10 of 16
4/4/05 at 6:18pm
Thanks for the reply smile. I didn't realize that PC3200 came in both flavors.

So summarizing what you, michael and the re st have been saying, if the difference between dual channel DDR is marginal in comparison to single channel DDR2, and if dual channell DDR2 is only 5% faster than single channel, then the difference between dual channel DDR and dual channel DDR2 is still at best marginal (about 5% plus a little). Or no?
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post #11 of 16
4/4/05 at 6:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by g00nter
Thanks for the reply smile. I didn't realize that PC3200 came in both flavors.

So summarizing what you, michael and the re st have been saying, if the difference between dual channel DDR is marginal in comparison to single channel DDR2, and if dual channell DDR2 is only 5% faster than single channel, then the difference between dual channel DDR and dual channel DDR2 is still at best marginal (about 5% plus a little). Or no?
DDR-II @ 533 MHz wont differ that much (5% arena) from Dual-Channel DDR-I @ 333 MHz. However Dual-Channel DDR-I @ 400 MHz I am unsure about.
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post #12 of 16
4/5/05 at 6:29am
Sorry for the silly question but how do you know if the laptop is using dual or single channel and, if the latter, how do you try to activate it?

I have a Tecra A4 with two modules of 512MB: the original Toshiba one and one made by Kingston. This was sold to me as having the same specs of the former but who knows (you can see in the Toshiba section [http://notebookforums.com/showthread...=65426&page=4] why I'm not very confident nowadays...)
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post #13 of 16
5/10/05 at 11:30am
If you download CPU-Z and check the memory there it may help...i maybe wrong but somehow i doubt dual channel DDR-1 is possible with the Toshiba sonomas
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post #14 of 16
5/10/05 at 8:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3LS-JD
If you download CPU-Z and check the memory there it may help...i maybe wrong but somehow i doubt dual channel DDR-1 is possible with the Toshiba sonomas
Yes dual channel support is there with DDR-1 it is part of the 915 chipset support. It is not there with the 855 chipset originally
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post #15 of 16
8/21/05 at 5:55am
does this dual channel 3200 thing work with M40 series?
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post #16 of 16
8/21/05 at 7:01am
Comparison Chart

iif you check the comparision chart you will see that only the intel 915 line supports the 533FSB and DDR1 and it is only single channel DDR333. In fact, no intel mobile chipset support DDR1 400 (both duel and single channel)

sorry to burst your bubble.
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