Can you identify the specs on this Elpidia Ram?

[eturnal]

Hey All.

I have a desktop computer that had a stick of RAM crap out on me. I individually ran tests on each of the four 2GB sticks and I identified the faulty stick of RAM. I removed the stick and booted my computer up and things were stable for a week at 6GB installed. That wasn't good enough for me since I knew I had an empty slot in my board and I've always thought 'more is better' in terms of computing.

I went to HP's website and looked up the model of my computer and pulled the 'Memory Upgrade' information out.

* Dual channel memory architecture
* Four DDR3 DIMM (240-pin) sockets
* Supported DIMM types:
* PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333)
* PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066)
* Non-ECC memory only, unbuffered
* Supports 4GB DDR3 DIMMs
* Supports up to 16 GB on 64-bit PCs
* Supports up to 4 GB* on 32-bit PCs

Armed with this information, I figured I could buy the following upgrade and simply plug it into the motherboard:

Part Number: BLT2KIT4G3D1337DT1TX0
Module Size: 8GB Kit (4GBx2)
Package: Ballistix 240-pin DIMM
Feature: DDR3 PC3-10600
Specs: DDR3 PC3-10600 • 7-7-7-24 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64

The RAM that I pulled out of the system has the following markings on each chip:

ELPIDIATWN
J1108BDSE
-DJ-F
094409XXXXX (The underlined values change from CJ420, CW420, CFC20, and CTQ20)

Based on this information, I've tried doing a Parametric Search at Elpidia and I couldn't find a match. I'm not sure if the markings are 'Module' or 'Component', plus I don't know the latencies, voltage or other information to help narrow down the search. Perhaps you see something in the markings that I don't?

Bonus Points: When buying my RAM was there another factor I neglected to follow that might be causing this issue?

Thanks in advance.

 

[itzdanielp]

Here is the data sheet for your DIMM's that came with the computer.


http://www.elpida.com/eolpdfs/E1494E60.pdf



The Ram you selected should work with no problem at all. Did you try it yet? or are you just trying to verify before you purchase?

 

[eturnal]

I did try it last night and it killed gaming performance. When I used three Elpida sticks (6GB Total) things were fine but when I did 2xCrucial/2xElpida games started performing poorly - choppy gameplay, long loads, etc. I'm not sure if there is some incompatibility like the latency or something so that's why I was looking for the exact specs on my stick so I could further track this down.

Is there some software that would tell me all the specs on the Elpida ram so I could post those findings?

Edit: Tonight I'll try to run some games with just the Crucial sticks and see if it is the combination.

 

[itzdanielp]

More than likely it is the combination.

What ports did you have the sticks in?

I am guessing you might have 1Crucial & 1Elpida stick per channel, which will kill performance.

I can't tell this without actually seeing the inside of your computer but I would suggest putting them in like this.

CPU > Crucial > Elpida > Crucial > Elpida.



on a side note, it generally is not a good idea to mix RAM.

Especially since the Elpida is a cheaper RAM (128it) vs the 512bit crucial.

To be honest you are never going to get close to using all 8GB's from the Crucial kit. If it was me I would either get another Crucial kit if you *need* all 4 DIMMS filled, or just use the 2 Crucial chips.

CPU > Crucial > empty > Crucial > empty

 

[eturnal]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01925562&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=4120661

I actually had it like CPU > Crucial > Crucial > Elpida > Elpida because the colors of the slots were the same, so I thought meant you pair them.

The OS boots and works that way it's just any gaming is slow as hell.

 

[itzdanielp]

Alrighty, I think I have figured it out....

After *much* digging on the interwebs I managed to dig up a manual for that board. It looks like it has a limitation that is causing your trouble.

• For dual‑channel configuration, the total size of memory module(s)
installed per channel must be the same (DIMM_A1 = DIMM_B1)

And if you have 4GB Crucial and 2GB Elpida chips your board is dropping down into single channel mode, which has half the bandwidth as dual channel.

When you have 3 elpida chips in, it is still running primarily in dual channel, because you probably do not have anything that gets even close to addressing over 4GB. (BF3 @ 1080 on Ultra only uses about 3GB including the OS)

 

[eturnal]

So if I get what you're saying, using only the two Crucial sticks should work since they're both the same size and then the other sticks could just be removed?

 

[itzdanielp]

yep, exactly.

Go ahead and install them in the 2 closest to the CPU like you had. Pegatron makes weird boards

 

[eturnal]

Best answer selected by Eturnal.

 

[eturnal]

Will do. Thanks for your help and I'll post back if things don't work out.

Have a good holiday.

 

[itzdanielp]

No problem, you too!

 

[itzdanielp]

Here's this if you want a reference at some point.

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=49469085fd1a4edb&id=49469085FD1A4EDB%21304#cid=49469085FD1A4EDB&id=49469085FD1A4EDB%21305

 

[eturnal]

The RAM isn't performing as well as I hoped. Upon further inspection, one of the other sticks of Ram had a sticker on it which has the codes:

2GB 2Rx8 PC3-10600U-9-10-B0
EBJ21UE8BDF0-DJ-F

Based on this link, it looks like the RAM I had installed was running at 9-9-9 (by matching up the DJ in the second line). The Ram that I purchased was at 7-7-7, so I'm not sure if that's where the performance hiccups are at.

I downloaded CPU-Z and checked the Memory Tab while I had the new Crucial Ram installed. It reads like this:

General:
Type - DDR3
Channels - Dual
Size - 8192 MBytes
DC Mode - Unganged
NB Frequency - 1999.9-2000.1 MHz

Timings:
DRAM Frequency - 666.7 MHz
FSBRAM - 3:10
CL - 9
tRCD - 9
tRP - 9
tRAS - 24
tRC - 33
CR - 1T

The Memory that I currently have in there is the same voltage, but the timings are off. I tried booting into the BIOS to manually change the timings and get all techy but all my settings were grayed out.

Ha ha. So, what should I do now? T_T

 

[itzdanielp]

Yes, the timings being higher will cause performance to drop.

The screen you are showing where everything is greyed out is actually just the information tab. There should be an option under one of the advanced settings tabs that will allow you to change it.