Computers & Electronics

Can someone explain this RAM type to me -

  • Last Updated:
  • Jun 10th, 2010 2:12 pm
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Member
User avatar
Feb 22, 2009
494 posts
122 upvotes
Kitchener, ON

Can someone explain this RAM type to me -

I am buying a used computer and it has this type of RAM:

DDR1 PC3200 512MB 184 DIMM AP RAM

I am going to upgrade and add an additional 512MB of RAM and think i will buy this:

512 MB DDR PC3200 400 Mhz CL3 memory

But according to HowStuffWorks it says that for RAM to be compatible it must have 3 things: speed, parity, and type...For the two RAM sticks above i notice the speed and type are the same but what is the parity? Are they the same too? I notice the 2nd RAM above is CL3 (latency of 3 cycles) but what is the one above and does it have something to do with the "AP" part of its name?

What does "AP" mean (auto-parity or something)?
6 replies
Deal Addict
Sep 23, 2008
1646 posts
292 upvotes
hm i remember my old board would auto adjust the latency of my ram modules to the slowest one (CL2 i beleve) maybe yours will too :-0
Deal Addict
User avatar
May 7, 2006
1320 posts
111 upvotes
Parity on RAM is usually used on servers. For home pc, parity can be ignored. So, yes the ram will work.
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Jr. Member
Oct 6, 2009
130 posts
Markham
Your RAM will be fine. The most important thing is to match the DDR (and not DDR 2 or 3) and the PC3200 (which is the speed designation).

The latency you wont have to worry about unless you're using performance low latency RAM (only really used for gaming/server types)
----------------------------
Member
Apr 23, 2009
259 posts
40 upvotes
Toronto
Computers are so cheap these days. I won't buy a computer that is still using DDR1 rams and require you to upgrade to get it to work better. Are you kidding me?
Deal Guru
User avatar
Nov 27, 2005
12603 posts
3028 upvotes
Richmond Hill
pax1234 wrote: Computers are so cheap these days. I won't buy a computer that is still using DDR1 rams and require you to upgrade to get it to work better. Are you kidding me?
I agree. What's the point of buying such an old computer? You can spend $400 and get a much, much faster system from Dell for example.
Deal Addict
Mar 3, 2004
1120 posts
85 upvotes
Shouldn't mix parity (ecc) with non-parity (non-ecc) , usually if look count the chips, if it has odd number of chips, it is parity(ecc).

But yea , like the above posters, a DDR1 machine is old and isnt worth anything, let alone spending to upgrade it.

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