ram question II (RDRAM)

Post by **PieceMaker** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:43 am

I got myself a Dell a few years back.

I'm in need of a memory upgrade for now until next year when I
upgrade my system.

I've got a Dell 8200 system with the pc800 RDRAM and I'm wondering
if there's an equivalent to the pc800 memory....?

I think I may have found some memory that is equal or compatible
to the pc800.
---->http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... 190,00.asp

You see I've checked the Dell site to see about ram and they want to
charge you $349.99 for one 512 meg of pc800.......*drop jaw*

I only looked at Dell for a price to see what I was looking at for comparison.

I checked Pricewatch and ofund some pc800 for $137 for on 512 meg chip.

I do know I have to install these memory modules in pairs and I was
thinking of upgrading to at least 1 gig ( maybe 2 gigs ) 2 gigs is the maximum for my system by the way.

I figure if I looked and read that link above that I can buy pc3200
and I found some priced at pricewatch for $41.00 on each 512 meg chip. Hell! For $164 dollars I can get 2 gigs...........?

I think I'm reading things wrong and will probably be screwed into buying pc800... Grrr.

My system currently has 512 megs and I need a little more for some gaming. To hold me off until next years taxes and an upgrade.... :icon34:

I sure hope I didn't confuse all this... LOL!

Thanks for any suggestions.

*waves*

:edit:

Some info on my system from CPUid

-----------------------------------------------
Chipset
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge Intel i850 rev. A3
Southbridge Intel 82801BA (ICH2) rev. 4
Graphic Interface AGP
AGP Revision 2.0
AGP Transfert Rate 4x
AGP SBA supported, enabled
AGP Aperture 256 MBytes
Memory Type RDRAM
Memory Size 512 MBytes
Memory Frequency 398.8 MHz (1:1)
Total CAS# (tRDRAM) 9
Row To Column (tRCD) 9

Memory SPD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIMM #1

General
Memory type RDRAM
Manufacturer (ID) Samsung (CE59414733363030)
Size 256 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC800 (400 MHz)
Part number MR16R 1628AF0-CK8
Serial number 75FAFA00
Manufacturing date Week 07/Year 02

Attributes

DIMM #2

General
Memory type RDRAM
Manufacturer (ID) Samsung (CE59414733363030)
Size 256 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC800 (400 MHz)
Part number MR16R 1628AF0-CK8
Serial number 75F8FA00
Manufacturing date Week 07/Year 02

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 3:19 am

thats Rambus, the first memory that was released with P4's..

one of the main things that restricted Rambus ( in the pub's eyes ) is that you can only pair Up Rambus, also the number of sticks have to pair up, so if you want to upgrade to 1gig, you need 2 256's ( Not one 512, it wont work that way )

in all reality, the BEST move to do is to pick up a Cheap P4 DDR based Mobo, DDR ram, And a case. Transfer the parts and etc over to the new case, move the CPU over ( you will need a new cpu cooler ) then you will be free of the Dell/rambus shiet.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 4:28 am

AmId basically said what I would do, I am not sure about the new CPU cooler, my HP didn't need one when I moved it to a new case, of course I do not work with Dells and do not know about the HSFs on them.
This may seem like a random question, but do you use ethernet on your computer

Post by **PieceMaker** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:26 am

AmIdYfReAk wrote:thats Rambus, the first memory that was released with P4's..

one of the main things that restricted Rambus ( in the pub's eyes ) is that you can only pair Up Rambus, also the number of sticks have to pair up, so if you want to upgrade to 1gig, you need 2 256's ( Not one 512, it wont work that way )

in all reality, the BEST move to do is to pick up a Cheap P4 DDR based Mobo, DDR ram, And a case. Transfer the parts and etc over to the new case, move the CPU over ( you will need a new cpu cooler ) then you will be free of the Dell/rambus shiet.

So the pc3200 ram isn't somewhat equivalent to the pc800 from what you read in that old article?

I was really hoping I read that article correctly.

I wanted to use that as my go ahead to go buy (4) 512 meg pc3200 chips
to upgrade my system to 2 gigs. I figured I'd max out the ram and it
might hold me over until I get my taxes back next year to get an upgraded system then.

I'll have to get some looking into a new MB, ram and case to see what
the price would be.

Post by **PieceMaker** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:28 am

Kills On Site wrote:AmId basically said what I would do, I am not sure about the new CPU cooler, my HP didn't need one when I moved it to a new case, of course I do not work with Dells and do not know about the HSFs on them.
This may seem like a random question, but do you use ethernet on your computer

Do I use ethernet on my computer? Meaning to I have on-board ethernet?

I have an PCI ethernet Card.

WHy what are you thinking about? :icon26:

Post by **Kills On Site** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:46 am

Well I am going to suggest some mobo, RAM, case solutions and ABit is my favorite mobo maker and they make two versions of their top socket 478 P4 mobo, one with onboard gigabit ethernet and the other with no ethernet.

Of course I just went on newegg and they don't offer the mobo without the ethernet. Well here is ABit's top socket 478 solution Abit IC7-G
Here is a cheaper solution MSI Neo2-PFS or Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000-G

As for RAM you want DDR 400 that has either a CAS 2 or 2.5 latency, not 3. Lower latencies are better and CAS 3 sucks ass.
Some awesome performing RAM you could get is this Corsair XMS 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Low Latency.
Some cheaper, but still good and reliable, just not as high performance is Corsair ValueSelect 512MB PC3200. Of course you would to buy two of these to get a GB of RAM.

As for cases I recommend Antec. Here is a cheap, nice, black Antec case. Antec Solution SLK3000-B. I'm not going to recommend any higher priced cases as a case is mostly preferance and if you are building a new computer next year no reason to blow money on a better looking case right now.

Now seeing as you prolly don't want to keep that Dell power supply as there is no telling what special wiring they do or how reliable they are when more wattage is needed then what they origianally gave.

Now here you have two options, get a case without a PSU (power supply unit) and buy a seperate PSU or buy a case with a PSU.
You could get this Antec black case, different then the one above as this has no door; Antec Solution SLK 1650-B with 350 Watt PSU. Now while that PSU will most likely work well it is an "SL" model, that means it isn't Antec's top line PSU.

Now PSUs are one thing I truly become a brand name whore on, I only buy Antec, Enermax and Thermaltake PSUs. This is because if a PSU fails or craps out it can take everything with it. Now I have this Antec TruePower 380 Watt power supply in one of my computers and it is rock solid.
Here is a Thermaltake Silent PurePower 420 Watt PSU.

Now the Thermaltake is cheaper, I don't know why, but with the number of reviews it has it is most likely a safe bet.
Again the PSU that is in that Antec Solutions 1650-B is prolly stable and prolly won't burn out or burn anything else these two other PSUs provide more power and will deliver on the power they promise.

I offer these solutions to you if you are thinking about AmIdYfReAk's solution to the crappy RAMBUS problem.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:16 pm

PieceMaker wrote:
AmIdYfReAk wrote:thats Rambus, the first memory that was released with P4's..

one of the main things that restricted Rambus ( in the pub's eyes ) is that you can only pair Up Rambus, also the number of sticks have to pair up, so if you want to upgrade to 1gig, you need 2 256's ( Not one 512, it wont work that way )

in all reality, the BEST move to do is to pick up a Cheap P4 DDR based Mobo, DDR ram, And a case. Transfer the parts and etc over to the new case, move the CPU over ( you will need a new cpu cooler ) then you will be free of the Dell/rambus shiet.
So the pc3200 ram isn't somewhat equivalent to the pc800 from what you read in that old article?

I was really hoping I read that article correctly.

I wanted to use that as my go ahead to go buy (4) 512 meg pc3200 chips
to upgrade my system to 2 gigs. I figured I'd max out the ram and it
might hold me over until I get my taxes back next year to get an upgraded system then.

I'll have to get some looking into a new MB, ram and case to see what
the price would be.

if you read up, the Rambus Ram is 16bit, wile DDR is 64-bit. ( Sd is 128-bit

)

so, no.. this is not possable..

btw, kills, there is a much cheaper silution to that rather then going all fucking out.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:26 pm

Asus P4P800-e Delux $119
1gig corsair $79.99
Pick your own case, $70
there are tons of them.
THERMALTAKE P4 SPARK7+ $27.99

Total: $296.98 +tax's and shipping.
_____________________________
Links
----------------------------------------------
Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131492

Ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145440

HSF: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835106032

simple $300 upgrade.. and it will take down the limmitations that are put up by dell... not to mention that you will get a slue of new features on any of the new(er) motherboards.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:59 pm

Kills On Site wrote:AmId basically said what I would do, I am not sure about the new CPU cooler, my HP didn't need one when I moved it to a new case, of course I do not work with Dells and do not know about the HSFs on them.
This may seem like a random question, but do you use ethernet on your computer

Dells are funky, hes gonna need a new cooler..

Post by **Kills On Site** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 9:36 pm

Well if you get the cheapest parts that I recommended it is about $255 with no HSF. So what exactly is so much cheaper about yours?

Post by **PieceMaker** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:17 pm

Kills On Site excellent suggestions and I thank you for the extra links to some examples!!!! nice :icon14:

Amidy! As well I thank you for the links and examples. Very helpful indeed!

I'm going to have to check out some things to see when I can afford
the upgrade but I will definately be doing it. I have to say I liked the Dell
at first but when I found all the proprietary shit they had? *sigh*
upgrading one sucks!

Such is life. You learn by experience. I am experiencing it in true form

Oh... on an edit note:

amidy. Damn I slap myself in the forhead about the ram ?

I was looking lower in the table where it had PC3200 RDRAM

DUH! pc3200 RDRAM should of given me a clue on it still being RDRAM! *sigh* I'll try and read a little better next time. *teehee*

Thanks again you guys.

I really appreciate the work you guys did in looking for examples
for upgrading. Excellent.

Take it easy guys and I'll let you know when and what I decide in the next
few weeks. Once I figure out what and when I can afford. *evil grin*

*waves* Back to work for me. DOH!

Post by **axbaby** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 11:37 pm

later bro

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 12:35 am

take it easy pm,

and y0 y0 axah

Post by **axbaby** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 4:25 am

hellooooooo

Post by **PieceMaker** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 10:49 pm

axbaby wrote:later bro

I'm around... I pop in now and then to reply and post crazy stuff like this thread. *teehee*

Good to see your back. Hope you stick around awhile before going back out?

AmIdYfReAk wrote:take it easy pm

I sure will. I'm doing great! Seriously. :icon14:

I'm going to have to get my finances together before I go and
get this. This is going to be a nice upgrade until mid- next year.

Well my drivers just got in. I'll post again soon.

*waves* good to see you back ax!!!

Post by **axbaby** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 4:46 am

glad to be back .. busy summer at work coming :{