InC's tech corner: mixing RAM

InCreator · Thu 07/04/2005 13:46:13

Well, I planned to give my old tractor a little boost.
Currently, there's shitty 256 MB of RAM sitting inside, 133Mhz.
I plan to buy 400Mhz chip with 512 MB.

Can they be both inside? Will it make it even faster?
Or will be there some conflicts/speeddown?

Ghormak · Thu 07/04/2005 13:53:46

The new chip will run as fast as your motherboard can handle. If there already is a 133MHz in your computer, I'm guessing that's the highest your mb can do. Putting a faster ram stick in will work, but it will just run at 133MHz.

InCreator · Thu 07/04/2005 15:57:19

This sounds quite logical, since FSB is set (and shown) in BIOS.
I think I'll just test.

voh · Thu 07/04/2005 16:34:01

Quote from: InCreator on Thu 07/04/2005 13:46:13
Well, I planned to give my old tractor a little boost.
Currently, there's shitty 256 MB of RAM sitting inside, 133Mhz.
I plan to buy 400Mhz chip with 512 MB.

Can they be both inside? Will it make it even faster?
Or will be there some conflicts/speeddown?

... Maybe it's worth checking whether your motherboard supports 400Mhz memory at all. If it's using 133 now, it looks as if it's SDRAM. Which is 100/133, not 400... But I might be mistaken. Just giving my 2 cents

AGA · Thu 07/04/2005 18:14:45

Afaik they don't make DDR in 133, so it's almost certainly going to be SDRAM, which has a maximum speed of 133.

Either way, the size of the RAM chips will be different for DDR and SDRAM, try Googling for what DDR chips like, and what SDRAM ones look like, and work out which you have.

Ghormak · Thu 07/04/2005 18:30:42

Stupid me for not remembering there are people who use SDRAM! Ignore my advice.

InCreator · Thu 07/04/2005 19:30:34

OUUUUUUUCH!
It WAS SDRAM. But I bought DDR.
Now, from my motherboard manual, I clearly read that this board *does* support DDRAM up to DDR400.

Problem is, setting it above 133Mhz in BIOS will just keep rebooting and resetting machine to 100Mhz, yet setting it manually to 133 works fine aswell.

Haddas · Thu 07/04/2005 21:26:00

Does it work if you only have the 512mb in it?

InCreator · Thu 07/04/2005 22:31:09

That's what I'm saying.
I took 128 crap out and am trying out the 512 chip only.
Well, 133 MHz and not a hertz more. Athlon XP 2200+ is quite strong motherboard even today and it MUST support the RAM. Manual proves it.

There's a way to switch it to 400mhz in BIOS, but it looks VEEERY scary:

like words CPU Timings, FSB Frequency and settings "aggressive", "turbo", instability and all this crap. I really doubt that I could mess with them without causing and explosion or meltdown... $:-\$

Like setting it all to "expert" (which lets me alter EVERY setting), then set Mhz-s to 200 and something else (forgot the phrase already) to 200% so the MegaHertzes are multiplied... bah.

Do I really have to get PhD in computer science for just to get a chip of RAM working?
Why is everything computer-related nowadays named with three letters and a number after it... only?

Ooh, I'm so out of ideas.

Gilbert · Fri 08/04/2005 02:10:56

* Gilbot V7000a remembers the good old time when he had to install RAM chips directly on the motherboard...

TerranRich · Fri 08/04/2005 05:06:15

They still do that