BIOS Settings For New RAM?

[Salvador]

Hi,

I just replaced a stick of 128 mb PC133 Cas3 RAM with a stick of Crucial 256 mb Cas 2.

I went into the BIOS and changed the Cas Latency from 3 to 2, but is there anything else in there that I have to change to take full advantage of the Cas2 RAM?

Also.. I was expecting things to be a little zippier surfing on cable internet. I used to notice that the computer would go to the hard drive when I clicked on a page before. It still does go to the hard drive, but less so than it did. Would even more RAM (more than 256) keep my system from going to the hdd at all while surfing?

BTW.. I have Win98SE installed.

TIA,

Sal

 

[DARRIN]

Probably not. I think it is doing the cookies and temporary internet files crap.

 

[ledzepp98]

even in win9x, 256megs should keep windows out of the swap file during normal use. if you haven't done so, you should add the following line to the system.ini file:

conservativeswapfileusage=1

to do this, click start-->run and type system.ini and a notepad file will open up. scroll down to the [386enh] section and at the bottom of that section add the previously mentioned line. click file-->save and close that window and reboot. what this will do is tell windows to use the available ram before going to the swap file. i have done this on many win9x machines and have seen this tip on numerous tweak guides. it should help a lot...

 

[Salvador]

I tried adding the line in system.ini and it didn't seem to help. Any other tweaks?

What I was actually after is what settings to I need to change in my BIOS to take advantage of the Cas2 memory? I changed the CAS setting to 2 (from 3), but I see other settings in there that I don't want to mess with if I don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks again,

Sal

 

[ledzepp98]

since there are different settings available from one bios to another, it would help if you said what motherboard you are using, what bios version, and it couldn't hurt to give more overall details about your system (go ahead and brag, everyone else here does)

edit: with the bios version, some go by numbers/letters, some just go by the date. be as specific as possible to get the best answers

 

[Schlocemus]

Yes, what BIOS and version, etc...

 

[Salvador]

I just checked the BIOS and it's a American Megatrends (C) 1999. Version 1.23.

The system is nothing to brag about. It was built by a custom builder for me for work. This is what the builder put together for me this past January:

AMD Duron 750
Gigabyte 71XE4 mobo with AMD 750 chipset
Was 128 mb's of Generic PC133 RAM, now 256 mb's of PC133 Crucial Cas 2 RAM. I bought the Crucial as an upgrade and put the other RAM in another "cheapie" Celeron system.
Jaton 8 mb (POS) video card
SB 16 PCI OEM sound card
52x Liteon cdrom
Quantum Fireball 30 GB HDD
Seagate tape backup
8x4x32 HP9150 CDRW (I added)
Liteon 17" Monitor

This is basically my work system even though I added a burner. I thought that I'd put the burner in this thing considering that it's my fastest system right now. I plan on building a AMD system pretty soon from scratch. I probably wouldn't have even looked at AMD if it weren't for this system. I've always had Intel systems and never looked elsewhere. I thought that trying to tweak with this system and another cheapie system that I just bought would give me the confidence to build my own system from scratch.

Anyway.. If you could give me some tips on what to change in my BIOS, that would be great.

I just posted some of my chipset settings on another thread. I will link them if necessary. The link is here for some of my BIOS settings. I didn't want to repost it, so here's the link. It's toward the bottom of the thread.

Thanks again,

Sal

 

[erikiksaz]

hah, you expect the internet browser to NOT access your hard drive? you have mounds upon mounds of cache and cookies that need to be dug up everytime you access pages.

 

[LXi]

Its probably a good idea to leave the CAS latency to SPD, because it should be programmed to 2-2-2.

 

[Salvador]

What is SPD and how do I program it to 2-2-2?

Sal

 

[bacillus]

have a browse here for some info & tips!

 

[shathal]

SPD == Serial Presence Detect

Basically, a little chip on the DIMM "tells" the BIOS "look here - I am of this size and have this maximum speed setting". Takes configuration out of your hands .

Hope this is clear enough .

 

[larrymoencurly]

For some reason, my Infineon PC133 RAM won't run at its rated CAS3 in my VIA-based mobo, but if I set it to CAS2 everything is fine. The other BIOS settings don't seem to matter.