Buying more memory, need some help

[PeteyCPU]

I have a dell inspiron 3800 that uses pc100 sodimms. I was going to buy this module from circuit city

Link

It is pc133. It says that it is not backword compatible with pc100. I always thought that all memory was backword compatible. Should I buy it and see if it works?

Thanks!

 

[PeteyCPU]

Could I get this even though I have a dell

Link

 

[ET2nuke]

 

[ET2nuke]

Oops, sorry about that. Hit enter too soon.

I recently had to research similar RAM for my (90 y.o.!!!) G'pa to upgrade his pc, and he had an even more desperate situation- the company told me it was PC33 RAM. The company technician told me that it would be compatible with PC66 memory, and further investigation brought out the fact that it would also work fine with PC100/133 ram. Turns out there seems to be no difference between 100 and 133- you should be good to go, based on my experience with that. (After we installed it, the computer [win98] picked it up instantly and seems to be very happy with it.) On a side, after being introduced to the guts of his pc and seeing the ram go in, he installed a network card himself with minor instructions only!

Hope that helps!

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Yeah, PC133 will run fine at 100 or 66mhz. Unless that's a special, magical stick of RAM that can't be underclocked, it'll run

 

[Pennstate]

If the motherboad is BX chipset, then you can't use ram that uses 128 Mbit high density dimm modules. Many PC133 ram uses the 128Mbit modules now. PC66/PC100 uses 64Mbit modules. The ram you linked is NOT backwards compatible for this reason.

 

[JackHawksmoor]

Ohh, good one. I forgot that that can be a problem with some chipsets. I've yet to have trouble with that.

 

[PeteyCPU]

Thanks guys, saved me a trip to CC!

 

[PeteyCPU]

Hey guys, one more question, what about the dell link in my second post, this seems to be the cheapest 64bit 256mb pc100 sodimms I can find.

 

[Pennstate]

Go to ebay. You can find one for ~ $20

 

[Pennstate]

Go to ebay. You can find one for ~ $20