buying ram for a tx chipset mobo

Wuming

Golden Member
Dec 14, 2000
1,030
0
0
my friend got a (quite old) mobo with a tx chipset, and 32 mb. its running a pII 233 anyway. we were thinking of getting more ram for his system. how should this be done? can we buy sdram for the tx mobo? can we get a 128 mb ram? is it true that for tx chipsets if there is more than one piece of ram the ram must be in pairs of the same capacity?:confused:
 

OS

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
15,581
1
76
everything depends on what specific motherboard you have. The TX chipset supports both SDRAM and EDO/FP. You can buy 128 megs, but most TX mobos only cache 64. If you buy EDO/FP ram, they must be in pairs, however for SDRAM, that isn't necessary. Also, the TX only supports Pentium/Pentium MMX class cpus, they don't have P2s in them.
 

larrymoencurly

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
598
0
0
I tried 128MB and a 64MB DIMMs together on an EliteGroup P5-TX board, and MEMTEST86 said it was OK. I wouldn't necessarily trust the BIOS memory count because sometimes it gets the total wrong when the DIMMs are different sizes.
 

Wuming

Golden Member
Dec 14, 2000
1,030
0
0
hmm... that brings me to another question. other than DIMMs there are the SIMMs type of memory right? what are they good for?
 

AndyHui

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member<br>AT FAQ M
Oct 9, 1999
13,141
16
81
While the 430TX chipset will support up to 256MB of RAM, it can only cache 64MB of RAM. Under Window's &quot;top-down&quot; memory scheme, having more than 64MB can result in a large loss of performance as it cannot cache areas of memory above 64MB of RAM.

SIMMs must be installed in same sized pairs. FPM or EDO RAM come as SIMMs. SIMMs are 72-pin.....they look smaller than modern DIMMs that most people are familiar with. DIMMs do not need to be installed in pairs, or same sizes. SDRAM and EDO RAM (rare) come as DIMMs.

The 430TX chipset will support a maximum single DIMM size of 64MB (8 chips on the DIMM).