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Easy RAM Question

W

Wangel

Banned
I have a SOYO 5BT5 motherboard running with an Intel 233 MHz. It has 4 EDO 16 meg chips making a total of 64 megs or RAM. It also has two Unbuffered DIMM banks. I would like to increase my ram to either 128 or 256 now that RAM has come down in price. What type of RAM do I need? Is this the PC100?

In the manual it state: DRAM Controller: Supports Fast Page Mode, EDO, and SDRAM, (Both symetrical and asymetrical addressing). Supports 2 strips of 8MB/16MB/32MB of unbuffered DIMMS. On board memory configuratons fro 4 to 256 MB. Supports Table Free DRAM configuration in any SIMM bank.

What the heck does that mean? Can someone just tell me what RAM to get so that I can have either 128 or 256?
 
According to page 17 in the pdf manual found here, you will not be able to use any DIMM's when all four SIMM slots are used. The best performing and easiest solution is to buy 2 64 meg or 1 128 meg DIMM. PC100 will work fine, but it will be underclocked to 66MHz on this board. Check around and maybe you can find some cheap PC66 memory for it.
 
SO if I wanted to get to 256, I could purchase 2x 128MB DIMM PC100? What voltage, or does it matter. And as you stated, it would be necessary to pull out all the EDO memory, correct? Is PC100 cheaper than PC66? I normally see PC100 on sale in many places. I haven't seen any PC66 on sale.
 
You will need 3.3V DIMM's. For 256MB, lose the SIMM's and get 2x128MB DIMM's You probobly won't find PC66 anywhere excpt maybe a local shop. Personally, I would get PC133 so you can use the same memory if you upgrade your CPU and mobo. You might want to send a quick e-mail to one of the memory manufacturers like Crucial or Mushkin to ask them their opinion of running PC100 or 133 memory on a 66MHz bus. I would think there would be no problem underclocking the memory, but better safe than sorry.
 
PC100 memory will work fine at PC66. I have a 233MMX that I use PC100 memory in and everything works fine. Back when everything was PC66, the name brand memory was made to run at up to 100mhz. The only issue with 256mb is that you have a i430TX chipset and this particular chipset can only cache the first 64mb the remaining 192mb remains uncached by the L2 memory. So, you will not see as great a performance increase as a system with the entire 256mb cached. Still though, the memory will be faster than having to go to the swap file.
 
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