OK, Ram Upgrade, !!Help!!

[poopboypat]

Will a K7VAT (Thunderbird) Motherboard support a SDRAM upgrade of 512mb? I am running windows 98-second edition and I want to add one 512 MB ram strip to my pc. This giving me a total of 512 Ram (I am taking the 128mb out because I heard that windows 98 has problems dealing with more than 512 ram) Will this work? Here are some links to what I want and the motherboard I have.

Motherboard-
http://www.megastar.se/k7vat.htm

Ram I want- (Go to: Search by Component Type, then 168-pin DIMM (PC 66/ PC100 / PC133)

http://www.4allmemory.com/search/results2.cfm

I want the 512MB, PC133, 168 Pin DIMM, 3.3v, ECC (Under PC133 Modules)

 

[microAmp]

Why are you getting ECC memory? Most likely I would just get the non-ECC memory.

 

[poopboypat]

What does ECC do?? I know almost nothing when it comes to RAM please help. Whould Non-ECC Ram work with me? I am thinkin about getting 2 256mb ram cards. Like some of these are they better than the other RAM?

http://www.crucial.com/store/listModule.asp?module=SDRAM,+PC133&package=168-pin+DIMM&submit=Go

 

[microAmp]

It seems as the KT133 chipset can support up to at least 1.5 GB of RAM, now that is out of the way, what could that board see. IMO I would email that company to find out for sure, but my guess a 512 MB RAM would work.

Maybe someone can answer this question, can the KT133 chipset support ECC RAM?

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: poopboypat
What does ECC do?? I know almost nothing when it comes to RAM please help. Whould Non-ECC Ram work with me? I am thinkin about getting 2 256mb ram cards. Like some of these are they better than the other RAM?

http://www.crucial.com/store/listModule.asp?module=SDRAM%2C+PC133&package=168-pin+DIMM&submit=Go

Crucial is very good.

ECC is

ripped from AnandTech FAQ: and found at this link

ECC SDRAM is a whole different thing. ECC is a type of fault detection/correction circuit that is used to detect and fix memory errors on the fly. Alpha and Beta particle impact ionization in a memory bit can cause a bit flip (0->1 or 1->0) which causes a memory error. With the old parity memory, your system could detect that a bit had bit flipped on memory read, but would then print "Parity Error" and freeze up - which prevents this bad data from being written, but erases all current data. ECC can determine one flipped bit in 64-bits and can detect an error in two bits (which causes a parity error shutdown as before).

EDIT: Forgot, also look for lower CL or CAS like 2.0 rather than 3.0, it's just a tad bit faster.

 

[poopboypat]

So in otherwords ECC RAM is not for me.

Also does Windows 98 have problems going over 512 MB RAM? You have been very helpfull!

 

[microAmp]

Originally posted by: poopboypat
So in otherwords ECC RAM is not for me.

Also does Windows 98 have problems going over 512 MB RAM? You have been very helpfull!

Correct ECC would probably be not good for you.

Win98 can go up to 512 MB RAM before you have to make certain tweaks. I couldn't remember it's max but checked it out and if you want the tweak, voila!.