Question about combining old comps

[SVT Cobra]

My main comp is an old gateway pentium 3 733mgz 128MB of ram desktop. I run windows XP.


Well as you can see I am in need of some more RAM, and while I have tolerated it to this point I want to try adding more RAM. I have an old compaq that came out right before the gateway that someone gave to me. I was wondering if I could use the RAM from that and add it. Was there different types of RAM then? Could I kill my comp? If I fry my mobo I have no computer.

I would try and research if they are the same type of RAM but there is no info since both are so old.

 

[montag451]

More than likely, they both use DIMM slots, 168 pin 100 or 133mhz.
I wouldn't worry too much if you mix 100/133 together, more RAM is definitely better than the small difference (in real life - not benchmark life) you would notice if all sticks are 133mhz.

 

[SVT Cobra]

thanks turning off the computer now.

Hope Ill see you in a bit.

 

[montag451]

look forward to it - will stay logged on for a few more minutes

 

[JackMDS]

LOL you must be the Saint of patience running WinXP with 128MB

You need PC100 or PC133 SDRAM (It is Not DDR or DDR2).

If you buy new it might be expensive, so it is better to look in the FS forum, I saw there the other day 256MB SDARM, get two of them and the computer would purrr...

 

[SVT Cobra]

W00t posted with 256mb of RAM

I have a few 64 sticks from the old comp also I will try adding them

Funny thing is I almost powered it on with the RAM in backwards...then I realized it was not clipping for a reason. :Q

 

[SVT Cobra]

Maybe now I can get rid of my huuuuge page file that allowed me to play games. And, now I have as much sys memory as my 256mb 5200 video card I won.

*goes off to open multiple high resolution pics in FF tabs*

 

[SVT Cobra]

holy crap it runs sooo fast now. (compared to before) LOL

320MB us the most I could get in it. Can't believe I waited this long. Web pages actually show up now when I click on them with my fast connection instead of hearing the hard drive and page file go to work.

Running at PC100 now instead of 133 but no big deal.

Going to try and add another hard drive now. Luckily I have one more ATA plug after I adde my last burner.

 

[montag451]

Nice one fella.

Amazing what a little RAM can do.
Never will you travel without less than 256MB of RAM sticking out of your trouser pocket.

 

[JackMDS]

Win XP sweet point is actually 384MB and above.

 

[montag451]

Dont make him feel bad.

The envy of 64MB will eat at his soul till he does something silly.

 

[lxskllr]

It's cool seeing someone get excited over an old machine like that :thumbsup: You don't need the latest and greatest if something like that suits your needs. Keep your eyes open at flea markets and thrift shops and stuff. You may be able to score some big ram sticks out of an old computer. XP runs nicely on 256mb. If you could get that up to 512mb, you'd have a brand new machine.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
It's cool seeing someone get excited over an old machine like that :thumbsup: You don't need the latest and greatest if something like that suits your needs. Keep your eyes open at flea markets and thrift shops and stuff. You may be able to score some big ram sticks out of an old computer. XP runs nicely on 256mb. If you could get that up to 512mb, you'd have a brand new machine.

Thanks. Yeah I once I had a guy at work tell me they recently threw out a whole bunch of computers because they were so old. I asked him what they were...he said 1.2ghz CPU's . And, the dumpster had already been cleared.


But, yeah I will keep using this machine till it dies (and sometimes the HD sounds like it will, have a total of 42 GB now with the second HD I just added from the old machine).

I have the whole case with the sides stripped, a window fan running into it for cooling, my graphics card OC'ed as far as it will go and everything sleeved and moved out of the way with electrical tape. I topped it all off with a blue LED light I found in a pile of junk. I tried a can and dry ice once on my GPU and it worked a a few seconds until condensation ruined the party. Luckily I turned everything off and let it dry in time.

I tried OCing the CPU once but couldn't find any info and against my efforts every single jumper combo I tried failed to unlock the BIOS.

BTW my comp runs faster than some others, as I have the bare minmum running always on startup. I turned off a lot of services etc. Task manager shows ~15 processes right now.

 

[lxskllr]

It's amazing what people will throw out. I found a P4 1.6ghz comp in a shuttle case, with a 17" Dell crt in the dumpster a few weeks ago. It worked perfectly right off. I overclocked it to 1.99ghz(don't want to go higher because you can't lock the pci bus), and now I have a nice bedroom computer to replace my deceased craptop. I want to replace the fans with something a little quieter, but otherwise it's a great machine. Unfortunately the case got a little dented from when it was thrown away. If it weren't for that I could have given it away as a present and the person would have thought they were getting a brand new computer.

 

[montag451]

I sometimes help out at a place that refurbs OLD computers. Mostly, they get shipped to Africa where they are used in schools etc.
Minimum they will reuse is P3 500Mhz.
Load win2k up with 256MB RAM, and off you go.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
holy crap it runs sooo fast now. (compared to before) LOL

320MB us the most I could get in it. Can't believe I waited this long. Web pages actually show up now when I click on them with my fast connection instead of hearing the hard drive and page file go to work.

Running at PC100 now instead of 133 but no big deal.

Going to try and add another hard drive now. Luckily I have one more ATA plug after I adde my last burner.

lol, bring it up to 512...why don't you just upgrade man? 1GB is XP's sweet spot anyways..

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: ch33zw1z

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
holy crap it runs sooo fast now. (compared to before) LOL

320MB us the most I could get in it. Can't believe I waited this long. Web pages actually show up now when I click on them with my fast connection instead of hearing the hard drive and page file go to work.

Running at PC100 now instead of 133 but no big deal.

Going to try and add another hard drive now. Luckily I have one more ATA plug after I adde my last burner.

lol, bring it up to 512...why don't you just upgrade man? 1GB is XP's sweet spot anyways..

......

I don't want to spend my money on computer parts?

 

[bluestrobe]

Ahh the memories. I collect any old computer equipment others are dumping and either use it or resell it for something better. I've found nice server and RAID arrays in dumpsters before. My web server is a Dell GX150 that retired an old IBM workstation with dual P3 500mhz cpu's.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra

Originally posted by: ch33zw1z

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
holy crap it runs sooo fast now. (compared to before) LOL

320MB us the most I could get in it. Can't believe I waited this long. Web pages actually show up now when I click on them with my fast connection instead of hearing the hard drive and page file go to work.

Running at PC100 now instead of 133 but no big deal.

Going to try and add another hard drive now. Luckily I have one more ATA plug after I adde my last burner.

lol, bring it up to 512...why don't you just upgrade man? 1GB is XP's sweet spot anyways..

......

I don't want to spend my money on computer parts?

fair enough, but how much do you think it will cost?

 

[bluestrobe]

Originally posted by: ch33zw1z

Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
holy crap it runs sooo fast now. (compared to before) LOL

320MB us the most I could get in it. Can't believe I waited this long. Web pages actually show up now when I click on them with my fast connection instead of hearing the hard drive and page file go to work.

Running at PC100 now instead of 133 but no big deal.

Going to try and add another hard drive now. Luckily I have one more ATA plug after I adde my last burner.

lol, bring it up to 512...why don't you just upgrade man? 1GB is XP's sweet spot anyways..

A 256mb generic or used stick can be $15-20ish.