RDRAM upgrade in a PIII system

[Rumpltzer]

I've inherited a 1GHz Dell GX300. It has 256MB of ECC RDRAM in it, and I'd like to double that. I opened it up last night and found a single Samsung RIMM in the first slot, and a Dell PCB (a dummy board with pins) in the second slot.

I was under the impression that RDRAM had to come in pairs. The Dell upgrade site makes a note of this, and lot of the resellers Web pages (Newegg, Mwave, etc.) where they say something like "P4 systems require matching pairs of RIMM".

I don't have a P4... it's a PIII. Does that matter? I wouldn't think so. The machine does appears to be running fine with just one Samsung RIMM (and a dummy PCB), though.

My question is: Can't I just buy another RIMM with specs that match (or are better than) the one I already have?

That is, I have an ECC 256MB 800-45 module in there. I can find plenty of ECC 256MB 800-40 and ECC 256MB 1600-40s. These are faster modules than what I have. If I put the new RIMM in slot 2, I expect it will work... no?

BTW - I asked the Dell help forums these same questions, and was told: "You must use Matched pairs. You cannot buy just 1 piece of ram. You can use 2 or 4 pieces not 3 or 1."

Yeah.

 

[pyrojunkie]

If you got another matching pair it would work. I don't know enough about RDRAM to know if those other modules you listed will work. Get a match as close as possible, or just get 2 other paired sticks.

For the record, RAMBUS Rimms need to be run in pairs, but dummy PCB boards have been made to counter the problem. If you took the PCB board out, it wouldn't boot