Will a PC3200 1GB DIMM work on my old Dragon Plus?

Jman13

Senior member
Apr 9, 2001
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I'm riding the last wave of my AXP 1700+, and I've had recent problems. I have noticed that the motherboard will currently only accept one DIMM, or instability occurs. Unfortunately, I had my 512MB of RAM as 2x256, and so I'm running with 256MB, and it's KILLING me.

I also plan to upgrade to an Athlon 64 3200+ sometime in February. I would like to just buy a 1GB stick of 400MHz RAM now, and use it in my AXP system until I can afford to purchase the other components (really just the mobo and processor). Will a 1GB stick work? I have read several reviews of my old board that say 1GB modules will work, and I assume that the faster RAM will work, but will just run at the slower 266MHz speed, but the motherboard manual says that the DIMMs only support 512MB each.

Provided the 1GB modules are OK with my old board, is there a problem with the RAM voltage...ie, are newer 400MHz DIMMS running at lower voltages than PC2100, or are they the same. Thanks!
 

Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
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All DDR1 SDRAM chips are created equal. Max speed selection ("binning") happens after they've been produced. So yes, current PC3200 stuff will be perfectly happy - just a tad bored - on a PC2100 mainboard.

Your chipset should be capable of running 512-megabit chips as needed for 1-gigabyte DIMMs.