Will Dell E521 run DDR2-800 RAM at its rated speed?

[magreen]

Hi

I have a Dell Dimension E521 X2 3600+ that came with 1GB (2x512) DDR2-667. I want to upgrade the memory to 2GB (2x1GB). Does anyone know if this machine will utilize DDR2-800 if I put it in there? It has no relevant bios options. Will this lovely Dell OEM bios recognize the DDR2-800 ram automatically and run it at the higher speed? I know memory bandwidth makes a large impact on X2 performance (~10% for DDR2-667 -> 800).

Right now, CPU-z says my memory is running at 317 MHz, i.e. DDR2-634 speed (I understand that it doesn't run exactly at DDR2-667 speed due to the strange 9.5 multiplier of this Brisbane CPU, right?)

Thanks.

 

[magreen]

Bump

 

[jjmIII]

I have a Compaq laptop that had 2x512 DDR333. I upgraded to 2x1gb DDR400. The AMD Turion runs on a 200 bus, but the new ram still runs at 333. Sucks.

Hope you have better luck .

 

[JustaGeek]

I have just answered a similar question in a similar thread:

"Check your current timings and use the memory matching the chipset timings.

You won't be able to adjust the timings, frequency or voltage, so it would be recommended to use RAM with the same parameters as the one currently installed.

Good luck!"

 

[PremiumG]

according to this:
http://support.dell.com/suppor...EN/specs.htm#wp1052310

it will run DDR2-800 RAM

 

[magreen]

Thanks. I'm going to see what more I can uncover in those mysterious Dell user manuals.

 

[Bateluer]

I'm going to pick up a could E521's myself soon, possibly Inspiron 530(1)s. I'd be curious to know how your RAM experiment turns out.

 

[brawleyman]

I also have a Dell E521 that I bought almost a year ago right before Windows Vista came out (Whew! It was close, even though now you have the choice of Windows XP again). I use my computer for some light gaming such as Star Wars BattleFronts and Need For Speed Underground 1. I also use AutoCad 2004 LT (not 3-D) and Sketchup (3-D) for house designs that I create. I have been considering upgrading my ram soon as well as add a graphics card. Are there any suggestions for what I can do to speed up my computer? Here are the specs for my computer:

AMD Athlon X2 4600+ (2.4 Ghz with 2x512mb L2 Cache)
1 Gig Ram (2X512mb) PC2 4300 (533Mhz)
320 Gig Sata HDD
Onboard Nvidia 6150 LE with max memory set aside for graphics (I think it is 128mb)
Ultrasharp 20" LCD 2007WFP

Believe it or not, I am able to do some 3-D stuff with Sketchup and play the above mentioned games pretty well, except when it comes to shadows...it really slows down. I do not plan on ugrading to Vista for several years since I don't have an interest in playing the new games using DX10. I have been considering buying a Geforce 7300GT or 7600GS because they are available with the passive heatsink. However the 7600GT with rebate can actually be cheaper, but has a fan and I want to keep my case as quiet as possible...and Dell computers (at least mine) are really quiet. I would like to upgrade my ram from the 533 to maybe 667 or 800...would it be to my benefit to upgrade the type of memory or amount of ram?

Any suggestions for what I should do?

 

[magreen]

Well if it's true that the E521 will automatically detect ddr2-800 ram and run it at its rated speed, then you'll see a 20% increase in general performance by throwing out your 533 ram and putting in 800 instead. Just make sure the ram's rated at 1.8V since you can't up the ram voltage in the bios. You could make it 2x1gb while you're at it and do less disk swapping.

 

[brawleyman]

20% increase, eh? Man, that would be awsome! So, the Dell E521 uses 1.8V ram? I will find some and get that because 20% increase is pretty good, especially since you can get 2Gb of ram for like $50 now. That would be awsome since I use AutoCad and Sketchup a lot for design.

Thanks magreen!

 

[boomhower]

I may to do the same to same on my fiances 521. I had been planning on adding another gig as she is running vista on only one. With RAM as cheap as it is it would be worth while to upgrade the speed at the same time.

 

[magreen]

Great, glad this could be of service to people. Please do report back with your experiences.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: brawleyman
20% increase, eh? Man, that would be awsome! So, the Dell E521 uses 1.8V ram? I will find some and get that because 20% increase is pretty good, especially since you can get 2Gb of ram for like $50 now. That would be awsome since I use AutoCad and Sketchup a lot for design.

Thanks magreen!

Be cautious - even if the DDR2 800 RAM does run at this speed in your Dell, you will not see the 20% speed gain.

Maybe 2 - 3% overall, but definitely not more. The memory bandwidth will increase, but not the overall speed of the system.

Good luck!

 

[magreen]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek

Originally posted by: brawleyman
20% increase, eh? Man, that would be awsome! So, the Dell E521 uses 1.8V ram? I will find some and get that because 20% increase is pretty good, especially since you can get 2Gb of ram for like $50 now. That would be awsome since I use AutoCad and Sketchup a lot for design.

Thanks magreen!

Be cautious - even if the DDR2 800 RAM does run at this speed in your Dell, you will not see the 20% speed gain.

Maybe 2 - 3% overall, but definitely not more. The memory bandwidth will increase, but not the overall speed of the system.

Good luck!

Wrong. AMD X2 systems are highly sensitive to the speed of the RAM due to the integrated memory controller, and the 20% overall system speedup is real. Link: Benefits of memory bandwidth in X2 and Core2

Your advice would be correct for Core2 systems, but we're talking X2. Maybe next time you should learn more before you give wrong advice.

 

[JustaGeek]

Maybe next time you should learn to compare apples to apples.

X2 4600+ can hardly be compared to FX-62, and even there I do not see the 20% overall speed increase that you have erroneously mentioned.

Let's see if his Dell even picks up the 800MHz RAM speed, and then we can ask him what the percentage is...

But I understand why you are upset...

Everyone is upset about AMD these days...

 

[magreen]

Please enlighten us as to any difference between the FX-62 and these X2s which would make a difference in the discussion at hand.

The rest of your comments are either irrelevant or off topic.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: magreen
Well if it's true that the E521 will automatically detect ddr2-800 ram and run it at its rated speed, then you'll see a 20% increase in general performance by throwing out your 533 ram and putting in 800 instead. Just make sure the ram's rated at 1.8V since you can't up the ram voltage in the bios. You could make it 2x1gb while you're at it and do less disk swapping.

That depends on the FSB. You won't get any performance increase if your FSB is 1066 and you put in 800mhz RAM.

Edit: I looked at the benchmark results. It looks like the FSB gets adjusted, or is somehow independent?

 

[magreen]

@JustaGeek: I will interpret your silence that you concede the point. Fine then. Enjoy those apples.

@Throckmorton: You don't have to raise the FSB to raise the memory speed. It's called a memory multiplier, and it allows you to run your memory faster than the FSB speed. For example, a multiplier of 3:2 let's you run your memory at ddr2-800 (i.e. 400MHz) with a 1066 FSB (i.e. 266MHz) Intel chip at stock FSB. Btw, the AMD platforms don't have an FSB, but it's roughly analogous there... with a 200 HTT you run a multiplier of 2:1 to run ddr2-800.

 

[PremiumG]

did you end up getting the DDR2-800 upgrade?

 

[magreen]

Oh, I think I will, but I'm slow. I'm watching for a great deal. Newegg has a-data ddr2-800 2x1gb 1.8V for $43 with free shipping that's mighty tempting right now. But I think I'm waiting for one of those special newsletter deals. Thanks!

 

[brawleyman]

I finally got a graphics card for my computer...XFX 7600GS with 400mhz core and 700mhz ram overclocked to 500mhz core and 900mhz ram! Now, the only thing I need to do is upgrade my memory and I will be done with my computer.

I currently have the stock Samsung PC2 533 (266), however, in CPU-Z where you can see the ram speed of the individual sticks under the SPD tab, it has 4 columns, the first saying 200mhz frequency, and the 2nd and 3rd columns say 266mhz and the 4th is empty...What is the difference between the columns? Does it mean that although the ram is rated at 266mhz, it will only run at 200mhz to match the HT speed?

I want to upgrade my ram, but I don't know if getting faster ram (PC2 800 is the max AM2 or the Dell motherboard will accept) would make any difference. Or, should I get higher quality ram that runs at the 200mhz mark with very low latencys instead of faster ram with higher latencys? I know AM2 is very dependent on ram speed, but I don't know what would be the best for my Dell.

 

[brawleyman]

Okay, so after doing some research, it seems that those 4 columns show the speeds that the installed ram stick is capable of running. So, with that in mind, my columns showed 200 (which would be the slowest) and 266 (which is the fastest that ram can run) in which technically my ram should be running at 266mhz. So, If I were to install PC2 800, then it will show up to 400mhz in the last column which is its maximum.

Even though the FSB is showing that the processor runs @ 200mhz, will the new ram run at 400mhz with a ratio of 2:1? Is that how it works? I am fairly new to trying to figure out the ram speeds and everything. I just want to make sure that upgrading my ram will have good results. Would I be better off getting 1gb or 2gb (sticks to equal the amount)? Would I see any real difference between 1gb of 533 or 1gb of 800?

 

[magreen]

I answered some of your questions in your other thread.

 

[magreen]

Ok, so I bought that a-data 2x1gb ddr2-800 1.8V kit from Newegg for $43 with free shipping and it works great in my E521! I replaced the 2x512mb ddr2-667 sticks (sold them off to a friend) that were in there. The machine recognized the new sticks immediately and reported in the bios setup screen that it was 800 speed ram.

cpu-z reported it as running at 380 MHz, 5-5-5-18. The only funny thing is it said it was running 2T command rate, whereas the old 2x512mb sticks were running 1T (at 317 MHz 5-5-5-15). I thought if you only have 2 sticks in there it should run them at 1T? (The old sticks were single-sided, the new ones are double-sided, could that make a difference?)

Anyway, I did a couple benchmarks before and after (remember it's a Brisbane X2 3600+ 1.9GHz) and saw a large improvement:

First, I compressed a folder of 39 MB of mp3 music using winrar. I ran it three times to make sure times were consistent (they were). 22 seconds before memory upgrade, 18 seconds after. That's a 22% speedup... that's huge! (That's a bit suspicious -- could that speedup be due to having more memory, not just the faster memory speed?)

Then I ran SuperPi 1M, which I expected to show a 5% increase acc. to AT's data. Again, I ran it 3 times for consistency (same result each time). It took 50 seconds before the upgrade, and 47 seconds after. That's a 6% increase, just as expected. Perfect.

So I'm very pleased with my upgrade! Thanks for the advice, PremiumG. And as for the main reason I upgraded - to have 2gb of memory for superfetch and no more swapping to disk... my machine is fast and smooth as silk now.

 

[brawleyman]

I am getting ready to buy that ram too (they have the 2gb without heat spreader now for $36 shipped plus $10 mail-in rebate...so 2gb for $26!!!!). I wonder why your ram is running at that speed and 2t? What is your multiplier for your ram? I found this link yesterday. Maybe it would explain your memory?

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/328

I have the 4600+ and according to that article, my ram would/should run flawlessly at full speed. Let me know what you have.

By the way, how much ram does your system use while on idle when you had 1gb and now 2gb? I know upgrading from pc2 533 to pc2 800 will be good, but will 1gb vs 2gb make any difference? My computer uses 300mb on idle and the most I have ever used is 750mb with 1.5gb paging file.