Will PC133 work in an LX(66) board?

[bluemax]

I'm pretty sure it will, but I just want to be 100% sure before ordering over the net.
This is for a client (my first client! woohoo!) who's upgrading PII-233's in i440LX boards.
No he's not upgrading his CPUs or mobos.

So it's a PII-233 (66MHz FSB) with an LX board (66MHz FSB) - will it take PC133 RAM?

Danka!

 

[Viper GTS]

As long as the only difference is PC133 vs PC66, yes it will work.

Viper GTS

 

[MSantiago]

Clocking down RAM is never a problem. You'll be fine. Just make sure it's not ECC or registered RAM since you might run into problems with that on an LX board.

 

[John]

Some boards are picky and it might not work.

 

[Tanked]

I would say yes, from personal experience. I upgraded my dad's computer which is a 440LX-based system and right now it has 192 MB of PC66 and PC100 mixed. You should be fine.

 

[smp]

And make sure you don't put more ram in the slots than it can take .. I'm not sure what an LX chipsets maximum is, or if it can do double sided/single sided whatever.. but yeah, read up on the boards first, if the only difference is speed than it's okay.

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: John
Some boards are picky and it might not work.

What kinds of RAM are *unlikely* to work?
I'm looking at only 64MB or even 128MB at the most.
These boards have 4 RAM slots so getting cheap 64 meggers isn't a big deal for future upgrading.

 

[Gibson486]

Most LX boards have a maximum of 384MB, I think. I know mine can take 256MB.

 

[bluemax]

I think I'll just play it safe and get 64MB SIMMs. Unless someone says 128Meggers should be safe....

 

[AndyHui]

There are very few 440LX chipset based motherboards with SIMMs. I only know of one. They are almost always DIMM.

As for sizes, the largest is a double sided 128MB DIMM, and it cannot be high density. For what high density means, please check one of the FAQs I wrote regarding High Density SDRAM and the BX chipset.

 

[bluemax]

SIMM, DIMM... picky, picky!

 

[billyjak]

I wouldn't try it, I did it in a older gateway and it was a no go.
Seems the thing only accepted pc 66mz
I would almost be it will not work on that board.
Ram is suppose to be backword compatible, but alot of motherboard manufacturers don't follow specs.
Get pc 66 or you'll be sorry.

 

[bluemax]

WHOA! Warning appreciated.... anyone agree? Disagree?

 

[John]

Originally posted by: bluemax
WHOA! Warning appreciated.... anyone agree? Disagree?

Since I build and service PC's for a living, I stand behind my initial reply, although I did not elaborate as to which motherboards are picky. IBM, GW2K, or other OEM's seem to be finicky with memory on occasion. Also, as Andy stated beware of high density modules on intel motherboards, namely BX based.

 

[RanDum72]

The speed shouldn't be a problem at all (unless you use PC66 memory on a PC133 mobo), the problem would be in memory densities and how much memory can the old mobo take.

 

[AndyHui]

billyjak has a point. I even wrote about it in my FAQ, although it's not immediately obvious.

 

[bluemax]

Good points all around. I think I'll have to do two things:
1) post an want ad for PC66 RAM and see what I can get.... (Done on RedFlagDeals, not here yet...)
2) pay another visit to the site and see of my own PC133 128MB stick works in thier machines. If it works, odds are very good that a 64MB stick would work too....

I'm thinking that grabbing old PC66 RAM off our own Forsale forums is the best bet.
Darn... this was supposed to be easy.