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Ram for older computer

Started by Ryan Lintker, 2002-09-18T10:56:15-05:00 (Wednesday)

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Ryan Lintker

When I go home, I have to use my parent's computer, a pII 233 with a whopping 32 mb of RAM running win98 SE.  It is extremely frustrating just to surf the web due to the constant grinding of the hard disk accessing virtual memory.

Is there a good place to find ram for an older computer such as this?  The motherboard manual gives it a clock speed of 66 mhz and says it will take EDO or SDRAM.

I wouldn't want to spend alot of money on this clunker, but I think that some extra memory will make using it more tolerable.
"You can't always get what you want,
 but if you try sometime, you just might find,
you get what you need" - The Rolling Stones

Stiffler

Crucial.com is the place I get all me memory from. Just enter the manufacture and model number...

Jon
Retired webmaster of CAOS.

Michael Kennedy

I can just give you some EDO RAM if you want to meet me somewhere.  I have a load of stuff at my house and I'm willing to give it away to some who will actually use it.  :)

PM me with the amount you need and make sure it does take 72 pin EDO (or whatever- the white slots  :-D) and I'll get you some.

I have some SDRAM laying around, (100mhz, but that'll work just fine on a 66mhz bus), but that I'll charge a few bucks for since I regularly sell PCs with it still.

Also, Crutial is great RAM, but since that's not a great computer I'd get the cheapest stuff I could find.  Check out www.tcwo.com or www.newegg.com.  TCWO is great cause they have 2 day air for only 4 bucks right now.  So, shipping is cheap and pretty fast.

Later.
"If it ain't busted, don't fix it" is a very sound principal and remains so despite the fact that I have slavishly ignored it all my life. --Douglas Adams, "Salmon of Doubt"

Peter Motyka

SDRAM is 168pins :) The older stuff is 72pin...

I could use another 128mb of pc100 168pin SDRAM, how much would you ask for a stick like that?

Peter
SIUE CS Alumni 2002
Grad Student, Regis University
Senior Engineer, Ping Identity
http://motyka.org

Ryan Lintker

Maybe we need a yard sale thread.  Post what you have to sell or what you want to buy.

A 128 mb stick of 168 pin 66 mhz would be what the doctor ordered.  I tried a 128mb stick of pc100, but it wouldn't work.  Maybe that stick won't slow down to the lower speed.
"You can't always get what you want,
 but if you try sometime, you just might find,
you get what you need" - The Rolling Stones

Stiffler

There is a module that does that. I forget what's called, though. You add your name, contact info, product name, product description, and the asking price.

Jon
Retired webmaster of CAOS.

Geoff Schreiber

I've got loads of hardware left over that I'd be willing to just give away, I'll sort through it and post it here, if anyone's interested, I'm just a short 5 min from campus to pick it up...


Geoff
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Geoff Schreiber
Project Engineer
FASTechnology Group

Michael Kennedy

I said, 72, what are you talking about?  :)

Yeah, for the life of me I couldn't think of the pin count.  I kept getting 168 (SD) and 184 (DDR) stuck in my head, but couldn't get EDO.  I should have remembered that SIMMs came in 36pin configs, which would have caused me to remember.

I like the idea of a yardsale type of thing, too.  Trading is what I'm usually up for since I feel silly charging a few bucks here and there for stuff I don't use.  Investigate that module and I'll put up lists and lists of items.  Maybe we can help some of those who aren't blessed with stockpiles of stuff to put together a few decent PCs.

As for the 128- I'll let you know.  I'm not 100% sure I even have a 128mb stick.  I know I have tons of 32mb sticks laying around.  If nothing else, those can go in my Linux server and I can see what's in there.

At one time you also mentioned wanting a KVM switch- I have 3 or 4 here with varying levels of quality- let me know how much you're willing to spend or what you'd trade and I'll let you know what I got.
"If it ain't busted, don't fix it" is a very sound principal and remains so despite the fact that I have slavishly ignored it all my life. --Douglas Adams, "Salmon of Doubt"

Michael Kennedy

QuoteA 128 mb stick of 168 pin 66 mhz would be what the doctor ordered. I tried a 128mb stick of pc100, but it wouldn't work. Maybe that stick won't slow down to the lower speed.

Hmm.  I've never run into that being a problem.  Maybe I've had success because I've had chips that ran on a 66mhz bus, but the board supported 100mhz bus chips/cpus.  For example, I had a Celeron that ran on a 66mhz bus with the Intel BX chipset and I used PC100 SDRAM with it and was fine.  BX supports 100bus chips, so that might have been why it worked.

Does your chipset support a 100mhz bus at all?  I find it surprising that the pc100 didnt work then.  I have seen RAM rated to work in either AMD or Intel systems, though- maybe that was the real problem.  To my knowledge this is never done now, but was started (and ended) with the origional Athlon.
"If it ain't busted, don't fix it" is a very sound principal and remains so despite the fact that I have slavishly ignored it all my life. --Douglas Adams, "Salmon of Doubt"

Ryan Lintker

The stick I tried did come factory installed in an original athlon system.

The motherboard is an ATX LX6 with an Intel 82440LX PCI chipset.  I can't find anywhere in the manual that says it supports a 100 mhz bus.
"You can't always get what you want,
 but if you try sometime, you just might find,
you get what you need" - The Rolling Stones

Michael Kennedy

Sounds like that could be it then.  Do you know if the board or BIOS has jumpers or the option for a 100 bus?  66mhz RAM is actually more expensive now that it's becoming more rare, so if we can determin that it does take 100mhz RAM you'd probably be saving yourself a few bucks.  Depends on the dealer, but I have seen it priced higher at times.
"If it ain't busted, don't fix it" is a very sound principal and remains so despite the fact that I have slavishly ignored it all my life. --Douglas Adams, "Salmon of Doubt"

Jim Sodam

Try ebay, pretty good prices.

I saw 256 meg of PC66 going for about $55.

Ryan Lintker

Well, the board is about 50 miles from here, but I do have the manual.  It says it supports 66.6 MHz clocks, and shows jumper settings for 66, 68, and 75 MHz cpu clock settings.  Nowhere does it say anything about 100 MHz bus speeds.

I looked at some documentation online that shows that a slightly later version of the motherboard does support 100 bus speeds, but didn't see anything on the exact motherboard in my limited searching.
"You can't always get what you want,
 but if you try sometime, you just might find,
you get what you need" - The Rolling Stones

Guest

Alright, sorted through all my parts, I have an old AT Pentium motherboard with unknown CPU (the fan/heatsink is practically GLUED to the CPU at this point, it's so old), another Pentium CPU, assorted 72 and 168 pin RAM, an old ISA modem, ISA network cards, ISA (maybe PCI as well) video cards (probably 1-2 MB)...  If you want it, just email me or post here I guess, I'll meet you somewhere in the EB whenever I can...  I'm here Tues/Thurs full days practically, and Mon/Wed from 6-7:15...

Ryan Lintker

Do you have a 30 day return policy for your ram?  I think that is one reason I shy away from online purchasing.  Sending stuff back that doesn't work, is defective, or is the wrong part is a hassle.  I think crucial has what I need, but they won't guarantee that it will work unless I go through the special part locator.  That would be fine if I had a commercially built computer.
"You can't always get what you want,
 but if you try sometime, you just might find,
you get what you need" - The Rolling Stones