Accessmico RAM question

[stupidzbu]

Ok... I remeber the time when RAM was simple to buy!! You just go down and buy the size that FITS!!

I'm COMPLETLY AND UTTERLY LOST on Ram now.

Accessmicro, in case you didn't know, has a WIDE VARIETY of ram up for sale. 128 meg chips range from $51 to $100... and I have no idea what the difference is!

I have a celeron 366 slot 1.. with 128 meg pc-100 ram... what is the difference between 168 pin
NON-parity EDO buffered 5 v DIMM
non-parity EDO un-buffered 3.3v DIMM
NON-partiy EDO buffered 5v DIMM
pc100 unbuffered 3.3v SDram
pc133 unbuffered 3.3v SDram
pc100 ECC unbuffered 3.3v SDram

the rest are variation on bus speeds.. ie pc-100,133,or 150
all unbuffered 3.3v .. but some are ECC

basically.. my question is.. what is the difference between EDO DIMM... ECC SDRAM.. and normal SDRAM?

what is the voltage for?
and what is being buffered/unbuffered for?

thanks

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[Aristo]

I guess there is still some portion of people who use EDO ram. EDO Ram is the slowest and the oldest ram in your list. ECC Ram can correct errors so your system is more stable. Of course, such a wonder memory costs more than normal ones. If you just play games and typing up essays, don't need ECC ram.

[Bires]

Snag some generic ram-should do ya.
(I got mine back when it was $70 bucks-I almost feel like picking up another 256 at 51 a stick.)

[stupidzbu]

what about the claim that the 256 stick for $51 is only for athlon mobos..

is that true?? cause $51 for 256 megs is CHEAP!!

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[stupidzbu]

by the way.. I am going to run a server with this ram... so I guess I should move towards teh ecc?

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[Dave_7]

Yes... ECC has it's most practical uses in servers. Otherwise... it's not as fast and it costs more. So for home use... non-ECC is the choice.



Dave.

[Aristo]

Definitely ECC for the server. :)

[Seagull]

While we're on the subject,

I know that PC100 ram can be used in a 66Mhz bus machine, but can PC133 be used on a slower bus as well?

Also, I purchased 128Meg of CENTON ram over the summer from Circuit City when they had the 4th of July sale w/rebate. It has 8 chips on only one side of the card. I just received a 128Meg card from the Access Micro deal (Zeus Ram) it has 8 chips on BOTH sides of the card. Is this a defective 256Meg card that only gives 128meg? The card has a label on it with check boxes for "128 Meg" and "256Meg" with the "128 Meg" box checked. When I installed the Zues card and booted I got an error (Windows ME) that said:

"Terminating thread due to a Stack overflow problem. A VxD, possibly recently installed, has consumed too much stack space. Increase the setting of "MinSPs" in System.ini or remove recently installed VxD's. There are currently 5 SP's allocated."

After rebooting I did not receive the error again and all seems to be working OK. Norton Utilities finds 256Meg available for the system and Windows System Information finds "Total Physical Memory 255.51 MB"

Is this normal?

[phlick]

You might have compatibility issues w/the ECC Ram. I would stick with the generic. NOBODY (compaq/dell/hp/ibm)uses it anymore in their servers, so it must not be that good. I would spend the money on MORE RAM. More is better.

[sbp]

"I know that PC100 ram can be used in a 66Mhz bus machine, but can PC133 be used on a slower bus as well?" Yes PC133 ram can be used on a 66Mhz system bus speed with no problems Seagull. The memory will be running at 66mhz.

Seagull when you talked about 256Mb of ram in the system was that Access Micro ram that was supposed to be 128MB the only stick of ram in the system? it sure sounds like 256MB of ram the way you described. Sometimes a motherboard, especially older motherboards, have compatibility problems with 256MB memory sticks.

[Seagull]

sbp,
No, I have one 128mg Centon stick and the AccessMicro (Zues) 128mg stick that sure looks like a 256mg stick to me. My computer has 2 ram slots and documentation says each can hold up to 128mg.

[GraingerGuy]

NO NO NO!!!! No generic RAM! Getting generic RAM might be the bane of your existance. If you are a gamer, generic RAM will slow your system down. You might get lucky and get a good batchm but with generic RAM the chances of you getting flaky RAM increases. Get a good stick of Infineon, or Mushkin, something other than the generic stuff.

[Grimm]

My AccessMicro ram is crap. It is manufactured by "LD" (whoever that is). It is supposed to be PC133. It won't run at that or even 100. Time to send it back.

[stupidzbu]

how do you know that it won't run at pc-133?

I just ordered the 128 megs of pc-133 for $51.....

as soon as I get it.. i'll tell you guys what i think of it..

is there any software out there.. that can give me hints if my ram is crap or not??


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[Aristo]

If you have a motherboard that supports PC133 such as via chipset, just go to BIOS and set memory to be 133 mhz, plug in the memory. If everything is fine, the memory runs at 133 mhz. If not, go figure.

I also bought Accessmico Ram and it works smooth in my system.

[sbp]

Another good thing about via chipset motherboards is that you can run the cpu at 133Mhz fsb and run the memory at 100Mhz.

[Seagull]

I'm told that there are programs available to test your RAM. Does anyone know of any?

[foolio]

I bought the AccessMicro RAM and it is produced by Winward. I haf set it to PC133 with no Probs but I aitn sure if it fruns at that speed. I am using an Asus A7V and I just set it to 133.