Dell Motherboards and Ram

[MBrown]

I was putting a stick of 1gb in my friends dell and it didnt work. The motherboard can take up to 2gb and its ddr of course. Now I bought him a stick of pc3200 and he only has a P4 2.8B which as you know only has 533 fsb. I came with 256 of pc2700. Now its my understanding that all motherboards declock the ram if its too fast right? Do dell motherboards not declock the ram when its faster than what its suppose to?

 

[o1die]

The best way to match dell ram is to take out the dell stick and try matching the chipset configuration as close as possible. Some sites sell ram specific to a model of computer. The chipset id and visual placement of the chips on the stick give you enough clues. Don't use ecc or registered ram, unless you're using a server. Dell uses pc3200 now in it's low end systems, as it is actually cheaper than pc2700 and backwards compatable.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

http://www.corsair.com - 'memory matcher'

 

[mechBgon]

What model of Dell, exactly?

 

[MBrown]

I forgot to get the model but it seems dell makes the motherboards so that it doesnt declock the ram if its faster than what it needs. I used a 512 stick of pc2700 and it worked fine. Just another reason why its better to build your own computer than to but it from Dell or any other place like that even if you get a free LCD.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: MBrown
I forgot to get the model but it seems dell makes the motherboards so that it doesnt declock the ram if its faster than what it needs. I used a 512 stick of pc2700 and it worked fine. Just another reason why its better to build your own computer than to but it from Dell or any other place like that even if you get a free LCD.

If the Dell has a dual-channel chipset, then three modules would be a guaranteed show-stopper too. One, two or four modules, but not three. You could test that by putting in the 1GB module alone.

Having read the manuals for some Intel-branded motherboards, yeah, surprisingly enough there are ones that won't declock the RAM. Maybe Dell used some of those. It certainly isn't the norm for aftermarket boards.

 

[MBrown]

^I did and his motherboard doesnt have dual channel. I told him the problem and he understood what was going on suprisingly lol. The problem was it doesnt declock ram cuz like I said I put a stick of pc2700 and it worked fine. I told him if it wasnt for that free LCD I would have built you a computer that would smoke that dell for low money. His Dell that he bought doesnt even have an AGP, and this dude was planning on playing games LoL.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: MBrown
^I did and his motherboard doesnt have dual channel. I told him the problem and he understood what was going on suprisingly lol. The problem was it doesnt declock ram cuz like I said I put a stick of pc2700 and it worked fine. I told him if it wasnt for that free LCD I would have built you a computer that would smoke that dell for low money. His Dell that he bought doesnt even have an AGP, and this dude was planning on playing games LoL.

Ouch, no AGP! Is he still within the return-for-refund time period? They shouldn't be making hobbled junk like that :|

 

[BTA]

It's not that it "de-clocks" but just runs the faster memory you put in there at whatever the slower stock speed is.

It could be that the motherboard was just plain not compatible with the 3200ddr you tried at first.

I think you said it was a 1gig stick? Perhaps the DELL board doesnt support 1gig memory sticks.

Does it have two or four ram slots?

 

[Cypher101]

buy looking at the Dell deals and what u listed it looks like hes got a Dimension 3000

its a sucky comp bro my moms got one but she just uses it for web games and surfing the net.thats all its really good for

Dell makes 2 versions of the Dimension 3000 one that supports Dual Channel PC3200 ram and one that uses Single Channel PC3200

just not a good system if u are looking to upgrade later or game :disgust:

 

[ExpertNovice]

AGP is going away. PCIe provides the same performance, or close enough. So why stick with a dying architecture.

BTW, I'm moving from AGP to PCI for this reason.

BTW, I totally agree about buying from Dell and I used to be a big advocate of Dell. That was last century though.

 

[MBrown]

Well its not my system. Id never buy a system. The motherboards suppots up to 2gb and has two slots so it would have to be able to take a single stick of 1gb. I couldnt convince him to take it back. I just wants to pay as little as possible. I just doesnt understand how much of a piece of crap he just bought even though i keep telling him. He is just happy he got a free lcd(he is one of those people who think the monitor is the computer LoL).

 

[Hacp]

Don't you have to buy special dell ram to go with dell computers? I thought they made other ram incompatible.