Memory upgrades

[blackize]

After doing some research, it appears that I can upgrade my machine's memory to a maximum of 384 MB SDRAM. I've been slowly upgrading this old box, and the only problems I have are with the memory. It seems that since this is a Gateway, I can't use any old brand of SDRAM. I've priced compatible units from Viking, Kingston and SimpleTech, and the cheapest price I found for one stick of 128 MB was $56. The most expensive I found was $92.50. Is it me, or are memory prices really, really high? I want to upgrade the memory on this machine so badly and I have a limited budget, so it looks like I can't purchase upgrades from Viking, Kingston, SimpleTech, or even Gateway. I searched eBay and came up with nothing. Does anyone know where I can find compatible memory for my G6-400 at a low price?

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[MasterHD]

> Is it me, or are memory prices
> really, really high?

I noticed this too when I tried to upgrade an old comp with SDRAM. The SDRAM was either more expensive or almost the same as the 200 or 333 MHz DDR RAM. I'm not sure why, but I didn't like paying $90 for some old slow crappy 512MB PC133 SDRAM (cheapest I could find).

The place I bought my RAM:
http://shop1.outpost.com/category/Outpost/Hard+Drives+&+Memory/Memory/Desktop+Memory?accipterAreaString=

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[Shamanix]

> > Is it me, or are memory prices
> > really, really high?

Memory prices are a bit high right now, but not dramatically so.

> I noticed this too when I tried to upgrade an old comp with
> SDRAM. The SDRAM was either more expensive or almost the
> same as the 200 or 333 MHz DDR RAM. I'm not sure why, but I
> didn't like paying $90 for some old slow crappy 512MB PC133
> SDRAM (cheapest I could find).

This is purely supply and demand. With video cards, for instance, people buy new ones and are far more inclined to resell their old one to someone who doesn't need a top of the line system. DDR has been a standard for over two years now - nobody makes SDRAM anymore. It's a lot less likely that someone's gonna keep an old stick of SDRAM around when very few people will use the stuff. It's harder to find, so it's more expensive. *shrug*

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[Tsyni]

Ya, It is crazy but SD costs more than DDR in most cases, lol...

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[blackize]

> It's harder to find, so it's more expensive. *shrug*

I can find it really cheap on eBay, but the only problem is whether or not it's compatible with my system. And some of the auctions I've seen don't accept returns for incompatible products. If I knew that I could just pick up any brand of SDRAM, I'd do it.

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[World_Demise]

Give us some system specs and I'm sure someone will find cheaper memory.

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[blackize]

It's a Gateway G6-400 with a Pentium II 400 MHz, dual-booting Linux and Windows ME, 128 MB SDRAM (2x64), on-board audio and video, Linksys EtherFast 10/100 PCI NIC, a new NEC 8x DVD burner (+/-), and a 6GB hard drive. Purchased used from a friend's parents for $200 about a year ago, the system itself was manufactured in 1999. I'm not sure what the make and model of the motherboard is.

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[blackize]

Here's what I found from Gateway regarding the type of RAM currently installed in my system:

64-MB 100Mhz 64Bit 4-clock CL=2 SDRAM UNBUFFERED DIMM

Maybe this will help you guys help me find compatible memory at a lower price than Gateway's bargain of $79.99.

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[World_Demise]

I hit up crucial.com for memory for your system, and I found this (http://www.crucial.com/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpoid=74EF5F3A8C0EB3BE&WSMD=G6%2D400&WSPN=CT149009)

I also found this (http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%2BProductline=G-Series&mfr=Gateway&cat=&model=G6-400&submit=Go) which is cheaper than the first one, and is apparently guarnteed by Crucial to work with your machine.

[blackize]

Sweet, thanks. <strike>Would using PC133 in a PC100 system affect my system in the long run, am I risking anything by installing it?</strike>

Since Crucial has listed it as being compatible with my system and if something doesn't work correctly with my system, I'll return it. And at $79.98 plus free shipping for 256 MB, it's a steal compared to Gateway.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by blackize on 06/10/04 07:25 PM.</FONT></P>

[Shamanix]

> I can find it really cheap on eBay, but the only problem is
> whether or not it's compatible with my system. And some of
> the auctions I've seen don't accept returns for incompatible
> products. If I knew that I could just pick up any brand of
> SDRAM, I'd do it.

That's the real trick. ;) Goes back to the supply issue. SDRAM, as I recall, was a hell of a lot more touchy than DDR is about working only with same-branded RAM.

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[MasterHD]

> Sweet, thanks. Would using PC133 in a PC100 system affect my
> system in the long run, am I risking anything by installing
> it?

Wait, are you buying PC133 RAM because PC133 is cheaper than PC100? Smart move, but I bought 512MB of PC133 here (http://shop1.outpost.com/product/2968715) for $85, but if you're using Win98, you will have to tweak your system to use ALL of the RAM. So maybe you should just stick with the 256. <img src=smilies/thumb.gif>

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[World_Demise]

> PC100? Smart move, but I bought 512MB of PC133 here for $85,
> but if you're using Win98, you will have to tweak your
> system to use ALL of the RAM.
>
You mean the ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1 thing? I've got 512mb of pc2700 DDR in my system, I dualboot XP and Win98, 98 runs fine on my machine.

<P ID="signature">i need a friend, please be my companion
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[MooglyGuy]

> Wait, are you buying PC133 RAM because PC133 is cheaper than
> PC100? Smart move, but I bought 512MB of PC133 here for $85,
> but if you're using Win98, you will have to tweak your
> system to use ALL of the RAM. So maybe you should just stick
> with the 256.

Plus, in his original post he said that his system only supports up to 384 megs anyway.


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[blackize]

> Plus, in his original post he said that his system only
> supports up to 384 megs anyway.

The fucked up thing about that is the web sites where I priced RAM stated that my system had 3 memory slots and could support a total of 384 MB, however when I checked the Gateway web site using the system's serial number, Gateway stated that my system only has two memory slots and only supports 256 MB. Even though I've been in and out of the case over the past few days, not once did I bother to check how many memory slots the board has. But 256 is better than 128, so I won't complain.

The rest of my upgrades are coming along rather nicely. I installed an NEC 8x DVD burner (model 2500a if anyone cares) on Thursday, and I purchased an 80 GB Maxtor HDD that same day which I receive on Monday, so I'll go ahead and install that. The burner was $69.99 and included free shipping, and the HDD was $67 and also included free shipping. I picked both of them up from NewEgg.com. Once I return to work in July, I'm going to upgrade my power supply from the crappy 90W unit to hopefully something around the 200W mark. I really don't know what my motherboard does and does not support so I figured 200W is a safe number to play around with, anything's better than 90W. Maybe I'll throw in a few extra case fans, and even purchase a 1.4Ghz Celeron upgrade from PowerLeap.

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[MasterHD]

> You mean the ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1 thing?

Yeah, that and changing the file cache to 1/8th the size of the total RAM. I just read it on a site somewhere, I don't have a clue what filecache is <img src=smilies/retard.gif>.

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[JoeTheDude]

> I really don't know what my motherboard does and does not
> support so I figured 200W is a safe number to play around
> with, anything's better than 90W. Maybe I'll throw in a few
> extra case fans, and even purchase a 1.4Ghz Celeron upgrade
> from PowerLeap.

Something to consider before upgrading your PC:

$ 82.00 Motherboard: Intel D865PERL i865PE P4 800FSB Skt478 DDR ATX Motherboard.
https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240905

$ 59.00 Memory: (Two 128MB DIMMS) Kingston KVR400X64C3AK2/256 256MB Kit DDR400 PC3200 Memory.
https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80091-22

$169.00 Processor: Pentium 4 Processor Northwood 2.4GHz, 800MHz FSB, Socket 478.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80646-800


$310.00 (Sub-Total)


Add $40.49 for an Antec Solution Series SL300S 300W Power Supply.
(I doubt your current Power supply has the extra P4 Mobo plug)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=270015

OR, Add $49.00 for an Antec Solution Series SLK1600 Mini Tower Case WITH a 300W Power Supply!
(in case your current case won't support your motherboard)
(The power supply that comes with this case will work with P4 Motherboards)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=140020



Note: All of the above items include free shipping (EXCEPT the Antec Mini Tower Case).
Tip: If you want to get the case, make a seprate order for it, so you will not have to pay shipping on the other items.


$350.49 (Total with Power supply & Free Shipping)

$359.00 (Total with the case that also includes a power supply) [shipping charge for case not included]

Basicly, for under $400, you can build a nice Hyper Threadin' P4 system.
If your Operating System doesn't support Hyper Threading, that's ok, because you can disable HT in the BIOS until you decide to upgrade your operating system to a newer one.

Compare the prices of the above P4 System with the price of your ram upgrade + powerleap upgrade and see what the difrence is.
I bet it's not much.

XD

EDIT: Hmn...
$ 119.95 for Powerleap Upgrade....
$ 79.98 (about) for your SDRAM Upgrade.....
That comes to about $199.93 .......

Well, at least I didn't bet anything i wasn't willing to lose.
@_@

<P ID="signature"></P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by JoeTheDude on 06/19/04 11:13 PM.</FONT></P>

[blackize]

I gave up upgrading this system a few days ago. It's too old and not worth money. Instead, I've been pricing parts for a system build on NewEgg. I figure I'll save up about $900 and build a decent P4 system.

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[JoeTheDude]

$900 ?!?!

So you're going for 1GB ram, 2+(or)3+Ghz P4, and two 10,000 RPM Serial ATA Hard Drives for a RAID setup, and one of those cases with a see-through side panel?
Man, that'd be sweet.

Regardless, It'd be interesting to see what you wind up putting together.

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[blackize]

> So you're going for 1GB ram, 2+(or)3+Ghz P4, and two 10,000
> RPM Serial ATA Hard Drives for a RAID setup, and one of
> those cases with a see-through side panel?
> Man, that'd be sweet.

Not that drastic, but I was going to start it off with 512 MB DDR RAM, a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz, an 80GB HDD, a dual-layer NEC DVD+-/RW, a 256 MB DDR RAM AGP 8x video card, a clear side panel case with two LED case fans, and top it off with a black floppy drive, a black keyboard and mouse, and some round IDE and floppy cables for better air flow. As I save more money, I would upgrade the system as I see fit, throw in a video capture card, install a dedicated sound card like the Sound Blaser Audigy instead of using the onboard audio, install a dedicated NIC instead of the onboard solution, upgrade the RAM to the board's maximum and upgrade the CPU to a faster unit. Probably throw in another LED fan and an exhaust fan for the video card. As for the operating system, it's Linux or bust. Windows, or any Microsoft product for that matter, will not touch the new PC.

Although I do have a 80GB HDD and DVD+-/RW sitting around the house, I'm currently trying to sell (http://www.zophar.net/wwwthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=classifieds&Number=231310&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=21&part=) them as I really need the money. Besides I'd rather wait until something a little faster comes out, especially with the DVD+-/RW. The one I have now doesn't burn dual-layer discs, which is something I'd like to do in the future.

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