Rambus

[Sketch]

I recently obtained an older Dell Precision 420. The unusual occurance for me, is that instead of SDRAM it came with Rambus (got it for free from my job). Unfortunatly, I don't know anything really about Rambus.... It already has a pair of 256's in it and I was hoping to boost it up to 1GB by getting another pair. But I am unable to determine what speed it is. It has this labeled on it:

Samsung Korea 0042 256MB/ 16
MR16R082GAN1-CG6DF 600-53 100

I was assuming that the 100 in the corner means its a PC100?? or is it a PC600?? I'm not sure. Then I was also wondering, can I make this machine into just SDRAM? Or does it always have to have Rambus now since it seems to have started off with it? And if I can change it, would it be cheaper to buy 2-512MB SDRAM vs. a set of 256MB Rambus?

Any input would be helpful, Thanks.

 

[iss]

Rambus is an older technology that is not much in use any more. it starts at 600 mhz for older modules and goes up to 800 mhz for the last modules manufacturd. since almost no memory makers are currently making rambus it is getting expensive and you would find two 500mb rambus modules prohibitvly expensive even if you could find them. and no you cannot adapt the board to use regular DDR memory.

 

[Rick]

PC600 and approximately $100 a pop on this site:
http://www.memoryx.net/pc7-2988.html

Not worth it in my opinion. $200 could buy you a new not-quite-so-budget 64-bit board and CPU, or a budget CPU, memory and board which is going to be faster than your system.

 

[RealBlackStuff]

And you'd have money to spare if you sell just the Rambus sticks alone and dump the rest.
But 512MB is enough for everyday computing. That oldie will work fine for someone who just needs to write letters and email and do some browsing.

 

[LNCPapa]

It's also plenty for a personal fileserver. My fileserver is a Precision 420 with 512 Meg of PC800 - runs extremely well, though all it has to do is hand out files to the rest of my machines. BTW, I run RHE WS on it and use smb. Never had any problems with it and it currently has 62 days of uptime (power went out a couple months ago.)

 

[Sketch]

Yea.. I guess that would all work, It's just that I am a college student... so a free computer means a lot to me. I had planned to put 1GB into the machine because I was going to run high graphics programs like 3d studio max and Maya, didn't realize it even had rambus. My mistake I guess.. so the next question is, where can I find a good machine at a reasonable price (remember.. college student) :dead:

 

[olefarte]

I had a Gateway with Rambus PC1066 in it, probably one of the last ones ever made with Rambus in it. I had 512MB of ram and wanted to get up to a gig. I found I could get a motherboard and a 512MB DDR 400 (PC 3200) for less than RDram cost, even got a new AMD 3500+ CPU, all that for only a little more than the Rambus would have cost. Later I added more ram for a total of 2 gigs now.

I imagine you don't have the PC1066, but just by conincidence I was looking at prices for that stuff this morning, and while I didn't really look much, what I found was over $500 for two 512MB sticks. Ouch.

 

[iss]

my kids machine is a Intel 850 Mobo with 2.6ghz P4 and 512MB of PC800 Rambus and with an ATI 9800 pro video card they have no problems playing the latest games at high settings so it wil still do the job.

my first computer,a dell, was a 733 mhz with 128mb of rambus and at that time to add another 128mb stick would have cost 600.00.

 

[rafael45x]

my kids machine is a Intel 850 Mobo with 2.6ghz P4 and 512MB of PC800 Rambus and with an ATI 9800 pro video card they have no problems playing the latest games at high settings so it wil still do the job.

my first computer,a dell, was a 733 mhz with 128mb of rambus and at that time to add another 128mb stick would have cost 600.00.

I have the same configuration as yours except that I have a 512mb Rambus PC 1066. I was able to do a lot on this machine but I will not add more memory of the same type because it is very costly to do so.