128 RDRAM upgrade

[greenberet]

Hi,

I bought a piece of 256MB RDRAM from SimpleTech to replace the old 128 MB on my pc, the 128 MB RDRAM is manufactured by SamSung, both new and old RAMs are PC800. Is there any chance that these 2 different pieces of RAM could work together, so I could have 384MB of RAM? Would there be synchronization problems?

 

[RealBlackStuff]

Since you replaced the 128MB with the 256MB stick, you already know that both work.
Just put both sticks in, making sure to put the 256MB in slot 1.
Unless one stick has ECC (error correction) and the other not, you should have no problems at all.

 

[Greeno]

No. in a word, RDRAM won't work like that.

 

[StormBringer]

Never mix brands of RAM, that is just asking for problems.
Otherwise it would depend on the chipset as to whether you need to run pairs or not. More info on the motherboard would help in determining this. Though I would still caution you about mixing brands, even if it turns out you can do this on your board.

 

[Greeno]

I agree with you Storm, but the point here is though...

He wants to use :-

1x 256MB PC800 +
2x 128MB PC800

Of which, you can't do with RDRAM in any circumstances, it requires pairs to work.

 

[Didou]

That's not what he said Greeno. He said he has one module of 128mb (PC800) & he got a new one of 256mb (Still PC800).

He can install it by itself or with the 128mb module if he happens to have a board based on the I820 chipset for P3s/Celerons, which didn't require RIMMs to be installed in pairs.

But as Greeno put it, it's impossible with all other Intel RDRAM chipsets which include the I840, the I850 & the I850E. I do not know about SiS RDRAM chipsets, I have never looked into the matter.

Of course, it would be much easier to give any advice if he happened to give some more info on his setup.

 

[StormBringer]

umm, thats not what I read, I read 1 stick 128mb pc800 + 1 stick 256mb pc800 = 384mb pc800, in which case this would depend upon the chipset, regardless of the issues he could face because of the different brands.

 

[iss]

I had an intel 820 board and ran 1 staick of RDram 128mb 700mhz and one stick 256MB RDRam 800 mhz with no problem and with dell's blessing. like didou noted the 820 chipset was not dual channel so that set up would work.

if greenberet has an 820 chipset then the only problem he might encounter is that his old 128MB stick is .45NS and his new 256MB stick is .40 NS in which case they cant be used together.