Upgrade - Memory Type & Amount

Upgrading an older Dell Workstation PIII 930(Optiplex GX110)for use at
home. Plan to add new PIII-S 1.4ghz, 133mhz FSB.

Would also like to replace, and increase the total amount of memory
(if possible).

Board has two slots and recommends PC100 CL2 to a max of 512mb. Would
like to replace with PC133 and increase amount to 1gig. Is this
possible?

I'm running XP with the most recent BIOS available from Dell
installed.

The largest PC100 module I can find is 256mb.

I've have located PC133 CL2 256mb moduals on Newegg. The only 512mb
PC133 module available runs CL3.

Three obvious questions...any advantage to going to PC133 on this set
up?, would the system recognize both 512mb PC133 modules? and would
the fact that they are CL3 slow the system? (going to reboot after I
send this to see if what options are available through the BIOS - from
what I remember they are limited).

Thank you

"A Marini" wrote in message
om...
Upgrading an older Dell Workstation PIII 930(Optiplex GX110)for use at
home. Plan to add new PIII-S 1.4ghz, 133mhz FSB.

Would also like to replace, and increase the total amount of memory
(if possible).

Use Crucial's memory configurer at http://www.crucial.com to
find the highest performance memory they recommend for
your system.

-- Bob Day
--------------------------------------------------------------
Free "HomeSentinal" webcam surveillance software, now with
adjustable motion sensitivity, at: http://bobday.vze.com.

(A Marini) writes:
Upgrading an older Dell Workstation PIII 930(Optiplex GX110)for use at
home. Plan to add new PIII-S 1.4ghz, 133mhz FSB.

Would also like to replace, and increase the total amount of memory
(if possible).

Board has two slots and recommends PC100 CL2 to a max of 512mb. Would
like to replace with PC133 and increase amount to 1gig. Is this
possible?

Most folks seem to find find PC133 memory runs just fine in a PC100 slot.

I've have located PC133 CL2 256mb moduals on Newegg. The only 512mb
PC133 module available runs CL3.

Three obvious questions...any advantage to going to PC133 on this set
up?,

Today it is sometimes cheaper and easier to find/buy PC133.

would the system recognize both 512mb PC133 modules?

Since you have said that Dell says "max of 512mb" you need to read their
specs carefully and try to tell whether that is "max of 512mb in the
computer" or "max of 512mb in each stick of memory." I'd guess max of
512 in the computer and it would either not recognize all of it or not
even start up and run if you put in 2x512.

and would the fact that they are CL3 slow the system?

Probably couldn't tell the difference unless you were using a stopwatch
and maybe not even then. It MIGHT be that CL3 is too slow and the part
would fail, possible, but with a Dell I'd tend to think not. But lots
of speed changes with memory give you a few percent change in speed,
nobody can see that without a stopwatch to measure it.

I've upgraded a couple of Dell's. One was a Dimension XP266. The thing
was "finicky" about memory, I had to try all the parts I had before I
found one that worked. Another was an Optiplex and it worked just fine.

(going to reboot after I send this to see if what options are available
through the BIOS - from what I remember they are limited).

Are you sure you can upgrade to a Pentium 3 -S ? I thought they used a different socket than earlier chips. You should use PC133 memory. The processor would run at 10.5 times memory speed, which is high enough to affect performance somewhat. With 100 Mhz memory the multiplier would be 14 times, even worse. PC133 will run in a 100 Mhz slot but you should obviously increase the bus speed to 133 Mhz to get better performance. I have tried changing from CL3 to CL2 on sever PCs and they either didn't work or there was not a significant increase in performance.

Don Taylor wrote:

(A Marini) writes:
Upgrading an older Dell Workstation PIII 930(Optiplex GX110)for use at
home. Plan to add new PIII-S 1.4ghz, 133mhz FSB.

Would also like to replace, and increase the total amount of memory
(if possible).

Board has two slots and recommends PC100 CL2 to a max of 512mb. Would
like to replace with PC133 and increase amount to 1gig. Is this
possible?

Most folks seem to find find PC133 memory runs just fine in a PC100 slot.

I've have located PC133 CL2 256mb moduals on Newegg. The only 512mb
PC133 module available runs CL3.

Three obvious questions...any advantage to going to PC133 on this set
up?,

Today it is sometimes cheaper and easier to find/buy PC133.

would the system recognize both 512mb PC133 modules?

Since you have said that Dell says "max of 512mb" you need to read their
specs carefully and try to tell whether that is "max of 512mb in the
computer" or "max of 512mb in each stick of memory." I'd guess max of
512 in the computer and it would either not recognize all of it or not
even start up and run if you put in 2x512.

and would the fact that they are CL3 slow the system?

Probably couldn't tell the difference unless you were using a stopwatch
and maybe not even then. It MIGHT be that CL3 is too slow and the part
would fail, possible, but with a Dell I'd tend to think not. But lots
of speed changes with memory give you a few percent change in speed,
nobody can see that without a stopwatch to measure it.

I've upgraded a couple of Dell's. One was a Dimension XP266. The thing
was "finicky" about memory, I had to try all the parts I had before I
found one that worked. Another was an Optiplex and it worked just fine.

(going to reboot after I send this to see if what options are available
through the BIOS - from what I remember they are limited).

--
Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.

Don Taylor wrote:

(A Marini) writes:
Upgrading an older Dell Workstation PIII 930(Optiplex GX110)for use at
home. Plan to add new PIII-S 1.4ghz, 133mhz FSB.
Would also like to replace, and increase the total amount of memory
(if possible).

Board has two slots and recommends PC100 CL2 to a max of 512mb. Would
like to replace with PC133 and increase amount to 1gig. Is this
possible?

I highly recommend you check out the DellTalk forums hosted on Dell's
site before buying any memory, unless you are using one of the memory
configurators. The Optiplex forum will show if anyone has tried using
a 512mb stick in the GX110 and whether it worked. I highly doubt it
will, though - it probably won't recognize anything larger than 256
per slot.

IIRC, the GX110 was an oddball - used PC100 only, even though the
processer ran at 133MHz FSB. I vaguely recall some posters saying
they were not able to get any PC133 to work in this machine, but you
should check to make sure.

Most PC133 made in the past couple of years is NOT backward compatible
on older boards. The newer PC133 is high-density; if your GX110 will
take PC133, make sure you get low-density PC133. It will probably be
specifically labeled as backward compatible with PC100 or as
low-density.

The Optiplex line is rock-solid, but quirky at times. Given the amount
you are likely to spend for a 1.4GHz PIII and the new memory, you may
want to sell it, spend a little more, and build/buy a new machine.

If not, what will you be using the machine for? The 930MHz PIII
should be sufficient for just about anything. I would recommend in
this order:

1) max your RAM to 512mb

2) If you are playing games, put in a decent video/graphics card.
IIRC, you will have to go with a PCI video card (no AGP slot)

3a) put in a faster (7200 rpm) hard drive, possibly a PCI HD
controller card to give you ATA/100 or 133

3b) Processor is bottom of my list in the "bang for the buck" since
you already have a capable processor - PIIIS is very nice, but costly.
Consider overclocking a Celeron 1.2 or 1.3 using an adapter (search
for "geekverter" or "upclocking" in the Dell Dimension forums for
details - using an inexpensive ($12) adapter, setting some jumpers,
you can bring the $40 Tualatin Celeron up to 1.6/1.733GHz with no
additional cooling required. Tualatin Celerons have 256kb L2 cache,
compared to 256k in the standard PIII, 512 in the PIIIs, and 128kb in
the pre- and post- Tualatin Celerons, including the current crop of
P4-based Celerons)

(Anonymous Jack) wrote in message . com...
Don Taylor wrote:

(A Marini) writes:
Upgrading an older Dell Workstation PIII 930(Optiplex GX110)for use at
home. Plan to add new PIII-S 1.4ghz, 133mhz FSB.
Would also like to replace, and increase the total amount of memory
(if possible).

Board has two slots and recommends PC100 CL2 to a max of 512mb. Would
like to replace with PC133 and increase amount to 1gig. Is this
possible?

I highly recommend you check out the DellTalk forums hosted on Dell's
site before buying any memory, unless you are using one of the memory
configurators. The Optiplex forum will show if anyone has tried using
a 512mb stick in the GX110 and whether it worked. I highly doubt it
will, though - it probably won't recognize anything larger than 256
per slot.


Hi, PC100 is identical to PC133 except that the PC133 tested at a
higher rate than the PC100 at the manufacturer's test. PC133 will run
as if the label said PC100. Jim

IIRC, the GX110 was an oddball - used PC100 only, even though the
processer ran at 133MHz FSB. I vaguely recall some posters saying
they were not able to get any PC133 to work in this machine, but you
should check to make sure.

Most PC133 made in the past couple of years is NOT backward compatible
on older boards. The newer PC133 is high-density; if your GX110 will
take PC133, make sure you get low-density PC133. It will probably be
specifically labeled as backward compatible with PC100 or as
low-density.

The Optiplex line is rock-solid, but quirky at times. Given the amount
you are likely to spend for a 1.4GHz PIII and the new memory, you may
want to sell it, spend a little more, and build/buy a new machine.

If not, what will you be using the machine for? The 930MHz PIII
should be sufficient for just about anything. I would recommend in
this order:

1) max your RAM to 512mb

2) If you are playing games, put in a decent video/graphics card.
IIRC, you will have to go with a PCI video card (no AGP slot)

3a) put in a faster (7200 rpm) hard drive, possibly a PCI HD
controller card to give you ATA/100 or 133

3b) Processor is bottom of my list in the "bang for the buck" since
you already have a capable processor - PIIIS is very nice, but costly.
Consider overclocking a Celeron 1.2 or 1.3 using an adapter (search
for "geekverter" or "upclocking" in the Dell Dimension forums for
details - using an inexpensive ($12) adapter, setting some jumpers,
you can bring the $40 Tualatin Celeron up to 1.6/1.733GHz with no
additional cooling required. Tualatin Celerons have 256kb L2 cache,
compared to 256k in the standard PIII, 512 in the PIIIs, and 128kb in
the pre- and post- Tualatin Celerons, including the current crop of
P4-based Celerons)

(Jim Phelps) wrote in message . com...

Hi, PC100 is identical to PC133 except that the PC133 tested at a
higher rate than the PC100 at the manufacturer's test. PC133 will run
as if the label said PC100. Jim

That was true up until late 2002 or 2003. And most late manufacture
motherboards that are rated for 100/133 FSB can use PC133 fine (will
clock down to 100MHz; some motherboards will allow asynchronous memory
usage - for example, one of my machines is running a 1.3GHz Celeron,
100MHz FSB, but is set through BIOS to run the memory at FSB + 33MHz.
I'm using two sticks of PC133 and the memory is running at 133MHz
rather than clocking down to 100MHz).

And low density PC133 should work fine in _most_ 100MHz only boards,
too (I use several in my 100MHz FSB-only Dell Optiplex GX1).

However, as of late 2002/03?, PC133 can no longer guaranteed to be
identical to or backward compatible with PC100. High density PC133
will NOT work in many older motherboards. Dell, in particular, had
some oddball memory requirements. The memory manufacturers have
stated this themselves.

I did a quick search of the DellTalk forums. It appears the GX110 is
particularly finicky. Not all PC100 will work in it, either; and only
certain low density PC133. This is not theory - but multiple tests
by GX110 owners. I know that one of the contributors, DHsieh, owns
both GX1 and GX110 (and other) Optiplex/Dimension models and tested
memory back and forth between several of them, to confirm what works
and that the incompatibility is between mobo and memory and not bad
memory.

The OP will either have match the part numbers listed and tested, or
make sure the vendor has a good return policy.