Can't figure out which ram to use for a six year old Asus motherboard

[Star]

Hello

I am trying to figure out how and what memory to add to a computer that I got in 2001. The computer I have is an HP Pavillion Desktop 7966 model number P6402A. According to the specifications I have read about it online, it has three dimm slots and is able to use SDRAM with a speed of pc 133. Also, according to what I have read, it can be upgraded to 1.5 Gigs. Right now two of the slots are filled with chips of 256 megs each for a total of 512 megs. I would, if possible, like to upgrade the ram to the max 1.5 gigs.

I have two problems though. The first is that I don't know what ram to add to the motherboard. I know that I should use (Standard) SDRAM with pc 133 but I don't know which kind would be compatible with my asus motherboard. My motherboard is about six years old and when I have gone to the Corsair and the Kingston websites, while I have found a lot of SDRAM pc 133 memory chips, I have not found any on their lists that list my motherboard. My motherboard is listed as a Asus P4B-LA (Amazon) and from looking at the lists on the two sites it looks like the two closest motherboards to mine are the Asus/AsMobile P4B/P4B-LS and the Asus/AsMobile P4B-M/P4B-MX motherboards. I am not sure if these are like mine but they look like it. My computer is 1.7 Ghz while the chips that are compatible with these two other motherboards are for 1.3 and 2.0 Ghz. All are the same in requireing an Intel Pentium 4 cpu.

I am including in this post brief specs of my computer and more specs for my motherboard. If anybody could tell me if my motherboard can be upgraded (asking because it is so old) and where to look to get what I need it would be a great help !

And one other thing: according to the documentation from HP I can only use chips that use 1.8 volts but all I see are chips requiring 3.3 volts. Is there something that I can do about that on the chance that anybody can guide me towards chips I can use for my motherboard in general ? Thank you !

My computer:

Hp Pavillion Desktop 7966
Model Number P6402A
Pentium 4
1.7 Ghz
512 mg memory (2-256 chips)

Motherboard information
Feature/Specification Description
Motherboard Supplier ASUS
Motherboard name P4B-LA
System BIOS Supplier ASUS/AMI
Form Factor uATX -> ATX
Processor Brand Intel
Processor Socket Type mPGA478
Processor Family Pentium(R) 4
Processor Front Side Bus Frequency 400MHz
Chipset Name Intel 845 (Brookdale)
Chipset "North Bridge" i845 MCH
Chipset "South Bridge" ICH2
Super I/O NS PC87360-ICK/VLA
Flash BIOS Device FWH 4Mbit
Memory Type SDRAM
Memory Speed PC133
Memory Sockets 3 DIMM
Maximum Memory 1.5GB
Graphics Supplier Graphic Card
Graphics Configuration Up
Onboard Graphics Memory (N/A)
Graphics Connector (AGP) AGP 4X
TV-Out Device No
TV-Out Configuration (N/A)
Audio AC'97 Down
AC'97 CODEC Device ADI1885
Audio Jacks (Legend Below) Microphone

Line in

Line out

Speaker

Midi/game



Ethernet 10/100 LAN Supplier Intel Kinnereth
Ethernet Configuration Integrated motherboard, Down
IDE UDMA Modes ATA-100/66/33
Expansion Slots ) AGP, 3 PCI
USB Ports 4
USB Front/Back Options 2F+2B or 1F+2B
Serial, Parallel, Floppy, PS2 Kbd and Mouse 2S,1P,1F,PS2 K+M
Serial Port Front Chassis Option Yes

Also some of my ram information:

Component Attributes
RAM (standard) 512 MB (2x256)
Maximum 1.5 GB (3x512)
Speed PC 133
Type SDRAM
DIMM Slots Three

Thank you for any help at all. I am very confused here

 

[g-paw]

Any 133 SDRAM should work, at least I've never had a problem increasing the RAM in older Dells, same era as yours. I would check the voltage of your current RAM, should be able to find this in your BIOS, but again, I've never had a problem even when I didn't check the voltage before buying. Generally it's best to have the sticks match, e.g., buy 3 x 512. On the other hand given the age of the machine you might want to save a little and go with 1GB plus your 2 256 sticks. Your likely best buying the RAM on line because at least in Ohio retail stores RAM prices at ridiculously high, like bend over and grab your ankles high.

 

[Mondoman]

Unfortunately for you, PC133 SDRAM modules have been obsolete for many years, and are thus fairly expensive for the amount of RAM you get. In addition, the higher-capacity modules (particularly 512MB) are in the highest demand, and so are even more expensive. AFAIK, all PC133 modules use a single, standard 3.3V, so I suspect your HP document is wrong or misunderstood.
Here is a nice (although somewhat dated) web page on PC133 modules: http://www.dewassoc.com/performance/memory/how_to_id_pc133.htm
Looks like the going price for decent PC133 512MB modules is about $60 each: looking at someplace like Tiger ( http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=829 ), I'd personally get the Centon (great customer service) or Kingston (also good rep) and definitely avoid the US Modular and K-byte.

 

[Star]

Thank you both for the replies !

Yes, I had noticed how expencive the SDRAM was. I had been planning on trying to build a gaming computer from scratch, and was trying to upgrade this computer a bit to get my feet wet first, and it is a relief to hear that, while the ram-type for this computer IS expencive, it is only because this ram-type is out of the norm for now.

And yes, I did go back and re-read the documentation for the voltage type's required for SDRAM pc 133 and I found out I DID read it wrong. :lol: What it said was:

DIMM modules for the HP computer must meet the following requirements

The number of pins on the DIMM must match the socket type.
DDR memory requires a 184-pin slot and 1.8 operating voltage.
DDR2 memory is not compatible with DDR1 memory and requires a 240-pin slot and 2.5 operating voltage.
Synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM): Only use DDR type SDRAM memory if the computer came with DDR-SDRAM.

So, the 1.8 voltage is required for DDR and not SDRAM. I am so glad I asked !

Thank you both so much for the help !

 

[bc4]

On the other hand given the age of the machine you might want to save a little and go with 1GB plus your 2 256 sticks. Your likely best buying the RAM on line because at least in Ohio retail stores RAM prices at ridiculously high, like bend over and grab your ankles high.

I'm not sure about this but on my old P3 (also HP- don't remember the spec's) it had a maximum of 1.5 gig memory and also had three slots. I know that it would only recognized sticks up to 512 mb in each slot... so adding on stick of 1 gb wouldn't work.

I would go to a memory manufactures website and try to use it to find compatible ram and see if any pc 133 1 gb sticks are listed, if not, to be safe i would stick with 512 mb modules

 

[bc4]

http://shop.kingston.com/modelsinfo...ys=12899-HP/Compaq-Pavilion+7966&SUBMIT1=Find

Here's kingston's link... it does say maximum of 3 512mb sticks. Expensive though.

 

[g-paw]

Here is some 133 RAM from newegg, definitely cheaper. If I'm reading the above correctly, it looks like the maximum RAM a slot will take is 512 rather than 1gb stick, which would mean that the maximum you could get to using your old RAM would be a total of 1GB. Not sure that the other 512 would make that much difference on that machine.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&Sub category=147&Description=&Type=&N=2010170147&srchInDesc=&Min Price=&MaxPrice=&PropertyCodeValue=523%3A8474&PropertyCodeValue=523% 3A7857&PropertyCodeValue=524%3A7863

If the link doesn't work, it's awfully long, do a power sure on newegg for desktop memory.

 

[elbert]

Thank you both for the replies !

Yes, I had noticed how expencive the SDRAM was. I had been planning on trying to build a gaming computer from scratch, and was trying to upgrade this computer a bit to get my feet wet first, and it is a relief to hear that, while the ram-type for this computer IS expencive, it is only because this ram-type is out of the norm for now.

And yes, I did go back and re-read the documentation for the voltage type's required for SDRAM pc 133 and I found out I DID read it wrong. :lol: What it said was:

DIMM modules for the HP computer must meet the following requirements

The number of pins on the DIMM must match the socket type.
DDR memory requires a 184-pin slot and 1.8 operating voltage.
DDR2 memory is not compatible with DDR1 memory and requires a 240-pin slot and 2.5 operating voltage.
Synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM): Only use DDR type SDRAM memory if the computer came with DDR-SDRAM.

So, the 1.8 voltage is required for DDR and not SDRAM. I am so glad I asked !

Thank you both so much for the help !

There is an off chance of a XP blue screen with 3 sdram's installed. I ran into this problem about 2 years ago. This is a problem with older bioses working with XP. The problem here is upgrading your bios may be impossible. The memory here is good but XP just wont work with 3. There is a work around but 1 you wont much like. You will have to remove your first 256mb RAM and replace it with the 512mb. This means your only going to end up with 768mb of RAM.

I suggest you go ahead and jump for the new rig as older tech may be more learning than you want.

 

[Mondoman]

...
DIMM modules for the HP computer must meet the following requirements

The number of pins on the DIMM must match the socket type.
DDR memory requires a 184-pin slot and 1.8 operating voltage.
DDR2 memory is not compatible with DDR1 memory and requires a 240-pin slot and 2.5 operating voltage.
...

Unfortunately, HP got it wrong -- it's DDR that uses 2.5V and DDR2 that uses 1.8V.