pentium 4 2.4 ram limit?

[relapse86]

I have 1 gig of ram right now, but I am looking to upgrade to 2 gigs?? is this possible? I have 3 slots, 1- 512 and 2- 256 ddr333 PC2700.. thanks

 

[liljone]

dont mix ram like that lol eww, yea i got 2GB of ram on my p4 2.4GHz Hyper-Thread system. rip thous un matching ram stick out and get your self 2x1GB stick of the same ram.

 

[chunkymonster]

The amount of RAM that you can plug into your machine is not determined by the processor but by the motherboard and/or chipset. What are your specs, mobo, chipset?

With your mobo having 3 DIMM slots, you can put 2GB of RAM just by using 2 DIMM slots and 2 x 1GB sticks of memory, leaving the 3rd DIMM empty.

You can get a 1GB PC2700 memory from www.newegg.com for anywhere from $30 to $45, or a memory kit of 2x1GB sticks for anywhere from $65 to $85. If your mobo chipset supports dual channel memory, you're better off buying a kit.

 

[relapse86]

sweet, thanks for the tip and info.. Im a newb with some of this stuff (as you can see).. any specific brand that would be better for gaming?

 

[Reynod]

Give us the mobo details and we can advise.

Otherwise it's a case of guessing ... need to know what max size DDR it will address (and the type) plus if the 3 slots support dual channel ... which I doubt.

If it will address 1 Gb sticks then stick 3 in - if not then stick 3 512's in.

If it is a Northy (2.4) you might be able to overclock it a bit without too much stress. Probably a 533Mhz FSB too ...

Get a few more miles outa the ol dear ...

 

[evongugg]

Get DDR-400, PC 3200 while you're at it. Kingston, OCZ, Crucial or Corsair are good brands.

 

[relapse86]

reynod.. how do I go about finding that? would it actually be on the mother board? or do i have to look in my system info

 

[rubix_1011]

Look up your motherboard website, then search for the board model. Typically, a board manufacturer will have it listed on the board somewhere.

 

[relapse86]

my motherboard is a p4x400 front side bus is 400/533mhz, memory type DDR200/266/333 SDRAM, max memory 16gb (does that mean my ram???)
thanks

 

[chunkymonster]

my motherboard is a p4x400 front side bus is 400/533mhz, memory type DDR200/266/333 SDRAM, max memory 16gb (does that mean my ram???)
thanks

Yes, the max amount of memory your mobo can support is 16GB.

The front side bus of 400/533mhz is the speed of the front side bus for the processor.

You would see a nice performance change by swapping out to have 2 sticks of 1GB PC2700 memory. Or even 3 sticks of 1GB PC2700.

Good luck!

 

[bc4]

Does anyone else find it strange that that old of a board supports 16gb!

with 3 slots!!! come on --- really, when has anyone produced a 8 gb + 4 gb + 4 gb of ddr ram.

download and run cpu cpuid.com, click on motherboard. then google your motherboard manual and look up the manual. Some DDR mobo's only support single sided dimm's so read all the memory pages

 

[Newf]

my motherboard is a p4x400 front side bus is 400/533mhz, memory type DDR200/266/333 SDRAM, max memory 16gb (does that mean my ram???)
thanks

Open up Task Manager and look at the performance tab. Check your commit charge and peak values. Are they at or near 1GB?
If not, then you will be wasting your money.

The VIA P4X333 and P4X400 chipsets typically were fed by 3 ddr dimm
slots with 1GB capacity each. No dual channel advantage here. I'd
look at 2x1GB ddr333 or ddr400 memory kits. Running your system with
2GB of ram should keep paging file use close to zero. Cost should be
in the $60-$75 range. Is it worth it to keep this old system going?

 

[relapse86]

commit charge is 340m/1697m, if I can keep it under $200 for upgrading I should be all set, I found 2x1gb ddr333 on newegg for around $65, and a geforce 6600gt was given to me from a friend, so I think ill be good for a little while longer

 

[Reynod]

Stick 3 X 1Gb cheap PC3200 sticks in it ... the cheapest you can find.

Yeah keep it as the ol dear will still give faithful service for some time to come ... as a web surfing rig / HTPC / small server for the house / or general office PC.

It won't suffice for new games though for the above it will be fine.

Sticking in a heap of ram will certainly speed it up a bit across a range of tasks.

I hope this helps relapse 86.

You could overclock it a bit but I wouldn't bother ... the performance increase vs the thermal issues probably are not worth it.

 

[relapse86]

thank you reynod and everyone else for the help, I will be sure to ask anymore questions on this forum