Ancient PCCHPS MoBo and its RAM question

[josephfuentes]

Folks, a friend of mine -really! - has a prehistoric desktop with PCCHPS motherboard mdl M755. It has 4 slots, 2 of them populated with 128MB sticks. From Wopti Utilities (I'm assuming you guys are familiar with it), it said the 256MB RAM was
DIMM SDRAM, Error detection 32bit ECC, supported speeds 70ns, 60ns, EDO Parity ECC SIMM 3.3V.

I was told this is very old memory. And expensive too! So my question is, can I just use old DDR2 or even DDR memory which is cheaper to bring it up to 512MB? That is, throw the existing 265MB ECC memory out, and replace it with 4 sticks of 128MB or even 2 sticks of 256MB? I looked at the PCCHPS website and even it does not have much info. Or is my buddy stuck with having to buy another EDO ECC memory sticks to bring it to 512MB?

Before you say throw that piece of junk in the trash - i AGREE! Problem is it's not my desktop.

Pls help here. I am not a memory expert. Thanks!

 

[kerdika]

DO NOT PUT IN ANYOTHER RAM OTHER THAN THE SPECIFIED FOR THE MOBO
SDR is NOT compatible with DDR
nor is DDR compatible with DDR2 and the same goes for DDR3
MIXING AN MATCHING WILL CAUSE RAM/BOARD/CPU/PSU/EVERYTHING FAILURE!!!!

on that note, you need to hunt for PC133 SDRam, since you have ecc that is working you can probly use server ram (ECC) look on ebay for 512mb 133mhz (or pc133) sdram from an hp proliant (DL380 G1, G2 or DL580 G1) you should be able to pick some up quite cheap. you said that there are 4 ram slots... pcchips said there is only 2.... and the max is one gig (1GB). SDRam does not have dual channel or anything like that, so you can mix and match sizes with out any issues. use cpuz to find out what the cpu supports for its fsb, it will eather be 100mhz or 133mhz, if its 133 then get 133 ram as it makes a difference, if its 100 then get 100 or 133 the 133 is down clock.

 

[pathasse]

What is the CPU?

 

[josephfuentes]

DO NOT PUT IN ANYOTHER RAM OTHER THAN THE SPECIFIED FOR THE MOBO
SDR is NOT compatible with DDR
nor is DDR compatible with DDR2 and the same goes for DDR3
MIXING AN MATCHING WILL CAUSE RAM/BOARD/CPU/PSU/EVERYTHING FAILURE!!!!

on that note, you need to hunt for PC133 SDRam, since you have ecc that is working you can probly use server ram (ECC) look on ebay for 512mb 133mhz (or pc133) sdram from an hp proliant (DL380 G1, G2 or DL580 G1) you should be able to pick some up quite cheap. you said that there are 4 ram slots... pcchips said there is only 2.... and the max is one gig (1GB). SDRam does not have dual channel or anything like that, so you can mix and match sizes with out any issues. use cpuz to find out what the cpu supports for its fsb, it will eather be 100mhz or 133mhz, if its 133 then get 133 ram as it makes a difference, if its 100 then get 100 or 133 the 133 is down clock.

My Reply:
Thanks for the thorough and speedy reply. I know enuff not to mix and match memory types. What I was thinking was ditching the 2 128MB SDRAM sticks and using up to 4 128MB sticks but using something other than ECC type RAM. Something cheaper.

So based on your response, it sounds like pc133 sdram would do the trick.

the FSB according to cpuz is 133MHz

 

[josephfuentes]

What is the CPU?

hi
according to cpuz it's a VIA CPU, it's something like 790MHz, chipset SIS.

I forget the exact model. It's FSB is rated at 133MHz.

Thx again for the quick reply

 

[kerdika]

the ecc is not required, but SDRAM is expensive in general especally in large sizes. if you hit ebay you should find some "server" SDRam witch is essentially the same thing as "normal" SDram,, you might even be able to mix ecc with non ecc, it should disable the ecc on the chips that support it. at worst it wont boot with the mismatch but no damage should result.


Check this out:

http://cgi.ebay.com/2GB-4x-512MB-HP-Compaq-DL380-G2-Memory-PC133-SDRAM-REG_W0QQitemZ120463584205QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0c306bcd

2gb (4x512) for $24 !! your board might only support 1 gb, so you may need to only use 2 sticks

 

[kerdika]

i cant find that via cpu, you may need to get ecc, im not sure yet, see if you can get me the exact model.

 

[josephfuentes]

LATEST UPDATE TO ALL:

Well I think I finally got the real info on the desktop.

Running PCWizard from cpuid, it told me the memory controller was the one that had the Fast Page Mode, EDO, Parity ECC blah blah blah. This is the same thing Wopti utilities told me.

HOWEVER , PCWizard told me something Wopti didn't. it took a very close look at the actual RAM sticks and told me the following:
Kingston 128MB SDRAM PC-133 (133MHz) UNBUFF ECC=No, supports 100MHz, 133MHz

This is something Wopti never told me.

Also I looked at the desktop's guts and I only saw 2 RAM slots which is consistent on the PCCCHPS mobo specs I downloaded. There were 2 other empty slots but these didn't have the latches I saw that normally hold the RAM in its place. The specs are not consistent with both Wopti and PCWizard reports (4 slots). Odd.

So now I think I know what I have to get. I got confused by the info provided to me by Wopti on the controller not the RAM itself. Sorry if I led everyone down a wild goose chase.

Kerdika I will look on the ebay link you sent me.

Thanks all!

 

[kerdika]

the ram i linked is registered and may or may-not work with your board, but for sure you should look for sdram pc-133 the manual i downloaded said you boar supports a max of 512MB per slot, 1GB total. good luck!

 

[josephfuentes]

PCWizard told me it was unregistered memory.

That util is pretty amazing. It even told me the serial numbs on the sticks. wow!

Thanks all!