confused about PC100 memory speed

[Guest]

Hi,

I bought a pc around 2 years ago with an Asus P2B-F mb, P3-450 MHz and 128 mb RAM (PC100) that the salesman said was tested at 6ns. I'd like to upgrade to 256 mb and can't seem to find 6ns anywhere. It seems that all PC100 is 8ns. I haven't opened the case to look at the memory which maybe I should, just wondering if I actually bought 8 ns memory or is this not PC100? I'd hate to mix 8ns and 6ns and slow down what I already have.

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

Chances are, it's not 6ns memory. That would have cost you a fortune 2 years ago. The original PC100 specification called for 8ns chips to guarantee it would run with the 100MHz clock (8ns should work up to 125MHz)

However, if you want to buy more memory, go for it. Get pc100 or pc133, it doesn't matter. The pc100/pc133 rating determines the maximum speed the DIMM is rated for. It will work perfectly fine below spec (100MHz in your system). Just find something that is reasonably priced, and go for it. <A HREF="http://www.crucial.com" target="_new">Crucial</A> has some very attractive prices for name brand memory.

As for mixing different speeds of RAM, the speed that the memory runs at is determined by the Front Side Bus (FSB) of the computer, and all installed memory runs at the same speed.

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I have not yet begun to procrastinate.

 

[mpjesse]

Yeah- I doubt that 6ns PC100 RAM even existed when you got that system. If it did, you probably did pay a fortune for it. Just get some PC100 from Crucial. Mixing nanosecond speeds with a machine that old will hardly affect performance in today's applications.

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

 

[Crashman]

I have also had that 6ns memory. It was made by Hyundai. But at any rate, get PC100 cas 2 and it will be just as fast, or, better yet, get PC133. It will all run at 100MHz and the Cas setting you choose in BIOS.

Suicide is painless...........

 

[Guest]

It's like no-one here has ever been to pricewatch.
PC 100 6ns 128MB ram is like $28 plus shipping.
Whether you have that in your system already or not can be determined (hopefully) by using MBM (Motherboard Monitor) or Sandra (A benchmarking/analyzing tool).
I do recommend PC 133 CAS2/CL2 myself, just because it is more versatile and can usually run up to 150MHz.

No, I'm sorry, I don't work here.