TR Forums

My mother has this intel board, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813121046. This is the corresponding page Intel page for the board, http://www.intel.com/support/motherboar ... 026621.htm.
I see that this board can take up to 4 GB of ddr2 533 or 667 ram @ 1.8v. Correct?
Can I use ddr2 800? Ddr2 800 is cheaper, and there are a lot more options at that speed.
I had some gskill ddr2 800, but it was 1.9-2.1v. I believe the timings were tighter as well. In any case, the gskill wouldn't work.
Thanks.

Did you try the gskill ram? I think that in most cases the ram would work properly at 1.8v if it were running at a lower frequency, ie. 533 or 667MHz.

crazybus wrote:

Did you try the gskill ram? I think that in most cases the ram would work properly at 1.8v if it were running at a lower frequency, ie. 533 or 667MHz.

Yes, I tried the gskill but no boot. I wonder if ddr2 800 ram, with moderate timings, will work at the reference 1.8v voltage? Or must I use the 667/533?

Do you have the latest bios installed?
Have you tried clearing the CMOS before installing the new ram?
Have you tried a single stick of the new ram?

Do you still have the Gskill ram? or did you return it already.

The G.skill website only lists DDR2-667 RAM as compatible with youy chipset (946GZ). On the other hand, the Corsair memory configurator suggests Value Series DDR2-667 for that board, but it also lists 800MHz and 1066MHz parts as compatible. I'm not sure what memory options you have available in the BIOS, but you may have to manually set 667MHz to get the faster RAM to work.

The Gskill memory probably didn't work because of its voltage. Many boards, particularly Intel and cheap and especially cheap Intel boards, can not use DDR2 that requires more than the stock 1.8V.

FuturePastNow wrote:

The Gskill memory probably didn't work because of its voltage. Many boards, particularly Intel and cheap and especially cheap Intel boards, can not use DDR2 that requires more than the stock 1.8V.

That was my guess, but I'm glad to hear someone else mention it.
This board has a p4 915 cpu in it. Can anyone recommend a decent replacement processor?
The best cpu I see for it is the e2200. Which is only a 2.2GHz part.
I'm almost ready to toss the whole thing and get her this board, ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131324.
This processor, AMD Athlon 64 X2 5050e Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103298, or this new 95 watt cpu, AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor, here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103300.

Anyone have any thoughts on a processor?
Thanks.

Does she need more speed? How about a fresh OS install. If she's doing the basics tasks then I would have to think the cpu is fast enough, and if it has atleast 2gb ram it should be fine. If the HDD is really old then getting a new one will speed things up.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136074

eric93se wrote:

Does she need more speed? How about a fresh OS install. If she's doing the basics tasks then I would have to think the cpu is fast enough, and if it has atleast 2gb ram it should be fine. If the HDD is really old then getting a new one will speed things up.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136074

She has a Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive.
Only 1 gig of ram, but I'll upgrade that either way.
But yeah, I'm certain a new OS install would likely help lots. She's still on the original xp home install, and there is no doubt she's borked it something awful.
It's just that her machine never has been truly solid. It's always been a tad slower than I expected, and somewhat buggy as well.

So you think I should stick with the 915, or go for the e2200?

todd wrote:

This board has a p4 915 cpu in it. Can anyone recommend a decent replacement processor?
The best cpu I see for it is the e2200. Which is only a 2.2GHz part.

Do not be confused by the GHz as they are not comparable across different architectures. The E2200 is Core 2 based and has a physical extra cores so the chip can outperform the P4 915 by quite a lot.

I've just taken delivery of a new Dell PC, I ordered 320GB HDD, and 2GB ram, it tells me something different? I've looked at how much RAM / HDD it thinks I've got and it's more like 298GB and 1098mb. Is this a problem? I've checked what my PC at work thinks it's got, and it tells me accuractely, and this was ordered with 320GB HDD and 2GB ram, that's exactly what it says! Have I been diddled or am I just stoopid?

salvadori wrote:

I've just taken delivery of a new Dell PC, I ordered 320GB HDD, and 2GB ram, it tells me something different? I've looked at how much RAM / HDD it thinks I've got and it's more like 298GB and 1098mb. Is this a problem? I've checked what my PC at work thinks it's got, and it tells me accuractely, and this was ordered with 320GB HDD and 2GB ram, that's exactly what it says! Have I been diddled or am I just stoopid?

298GiB of HDD space sounds about right. 1098MiB does not. Can you run a tool like CPU-Z and see what it reports?