RDRAM question

[BobS0327]

I recently acquired an old Gateway Performance 1500 computer with the intention of turning it into a Linux box. I've installed Debian and the performance is just a little too sluggish for my liking. I thought I'd add some additional RAM since the machine only has 128M (two 64M sticks). I got "sticker shock" when I priced the RAM. It's about $180.00 for 512M of RDRAM.

I'm not a hardware type. So, are there any alternatives to purchasing this expensive RDRAM? I don't want to make a major investment in old hardware.

I was thinking about possibly purchasing the RDRAM from ebay but I'm not too familiar with hardware in general and RDRAM specifically. Thus, the possiblity exists that I might purchase the wrong RDRAM.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

[matsp]

RDRAM went out of fashion about 4 years ago, when DDR was proven to be faster AND CHEAPER. Because of that, RDRAM is very expensive, since all that is available is left-over stock that is 4 years old or thereabouts. And of course, only people who DESPERATELY need this, and can't change the computer to a newer model, will buy these, so they CAN charge an arm and a leg for them.

On a budget, you may be able to replace only the motherboard with a more modern Pentium4 motherboard. Otherwise, you'll have to replace both motherboard and processor (and probably graphics card) to upgrade your machine. It is probably still less expensive than getting 1GB of RAM, and your new machine will be noticably faster too.

--
Mats

[BobS0327]

Thanx Mat.

I believe my Pentium 4 with 1Gig of RAM would really work fine. So, can anyone recommend some inexpensive motherboards to handle my current pentium 4 chip using modern RAM?

[matsp]

Thanx Mat.

I believe my Pentium 4 with 1Gig of RAM would really work fine. So, can anyone recommend some inexpensive motherboards to handle my current pentium 4 chip using modern RAM?

No, I'm afraid I'm not very up to speed on Pentium4 models and motherboards - they have a few differnet variants of sockets and models too, so I'm not sure what model to look for.

If you give the specs (speed, voltage, and socket if you know what it is), and I'm sure we can help you out.

Edit: I think you are looking for a Intel 845D or later chipset. There may be others that work too - but I'm pretty sure that's the one that is compatible with a RDRAM 850 chipset without any further trouble.

--
Mats

[cpjust]

If cheap is all you're worried about, go to Dell.
You can get a 2.2GHz computer w/2GB DDR2 RAM for under $300.

[BobS0327]

If cheap is all you're worried about, go to Dell.
You can get a 2.2GHz computer w/2GB DDR2 RAM for under $300.

That's a defiinte possibility. I like the price.

I've been offered a motherboard from a Dell Optiplex GX260. Here's a link to the Dell spec's. I'm hardware challenged. So, I'm not sure the Dell motherboard will work (fit?) in the Gateway. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


But anyway, I dumped the hardware specs as follows:

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 25 bytes
System Information
Manufacturer: Gateway
Product Name: E-4600
Version: 4000656
Serial Number: 0022377999
UUID: 8065A302-DF1D-B211-8000-B527C5F27091
Wake-up Type: Power Switch

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 8 bytes
Base Board Information
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Product Name: D850GB
Version: AAA22957-305
Serial Number: IMGB05100333

Handle 0x0003, DMI type 3, 17 bytes
Chassis Information
Manufacturer: Gateway
Type: Unknown
Lock: Not Present
Version: HVA14B08
Serial Number: 0022377999
Asset Tag:
Boot-up State: Unknown
Power Supply State: Unknown
Thermal State: Unknown
Security Status: Unknown
OEM Information: 0x00000000

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 32 bytes
Processor Information
Socket Designation: J4K1
Type: Central Processor
Family: Pentium 4
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
ID: 07 0F 00 00 FF FB EB 3F
Signature: Type 0, Family 15, Model 0, Stepping 7
Flags:
FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
VME (Virtual mode extension)
DE (Debugging extension)
PSE (Page size extension)
TSC (Time stamp counter)
MSR (Model specific registers)
PAE (Physical address extension)
MCE (Machine check exception)
CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
SEP (Fast system call)
MTRR (Memory type range registers)
PGE (Page global enable)
MCA (Machine check architecture)
CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
PAT (Page attribute table)
PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
DS (Debug store)
ACPI (ACPI supported)
MMX (MMX technology supported)
FXSR (Fast floating-point save and restore)
SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
SS (Self-snoop)
HTT (Hyper-threading technology)
TM (Thermal monitor supported)
Version: Pentium(R) 4
Voltage: 3.0 V
External Clock: 100 MHz
Max Speed: 1500 MHz
Current Speed: 1500 MHz
Status: Populated, Enabled
Upgrade: ZIF Socket
L1 Cache Handle: 0x0005
L2 Cache Handle: 0x0006
L3 Cache Handle: Not Provided

[matsp]

Generally, motherboards are interchangeable. Dell is one of those that design their own cases, but I'm 90% sure that their motherboards are standard shape. If it's a bargain, go for it. If it's "a bit on the expensive side", I'm sure you can find something better.

--
Mats