Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

[dood]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

I stand corrected !

In terms of the FSB mistake I made... for some reason I was getting it confused with the old Athlon XP speeds. Where if you have a AthXP w/ 133mhz bus, you'd get 266mhz DDR. I was extrapolating the speed the wrong way!

[Junk Parts]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

God I love this new Badcaps School you all have started for me. Thanks! "Homer Learns Stuff!" PCBONEZ was talking about the BIOS so I checked this one. I have BIOS Ver. A08 on this Dimension 4550. This PC was an X Gov. PC so I don't think its had much of anything done to it. Just so you smart guys and girls can check what this thing came with, the service tag is 5K5FG21. Don't worry its not hot, and a change of ownership was regestered with Dell the day I bought it.
Now I did do a Bios update to the other surplus Dell Optiplex GX180 PIII 1Ghz I have here. It came with BIOS A06 or A08, and the update took it to A11. That one works fine. I hope my coffee gets done soon!
I was doing a little study on these Intel P chips simply because my little PIII does most things faster than this P4 seems to. It seems that back in the PIII days Intel was on the verge of comming out with and even faster PIII chip, but for some reason they couldn't get it done in time. Maybe AMD was kicking their butts too. Well Intel had this other chip they were working on too. It was different from the PIII class chips in its extra long pipeline but it seemed to be ready. They stuck the P4 name on it, and put it on the market as a stop gap measure. Guys like you all didn't like the P4 so much because in the Mid Mhz ranges it failed to give the PIII any real ass kicking at all. In "floating point" stuff the PIII could kick the P4's butt.
God I've been thinking too much already this morning......I feel like its time for another nap! Oh Will is it time to go to the Pub yet????? I'll buy if you show up!

[Junk Parts]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

My brain is trying to crash again. Help me out here Acstech. Way back in the posts you recomended a PNY Kit of PC3200 Dual Channel RAM. I think my junk uses plain DDR RAM, not dual channel. Is this a case of where the new Dual Channel RAM will become regular RAM when I stick it in this PC? Also somebody "maybe PCBONEZ" posted that if I have the A08 BIOS I can use 2GB of RAM. There was also a link to a Dell page about this issue. I do have the A08 Bios but I don't think I have the same mobo they were talking about. They were talking about Dell Board D845PESV. I could be wrong but I think my board is listed as 12U819Card, Planar, Dimension 4550 Audio/NIC. I have the big Dell Clamshell Tower thing. There is also a little 4550 Slimline thing that is also a Dell Dimension 4550. See! My Brain Hurts........


My Dimension 4550...............
Service Tag:5K5FG21
System Typeimension 4550
Ship Date:4/7/2003
Dell IBU:Americas



QuantityParts #Part Description

11W392Processor,80532,2.4G,512K, 533,Socket N,C1
12U819Card,Planar,Dimension 4550, Audio/NIC
12U326Module,Dual In-Line Memory
Memory,256,333M,Non-Error Correction Code
168KYGModule,Floppy Drive,1.44M,NEC,2000/2100
14X117Module,Hard Drive,60,I, 7200,Western Digital
XL40S DVNCI
11R731Card,Graphics,32M,Ultra,Full

11X561Module,Modem,Data Fax Voice,
Tin,Sound,Dimension,Dell America Operations.

[Wizard]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

The 4550 is not dual channel. This pc is low end.

Not PNY. Try to get crucial, kingston or kingmax or any IBM branded DDR DIMMs from ebay or somewhere.

Focus on pair of 1GB DDR 333 or 400 if available.

Cheers, Wizard

[Junk Parts]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Wizard! My fine new "From the junk pile" 4550 is low end???....LOL. Why yes I guess it is. My first 4550 was free. Lightning ate that one. I had to pay the junk shop with real American made money to get this one. I can see we will be needing some newer PC's around here one day soon. Now I can't even figure out the RAM as it is today. How in the hell am I going to pick out new PC's???? If the world would just go back to 1968 bigblock race cars, and slide rules I'd be doing just fine!

[dood]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

A "dual channel kit" is just two of the same sticks of memory slapped together in one box. You can use them in non-dual channel PCs. Sometimes it's cheaper to buy a 2 stick kit than it is to buy two sticks separately.

[acstech]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Yes, what they said. A dual channel kit is just two identical sticks in one box.

The reason I recommended the PNY is that it will most likely be downclocked to 333 anyway, and it was the cheapest on Newegg at the time. Kingston, etc are better manufacturers, but for a Dell? Come on. Save the dollar. Or better yet look for one with free shipping! Although for customer machines I usually use Kingston Value Ram, or if I want something good OCZ Platinum. But for an old Dell?

[Junk Parts]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

I got it! "Homer Lernt Somthin new again!" I went off reading about DDR RAM vs Dual Channel RAM. Here is what I learned...DDR1 transmits data on rise and fall of the clock tick. Someone here said that too. So anyway that means if the clock is ticking at 133 mhz the DDR Ram is ticking away at like X 2 or 266 mhz and the data is 64 bits wide. In dual channel operation the data is 128 bits wide and the controller talks to two ram channels at the same time or 64 + 64 =128! Far Out!

[Wizard]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Heh. I agree on buying a kit. But trust me, I don't want generic like PNY in ANY computers NO matter what it is. Low end or mid range or high end. I had enough of garbage memory messing with data (had happened!) or die.

I scolded my friend who sold me a notebook with flaky GP or GB or PNY memory which was from staples or best buy, Took ram out, OK now and I lost around 50 bucks value on a 150 buck notebook (C600) for a 512MB total now 256MB and I'm very sour that I have no interest trying to replace this memory (DDR 200pin expensive here, 65 to 80 for 1GB). My boss bought a 256MB memory from a big box store which was Azza on garbage memory btw., again ram completely failed with no POST.

Cheers, Wizard

[Junk Parts]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Wizard I will be buying Crucial Memory. Theyhave what I need. That C600 wouldn't be Dell would it? I have the C640. Gave $40.00 for it busted. It needed some passwords removed, the modem replaced, and an OS installed. It came from a local Tech School that went under. Well it has more problems than that. The backup, as well as the main battery are shot too. They want too much money for the main battery for this old thing. The unit is a P4 1.8 with 512 megs of Ram but still by todays standards its a dog. I have it all up and programed incase the wife and I want to use it at motels when we travel.

[acstech]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Crucial is good.

PNY... I've used them before without problems, but I have seen bad memory before. Mostly at the company I used to work for that got generic SDRAM modules (around the year 2000). They'd last a few months then develop random errors. Definitely not something I'd like anyone to go through, as it can cause all sorts of problems.

I'll definately keep your thoughts in mind about PNY in the future, Wizard.

[370forlife]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Dell, like Nvidia, likes to trick you with model numbers.

a 4550 is a lower end version of a 4600 (what my parent's use,) and there are some big differences

4550= max 1gb (2gb?) ddr 333
4600= max 4gb ddr 400
4550=533mhz fsb max
4600=800mhz fsb max w/ HT
4550=AGP 4x, 845PE chipset
4600=AGP 8x, 865PE chipset

Much like how Nvidia or ATI can rip people off by them thinking that a "8500gt is only a little bit slower than a 8600gt, right?"

[Wizard]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Nodding.

Should able to use 1GB simms on 4550 for total of 2GB due to slot numbers. 4600 is *true* dual channel board with 4 slots that's the difference in 4GB capacity.

I was lucky to fix up a 4600 board (recapped with good stuff). Sitting in a bag waiting to go into standard microATX case.

Cheers, Wizard

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

I was doing a little study on these Intel P chips simply because my little PIII does most things faster than this P4 seems to. It seems that back in the PIII days Intel was on the verge of coming out with and even faster PIII chip, but for some reason they couldn't get it done in time.

The P3 line didn't die out at all as most people seem to think.
Most people seem to think all the new CPU cores since P3 are based on P4 and that's FAR from true. If fact most of the great CPU's (performance vs watt wise) are based on the P3 Tualatin core. [And Tualatin was in turn based on Pentium PRO core.]

Although some bits of P4 design got added here and there all of these are primarily based on and direct descendants of P3 Tualatin.
-> PIII-M (is a P3 Tualatin-Mobile) ->
-> Pentium-M (Banias and Dothan cores. These KICK ASS on P4-M.) ->
-> Core, Core Duo, Core Solo (Yonah cores) ->
-> Dual Core Xeon Low Volts (Sossaman core) ->
-> Dual-Core (Allendale, Wolfdale, Merom cores) ->
-> Core 2 Duo (Conroe, Allendale, Wolfdale, Merom, Penryn core)
-> Core 2 Extreme (Conroe XE, Kentsfield XE, Yorkfield XE, Merom XE, Penryn XE.)
-> Core 2 Quad (Kentsfield, Yorkfield, Penryn cores.)
-> Core 2 Solo (Merom, Penryn cores)
[I probably missed some or have the order wrong ~~~~]
-> Planned core in the family line -> Nehalem Core.

So you see, the line didn't die out, your Grandpappy P3 had kids, and they had kids, and they had kids, ... and they are still going at it.
- And some of those kids are multi-core Xeon Server CPUs.

I think that Intel was so embarrassed that P4 architecture did so badly compared to P3 that they started playing the renaming game to just confuse people and keep selling P4 based cores.
.

[Junk Parts]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Well I wish that my PIII, and P4 would get on with having their "relations." I could use a few P7 3.4 Mhz Dual Core Children around here. If they had a big litter I'd keep two, and sell the rest. I could use the money for building my baby CPU's new PC's to live in.

[acstech]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Pcbonez, the Nehalem core is available now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...name=Core%20i7

I think Intel was so embarrassed that the Athlon 64 opened up a can of whoopass on their precious P4's that they were forced to switch back to the P3 line. As a result we got the Core microarchitecture, as you point out.

Building a Core based computer need not be expensive right now. Decent LGA775 boards can be had for cheap, as can massive quantities of DDR-2. Lower end dual core Intel Core based processors are fairly reasonably priced and overclock like mad. Great time to be building computers!

[bgavin]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

My E8400 Wolfdale can be had around $160 USD. I run Corsair XMS2 DDR2 at 800, 4-4-4-12, and it is quite stable.

Even with all the horsepower, my McAfee anti-virus still makes my machine perform sluggishly.

[Wizard]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Cost of this E8400 here is not what seems to be. Here it is 216.xx CDN and this is from best priced B & M store!

This stupid pricing is what kept me from getting stuff on few occasions like Tualatin PIII-S, 1GHz PIIIs and P4 back then. Athlon were selling under 200 at that time when I bought two barton 3000+ on two seperate times.

Cheers, Wizard

[zandrax]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

I think that Intel was so embarrassed that P4 architecture did so badly compared to P3 that they started playing the renaming game to just confuse people and keep selling P4 based cores.

Renaming game? I thought Intel started using the rating system (3xx, 5xx, 6xx, D 8xx and D 9xx series) instead of frequency with the LGA 775 socket processors, so with the Prescott core in 2004. When the Tualatin or the Athlon socket A were beatin the poor Willamette core, Intel did base the marketing on the megahertz hype.
The real renaming game was in 2006, when Intel named the low end Core 2 processors E2xx0 and mobile T20x0 as "Pentium Dual Core" because the 12 years old name had stuck and most people were still looking for computer with a "Pentium" processor; moreover Intel was hurt by its same marketing: the MHz myth promoted the sales of old P4s instead of newer, faster but with slower clock Core 2s

Zandrax

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Memory Upgrade Dell 4550 Tower

Pentium 3 -> Pentium M
How does that follow?