kingston memory is good. get it.
good read on memory basics:
http://www.pcmech.com/show/memory/154/
http://www.computing.net/hardware/wwwboard/forum/36897.html
My desciption may be a little inaccurate with respect to numbers but the principle is correct-
your motherboard is fixed at a certain bus speed which it accesses the RAM at, lets say either 100 Mhz and 133 Mhz. Higher freq = faster. Both memory chips PC100 and PC133, for 100 and 133 Mhz respectively, are SDRAM and should be same pin configuration (100 or 168 pin DIMM) and should fit physically.
- If your motherboard bus speed is 100 mhz (as in pc100 and built before pc133 came into existance) then if you use PC133 memory in it, the memory itself lowers it's clock cycle to be compatible with the motherboard. So your paying for extra speed that you can't necessarily utilize, unless it was on sale cheaper than pc100. However, a cheap pc133 could be considered a high quality pc100 and probably would be a good choice on a system calling for PC100 RAM if the price is right. explanation in first link. However, the pc133
must be backwards compatible, and not all of them are so before you buy pc133 make sure it's backward compatible with at least pc100. I doubt anyone is running pc66 memory any more. If your absolutely sure your system is pc133, then you need not be concerned with the backward compatibility unless you want to mix pc133 ram with pc100 ram to use at the same time (see below). This is where people have their problems; if the desciption does not say PC133/100 or PC133/100/66, then assume it only works in a pc133 system.
- If your motherboard is newer and bus speed can run at 133mhz, then pc133 memory is the way to go. If you buy less expensive pc100 RAM, it'll work but then the motherboard bus speed then runs at the 100mhz memory speed and you're not running at full potential. In this case, max out the memory with PC100 at say $50 is better than trying to max it out or just increase it a little with PC133 for 4 times the price. Depends how soon you want the memory and how much you want to spend.
- you can install both pc100 and pc133 at the same time, it'll work but everything runs at the lowest speed which is 100 mhz. I believe this is only true if the pc133 is bacward compatible to pc100. If it isn't, then the computer won't boot and give you beep beep error.
[ September 27, 2005, 11:03 AM: Message edited by: 1 FMF ]
