On Sat, 16 Feb 2002 00:37:05 -0500, you wrote:

>Date:    Thu, 14 Feb 2002 22:18:52 EST
>From:    Kevin Nowicki <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: PC100 or PC133
>
>Dear Listers,
>
>I don't remember if this has been asked before, if so I apologize for asking
>again.  I have a 233mhz PII on a 440LX that has a 66mhz bus.  May I use PC100
>DIMMS?  I know the bus won't be able to take full advantage of the faster
>ram, but the PC100 and PC133 is much  less expensive and I'll be able to use
>it later if I upgrade to a 100mhz fsb motherboard.  Any comments or
>suggestions?
>
>TIA,
>Kevin Nowicki

The answer is generally a qualified yes. PC66 PC100 PC133 is NOT the
determining factor. Its pretty much irrelevant.

OTHER factors of DIMM design, memory mhip design and memory
arraingement  including ones your vendor will not know DO affect if it
will work or not and if it will not just work but be stable in a
particular brand and model motherboard.

If you know the brand and model of the motherboard a more specific
answer is possible. Ultimately you have to try and see and preferably
test by booting to a floppy containing memtest86 or the like if you
want to be sure.

Its common to have to return DIMMs for incompatibility so be sure you
can. Even some PC66 DIMMs might not work! 

I'd say in my experience about 2/3 of 128MB unbuffered SDRAM DIMMS
will work if you have a recent BIOS update

the DIMMS definitely must also have the EEPROM for SPD (Serial
Presence Detect).  This is a teenny tiny chip on the memory module
board.

Some large memory mamufacturers like www.crucial.com maintain a
database of their memory part numbers KNOWN to work in specific
boards. However other memory they make might well work as well.

Memory tested and certified in a specific older board might well be
considerably more expnsive and more modern memory often will work just
as well.

Generally Motherboards based on intel LX chipset will usually work
with unbuffered unregistered SDRAM DIMMS either ECC or not.  in sizes
32MB 64MB and 128MB per dimm  PC66 PC100 PC133

SOME boards might take other sizes or allow registered types. 
or  demand registered types if all DIMM slots are filled

Memory geometry matters and they don't exactly tell you that so some
DIMMs will NOT work or show less than their full size or have subtle
timing issues with some OSes

LX boards tend to be very solid workhorses and it is easy to
overestimate the importance of not having 100 and 133MHz FSB

Almost all LX mainboards will take a $30 Celeron 533PGA in almost any
slotket adapter. But NOT Coppermine core CPUs 533 MHz FCPGA and up

I'm plenty happy with multimedia performance on my LX based systems
and also  do quite a bit of  video capture and editing using various
small shareware and freeware programs. Its also fine for games except
for the latest action packed shootem ups.

You might have to flash your BIOS for better compatibility with
currently available memory or for faster CPU or larger hard drives. 

You can't assume all AGP video cards are compatible either (especially
with early revision LX boards)  as many modern gaming cards are real
power hogs. So you have to be selective if upgrading video cards.

I'm really happy with my two Asus P2L97-S systems and my P2L97-DS
system. I'll continue to use them for years to come.

These systems all can multiboot to Windows 2000, Windows98 Linux and
BSD.

BX systems are similarly excellent but they are 100MHz FSB and can
usually accept 1000MHz Celeron (in certain slotket adapters)or 100MHz
FSB  versions of  PIII copermine. They also more easily accept *some*
256MB DIMMs (in some BX boards) and have compatibility with more AGP
video cards.

They too have incompatibility with certain DIMM designs and memory
organization and there is no clear easy way to know in advance for
certain. Chances are it will.

there is a good page about a popular intel LX mainboard the AL440LX
http://home.earthlink.net/%7Ebillselk/al440lx/index.html quite a bit
of it is aplicable to other LX based boards.

Mark Paulson

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