Is the RAMBUS in an Optiplex GX400 ECC or non -ECC?

I finally found a quantity of surplus RAMBUS 800 at a reasonable price ($25
per 256MB stick), so now I can load up my Optiplex GX400.

Problem is, It's been so long since I've messed with this machine, I can't
remember: Does it take ECC or non-ECC or either or both ?

And somewhere in my attic I've got a Dimension (8200?) that *appeared* to
be an identical motherboard as the GX400. Same memory rules for this one
too?

Thanks.

- FM -

 

8200 is non-ecc. Odds are the Optiplex is too, or would at least be ok with
it.

Tom

 

i'd be curious to hear your source for the memory. i could use a few
sticks myself.

 

It'll all be gone by monday anyway. A friend of mine runs a PC
dismantling/recycling business in Cornelius Oregon. They're in it mostly
for the value of the metals/plastics/etc but occasionally if they see
something particularly valuable come through they'll sell it on ebay as
jfrost1151.

I'd say 99+ % of what they get is pure no-name junk like 286/386/486/etc,
but occasionally a rare gem. I've got a standing order with them for any
recent model Optiplexes and PowerEdges but they're few and far between.

- FM -

 

Fred,

You got a great price. The non-ECC should work just fine... Ben Myers

 

The 8200's and even my older XPS B1000R can use either ECC or Non-ECC or
even both.

If you mix ECC and Non-ECC, the system will default to treating all the
RDRAM as Non-ECC.

Speeds can be mixed as well.

RDRAM came in speeds of
600
700
800.

If you mix speeds, the memory will run at the slowest speed installed.

 

Beware that the BIOS in many (most?) Dell P4 RAMBUS computers will reject slower
speed memory. In other words, the BIOS reads out the speeds of each RIMM and if
the speed is not enough, the system won't boot. People are 1000% better off
using the speed of memory for which the system is designed, even if slower will
run OK. I have never seen a Dell P4 system set up with anything slower than
PC800, which makes sense given that the slowest P4 processors run at 400MHz FSB.

Finally, PC1066 RAMBUS memory is/was used in P4 systems with 533MHz FSB. There
are two speed grades of PC800: PC800-45 and PC800-40... Ben Myers

 

Just to throw a monkey wrench in your 'never', I'm sitting in front of my
Dimension 8100 P4-1.5 right now. According to the BIOS, the two RIMMS are
128MB 300 Mhz ECC (OK, the ECC part surprised me). This is the stock memory
that came in the machine.

According to Sisoft Sandra, it is 300Mhz (600Mhz Data rate), which also says
PC600.

Surprised me too.

Tom

 

Okay, now open up the computer and look at the speed ratings on the stickers on
each RIMM. I can't say that I trust Sandra when it comes to RAMBUS. But visual
verification of speed ratings per the stickers is pretty trustworthy.

Interesting, 'cause I handled some surplus 8100's earlier this year, and every
one of them came equipped with PC800 ECC. Same with the Precison 330's, which
are very similar beasts.

If your 8100 does accept PC600, this tells me that the Socket 423 Pentium 4's
had a BIOS that is far more tolerant of different speed grades than the 8200,
8250, Optiplex GX240, Precision 340... Ben Myers

 

Ooops.
Bit of a clearafication here

My comments about mixing speeds and ECC vs Non-ECC refer to my older XPS
B1000r which is a P3 ghz system with RDRAM

My slightly newer 8200 is a 2.53Ghz system that was bought when the 2.53 was
first introduced.
I checked and yes it came with (and still has) PC800.
I believe the CPU FSB is 533Mhz and the memory FSB is 400Mhz.

There was quite a stir raised back then about the newer 533Mhz FSB systems
from other manufacturers that used the new 1066Mhz memory, but Dell did not
(at least at that time) and refused to offer a BIOS upgrade to enable a
1066FSB on those systems. The motherboards Dell used in those systems were
basically an Intel OEM MB and at that time Intel was not supporting the
1066FSB on those particular systems.

 

Makes sense to me. The 8200 probably has RAMBUS RIMMs marked 800-40, to allow
the memory to operate with 533MHz FSB. 800-45 won't do it in the tests I've
conducted. The later Dimension 8000 series models accept PC1066 memory with 184
pins. An added confusion factor for RAMBUS is that PC1066 was also manufactured
with a 240-pin form factor. I have no clue which computers accept the 240-pin
RAMBUS.

.... Ben Myers

 

If''n I recall, for the original 2.53Ghz systems, the 45ns worked just fine.
It was when the 3.06Ghz systems came out soon after that you had to make
sure you used the 40ns modules.

But then again that was several years (2002) ago, and I have problems
remembering what I was doing 10min ago..