- Joined
- Jan 9, 2005
- Location
- Livonia, MI
I was just given a "new" desktop after complaining that my horribly outdated laptop (P3 Tulatin 1.2GHz, 256MB DDR200 
) was stifling my productivity. I write engineering simulation code, and I found it absolutely ridiculous that I was stuck with such crap for hardware. I would often bring work home, because an analysis run that took around 8 hours on my work PC might run in about 1 hour on my home PC. That's not an exaggeration, either.
Anyhow, my replacement, at least temporarily, is a crappy Dell Optiplex GX280. Here are the main specs:
Intel Celeron D 2.53 GHz (533 MHz Bus)
256 MB PC4200 DDR2
Integrated video
I know very little about Intels, so I was hoping to get some information. First of all, in the BIOS, the memory information page lists a memory speed of 400 MHz, but says that it's DDR2 SDRAM. Is this a mistake in the BIOS? The CPU information claims a 533 MHz bus, so which is it? If I go to Dell's website and search for RAM upgrades for this machine, it lists some PC4200 DDR2.
The bottom line is that I'm looking to upgrade the amount of memory, even if I have to pay out of pocket, because 256MB (248MB after the integrated video steals its 8 MB ) for Windows XP and memory-hungry engineering simulation software is just unacceptable. I am constantly accessing the page file during daily tasks.
So my remaining questions are as follows:
- Does this Intel socket/chipset support dual channel memory?
- For a Dell system like this, assuming I don't care about dual channel functionality, can I just buy some generic value RAM instead of going through Dell? The amount Dell charges for memory is staggering: $100 for a 512MB stick compared to $40 for a comparable module from Newegg.
- In the mean time, how big should I make the page file? I know it's 1.5 times the physical memory by default, but will it help me if I set the page file to 3x or 4x the physical memory to avoid bogging down?
Thanks for your help!
) was stifling my productivity. I write engineering simulation code, and I found it absolutely ridiculous that I was stuck with such crap for hardware. I would often bring work home, because an analysis run that took around 8 hours on my work PC might run in about 1 hour on my home PC. That's not an exaggeration, either.Anyhow, my replacement, at least temporarily, is a crappy Dell Optiplex GX280. Here are the main specs:
Intel Celeron D 2.53 GHz (533 MHz Bus)
256 MB PC4200 DDR2
Integrated video
I know very little about Intels, so I was hoping to get some information. First of all, in the BIOS, the memory information page lists a memory speed of 400 MHz, but says that it's DDR2 SDRAM. Is this a mistake in the BIOS? The CPU information claims a 533 MHz bus, so which is it? If I go to Dell's website and search for RAM upgrades for this machine, it lists some PC4200 DDR2.
The bottom line is that I'm looking to upgrade the amount of memory, even if I have to pay out of pocket, because 256MB (248MB after the integrated video steals its 8 MB
) for Windows XP and memory-hungry engineering simulation software is just unacceptable. I am constantly accessing the page file during daily tasks.So my remaining questions are as follows:
- Does this Intel socket/chipset support dual channel memory?
- For a Dell system like this, assuming I don't care about dual channel functionality, can I just buy some generic value RAM instead of going through Dell? The amount Dell charges for memory is staggering: $100 for a 512MB stick compared to $40 for a comparable module from Newegg.
- In the mean time, how big should I make the page file? I know it's 1.5 times the physical memory by default, but will it help me if I set the page file to 3x or 4x the physical memory to avoid bogging down?
Thanks for your help!
