Anyone familiar with the Dell Optiplex GX 260

[AMD K6]

Hi.

I won a Dell Optiplex GX 260 on Ebay and, was wondering if I am limited to a certain type of memory (It uses DDR Sdram)?

After reading the FAQ in the Memory section, I noticed comes in different grades than the old Sdram.

I would like to fill it up to it's capacity (2 Gb) and, was wondering if I can use two "283/566 MHz => DDR566 or PC4500" 1 Gb RAM sticks or am I limited to a certain grade.

Here are the grades from the Memory Forum.

100/200 MHz => DDR200 or PC1600
133/266 MHz => DDR266 or PC2100
166/333 MHz => DDR333 or PC2700
185/370 MHz => DDR370 or PC3000
200/400 MHz => DDR400 or PC3200
217/433 MHz => DDR433 or PC3500
233/466 MHz => DDR466 or PC3700
250/500 MHz => DDR500 or PC4000
267/533 MHz => DDR533 or PC4200
283/566 MHz => DDR566 or PC4500

Oh! The computer is a P4 1.8 GHZ if that helps.

Thanks

 

[JamesXP]

GX260's eh, We have them in school(Only 4)


The memorys should have SPDs

Stock will probaably bee DDR333/400


EG. Buy 400 Memory it will have settings for 400 266 133 ETC.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

Stock is DDR266. DDR400 value ram should be plenty (even most value ram has SPD 2-2-2-5 or pretty close at 266 speeds). I'd watch out with the fancier stuff, it should work fine provided that it will work on 2.5v. Remember that a lot of performance ram requires higher voltages.

Edit: Thought of another thing to consider: a surprising amount of the higher performance ram also doesn't include SPD values for DDR266 mode, which could cause all sorts of problems, maybe to the point that the ram wouldn't be recognized at all.

And we'll not even go into the crime of using such awesome ram in such a weak system.

 

[AMD K6]

Thanks for the help.

So, DDR 266 is the safest way to go and, the DDR 400 is more ify but, offers a better performance. Is the performance among the two based on short burst (Peaks) or more longterm (Continuous) duty cycles?

How much better (Percentage wise) is the DDR 266 over the DDR 400 under the my computer's conditions?

I will eventually increase the processor to 2.6 GHZ if that makes a difference.

Thank you.

 

[Drew@PSU]

First, to the Forums K6 and Thrashbarg ( great name )!

If you buy DDR 400 ValueRam, you should be just fine, as it will run just fine. Although the system itself isn't a speed-demon ( they are intended to be corporate drone-pcs ), you should do just fine with more ram. You can add DDR 266, although its probably easier to grab the DDR 400, either will work fine. The only thing is that if your mobo allows it, you can run the DDR 400 faster than the DDR 266, it all depends on the limits of the motherboard.

Good luck!

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

Ok, sorry, seems I may have left a bit of confusion here:

You will only be able to run the ram at DDR266 speeds. That's all the GX260 supports. But, DDR400 will usually be spec'd to allow very tight timings at DDR266 speeds, as opposed to actual DDR266 which will prolly be the bottom-of-the-barrel chips anymore. I've never seen DDR400 that didn't include SPD values for DDR266 speeds, so you should be safe there. (The SPD values are what tells the machine what timings to use... you can't adjust them yourself in a Dell, so the SPD is quite important here.)

There's virtually no price difference between DDR266 and DDR400, so it's worth it to get something that's guaranteed to be a bit better quality.

And a bit OT, but the GX260 is a nice machine for basic stuff. Mine's near-silent and only draws 45w from the wall at idle. Pretty good for a P4 minitower.

 

[AMD K6]

Thanks for the help & the Welcome!

I don't mind that the computer was aimed more to wards a corporate enviornment. In fact, I prefer it that way. I just wanted a no frills computer.

I'm off to ebay to bid on some RAM.

Thanks again.