Dell 3100 Memory upgrade

GSKILL is a premium brand and they're my first choice for builds.

They have fancier offerings, but in your case I was trying to keep the cost to a minimum.

Memory timings aren't going to give a 3100 a noticeable boost in performance. More memory will, as will upgrading to an SSD for a boot device, and updating to more-modern graphics..

No problem regarding the question on the memory. :) I used to buy other brands, but I bought GSKILL once, got good results, and looked them up on Wikipedia and discovered they were an A-brand. Typically with older, non-overclockable machines, it's most important to have matched memory of the right speed; mix it, and the operating speed may shift down.

SSD refers to a Solid State Device, a replacement for a traditional hard drive that uses memory rather than spinning platters to store data. It's much faster than a traditional hard drive and will give a huge boost in performance and responsiveness. Since SSDs are much more expensive per unit of storage than traditional hard drives are, their use tends to be restricted to boot drives. If you were to buy one and later buy a new computer, you could move the SSD over; most new computers are not so equipped and an SSD makes a big difference.

I'm not sure why the 3100 hangs, but bad memory is a potential cause, as is a flaky power supply or a problem with the motherboard. I repaired a freezing, slow-performing 5150 some time back, and it was due to the power supply.

If you were wondering, fixing and hot-rodding old Dells is a hobby of mine.

Hi rdunnil,

I was about to tag a message on the other thread asking if you didn't mind if I put your suggestion out for general comment - but I was abruptly interrupted by a domestic demand to go and order pizza. Hope you didn't mind.

Fact is, that even after a clean 'Dell PC restore', the 3100 still has a tendency to hang rather too easily. I've run a diagnostic and Memtest just to see if there are any hardware issues, and everything appears to be OK. So, I think a memory upgrade would go a long way to improving performance, and DR2 800 would seem to be the better match for the CPU FPS. So solid performance along with reliability are really what I'm looking for.....as well as bang for the buck.  Neither my wife or I are 'over-clockers' so to speak.

I'd never heard of GSkill before, but if they are a reputed brand it seems like a good choice. Only reason I mentioned Kingston and Corsair, is that they are brands I'm familiar with.

Out of interest, what is an 'SSD for a boot device' ??  

There's also this Kingston ValueRAM for around the same price:

www.newegg.ca/.../ProductList.aspx

CL6 though, whereas the GSkill is rated CL5.

One thing that concerns me a bit about the GSkill module though are the several customer complaints (on NewEgg) about them over-heating. I dunno, I guess there are duds with every brand (the Kingston product included), but I think I'd prefer to find one 'dead-out-of-the box' than it failing after a period of use. There again, there are also complaints about incompatibility of the Kingston module with some boards.

Anyone have experience with Kingston ValueRam on a Dimension?  

There are duds in every brand and model. I haven't come across dud memory, but I have had at least three defective optical drives, two Sonys and a Samsung. With the latter, smoke came out of the drive as soon as I power on the Dimension 2350 it was installed in; I RMA'ed it to Newegg and received a like unit, which has functioned perfectly. The occasional RMA is par for the course in DIY hardware upgrades.

Regarding the memory, if it doesn't work, you can RMA it back to Newegg. It also has a lifetime guarantee from GSKILL, which means they'll look after you if you have problems in the near to mid future. If you're using the 3100 for Web surfing and other light uses, you should be able to get several more years use out of it with a few mods. Regretfully, a $40 Window 8 upgrade isn't one of them, and XP support will be ended next year.

I wonder which manufacturer Dell uses for their 'in-house' brand:

accessories.us.dell.com/.../productdetail.aspx

I'd be tempted to buy from them, but I'm extremely miffed right now about my Dell Inspiron 1420 that suffered death by nVidia GPU defect meltdown.....now out-of-warranty of course....but that's another story.

Well, I guess I am also thinking about provision for Windows upgrade at some point. The wife's not particularly interested though, preferring for now to stick with what she is familiar with. That's why the reliability factor is such a priority. Woe betide me if I put something in there that screws it up.

As for me, I'm also running XP (Pro) on an old custom-built PC; 2.09 GHz AMD XP2800+ processor, MSI MB with 1GB DDR. No prospect of upgrading any hardware that would make a difference there, but, I have to say, it runs better than Dell 3100 right now.

WorBry

Dell uses many different brands of RAM, you won't know what the make/brand is, until you receive it.

Bev.

I chickened out and went for the Kingston ValueRAM. I'm sure it will be OK.

Just thinking in advance. Had a look at the BIOS and I can't see any configurable settings for SDRAM, so, is it safe to assume that everything is configured automatically? Might be best though to run a Memtest before booting to Windows though.

Cheers.

OK, so I received and installed the 2 x 1GB Kingston ValueRAM PC2-6400 modules. No problems.

But what disappoints and befuddles me is that, of the SPD instructions reported by the BIOS it is not selecting the 400MHz (Bus Clock) instruction.

For both modules, CPU-Z gives the reported SPD as:

JEDEC#1   400MHz  6-6-6-18 (tRC 24) 1.8V

JEDEC#2   333MHz  5-5-5-15 (tRC 20) 1.8V

JEDEC#3   266MHz  4-4-4-12 (tRC 16) 1.8V

But the BIOS has selected the lowest 266MHz speed, the same as it also did on the 2 x 512MB PC2-4200 cards that I just took out.

Now, from what I learned about P4 and DDR2 interactions, I understand why the BIOS would favor 266MHz over 333MHz, but why would 400MHz not be selected given that it is faster and matched to the CPU FSB? Does this mean then that CAS timings take priority?

If that is the case, what is to be gained in using PC2-6400 on the Dimension 3100 unless the BIOS allows the SDRAM clock frequency to be manually set, which, as far as I can make out, is not an option. Yet PC2-6400 is what the Dell support page gives as the recommended memory upgrade.

I wondered if there has maybe been a BIOS update that explains this?

The BIOS on my 3100 is version A03 (10/08/2005), which is what it came with.  I see on the Dell site there is one available BIOS update to vA04. The stated change-log is ‘Add support for new CPU’, nothing about PC2-6400 support.

So am I missing something here?

If it has any bearing, the CPU and MB versions in my 3100 are:

CPU: Pentium 4 630 3GHz (Prescott) - which BIOS v A03 added support for.

MainBoard:

Dell OJC474

Chipset: Intel i915P/i915G Rev B1

Southbridge: Intel 82801FB (ICH6) Rev04

Irony is that I went down to the local municipality PC recycling plant the other day, looking to see what they had. No lack of performance-validated 1GB PC2-4200/DDR2-533 (266MHz clock) cards (mostly Kingston), for $5 a piece. The guy even told me they were the right ones to use. Kicking myself.

Ah, OK, after more searching, I see that the 'New CPU' referred to in the A04 BIOS update was the 3.4Ghz Prescott P4 series

Prescott P4 650, 3.40Ghz

Prescott P4 551, 3.40Ghz

Prescott P4 551, 3.40Ghz

So, do any of these support a DDR2-800 (400Hz SDRAM) clock, or are they (as I learn) like my 630 3GHz P4 locked at  DDR-553 (226Hz) ? Just a thought.  

You can try it, but the 3100/E310 has limited potential. It's suitable for Web surfing, video playback, general office duties and light gaming. I wouldn't use it for development or heavy gaming.

I appreciate all that.  According to this thread the three models I mentioned are compatible with the 3100, provided the BIOS is updated to A04:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19426643.aspx

I am simply wanting to ascertain whether the 3.4GHz Prescott series P4's support a (DDR2) SDRAM bus clock-speed higher than 226MHz and logically  400Mhz, in part to understand why Dell would cite PC2-6400 as the recommended memory upgrade for the 3100. That's all.

Can't see anything in the 3.4GHz P4 (Prescott 650) specs to suggest it would be any different from the 3GHz P4 (Prescott 630) :

www.cpu-world.com/.../Intel-Pentium%204%20630%203.0%20GHz%20-%20JM80547PG0802MM%20-%20HH80547PG0802MM%20%28BX80547PG3000F%29.html

www.cpu-world.com/.../Intel-Pentium%204%20650%203.4%20GHz%20-%20JM80547PG0962MM%20-%20HH80547PG0962MM%20%28BX80547PG3400F%29.html

On the Dell 3100, probably also locked into SDRAM 226MHz as a 3:4 optimum for the P4 200MHz bus frequency.

Unless anyone can confirm otherwise?