alexpank Posted October 20, 2006 Report Share Posted October 20, 2006 Hi everyone, I just downloaded and installed Mandriva 2007, which looks really sweet :) ... eventually. You see, I'm running it on a rather old PC (566 MHz) with only 64 MB of RAM. I was running 10.1 on a computer with a slower processor (about 350 MHz or so, I think) but more RAM (I forget how much) and it was so much faster. I've seen in other threads that Linux loves RAM - there's probably some kind of joke about animal husbandry you can slot in here, I'll leave it to your imagination. Anyway, getting to the point, I've been looking a bit into getting more RAM. I have no idea what motherboard I have - is it possible to find out without opening the computer up? But the RAM that's in there is apparently a single 64MB PC-100 SDRAM module. I saw it with my own li'l eyes and also confirmed it through this site. The computer's an NEC Valuestar VE56H/35C or D that I got from a friend. Checking on that same site, it says that you can increase the RAM to a maximum of 256M, presumably with two 128MB modules. This is where my question comes in. The site says you can throw in PC-133 modules (but only if you have really good aim; most people have to put it in carefully :D) but I'm wondering if this is really OK, given that there is a PC-100 module in there at the moment. Can anyone confirm that I'm not going to kill my computer by using two 128MB PC-133 modules instead of the currently-installed 64MB PC-100 module? Many thanks! Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted October 20, 2006 Report Share Posted October 20, 2006 Probably not, chances are the PC133's will run at PC100 speed anyhow, so in theory you should be fine! At worst, it just won't work but you won't damage your machine. It'll just complain like hell and beep crazy. I did the same in a machine, but I had the wrong type. Just took it out, and gave it back to the guy that passed it to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilia_kr Posted October 20, 2006 Report Share Posted October 20, 2006 If you'll use PC133 ram it will work fine. I have a single 128mb 133hz SDRAM and two 64mb 100hz SDRAM and everything is ok. The clock rate will be set to the lowest availible RAM that is 100hz in our case. I'm using a low specs PC myself and I think that Mandriva 2006 was slower (and probably 2007 will be too) on it than some other distros (having exactly the same configuration). Eventually I chose Fedora Core 4 although it was not the newest at that time. But this is a personal opinion. I also noticed that KDE feels a little bit faster that Gnome on a slow CPUs while the usability is pretty much the same. You should consider also to use some lightweight DE like XFCE, FluxBox, OpenBox and others, but they are slightly harder to configure. Try to disable the swap partition, it might make things a little faster too. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexpank Posted October 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2006 Thanks for the speedy replies, guys! Ilia_kr, I'm glad for what you said about KDE, cos I like using it better, although this is probably just because it's what I'm used to. I've fiddled around a little bit with some of the other DEs, but not a whole lot. But now that I have a fast internet connection, look out! By the way, you said that you were mixing RAM speeds and the clock rate was set to the lowest speed (100hz). So does that mean that if I have two PC133 128MB modules, the clock rate will go up to 133hz, assuming the m/b supports it? I'll post back about how it all goes. Thanks again :) Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilia_kr Posted October 20, 2006 Report Share Posted October 20, 2006 By the way, you said that you were mixing RAM speeds and the clock rate was set to the lowest speed (100hz). So does that mean that if I have two PC133 128MB modules, the clock rate will go up to 133hz, assuming the m/b supports it? Yes, it should. Check up your bios settings though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexpank Posted October 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2006 Awesome! Thanks heaps :) Now if I could only get this stupid USB keyboard to behave, everything would be perfect :S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted October 20, 2006 Report Share Posted October 20, 2006 The memory will run the same as the slowest memory component. Therefore if you mix and match PC100 and PC133, it'll run at PC100 only for all of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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