Actual memory speed...

[setishock]

I have a Dell GXa 233L I've been tinkering aroung with for several weeks. It's got win2k pro on it and when I came to be it's owner it had 128 pc100 ram card in it. Kingston no less. Now quite by accident (as in no label ) I popped in a no name 256 single density double sided ram card. Dang if it didn't see the whole card. Everest running on that machine shows the card as pc133. The frontside buss is running at 66mhz. I figure it's just reading the specs out of the spd chip.
Ok let's cut to the point.
What program can I used that will run on a p2 233mhz that will correctly report the speed the memory is running?

 

[per]

Hi Seti. Did you try belarc?
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

 

[lurkswithin]

You are right in thinking that the program is reading the specs in the spd chip. But is only running at pc100 speed.
The BIOS auto locks the spd settings to correspond with the FSB. This defaults the ram to run at the lowest setting although it is capable of much higher speeds. This is also why ram is built backward compatable.
You might try these guys and bench test that system for you.
http://www.pcpitstop.com

They will run a complete analysis and (not sure) but clock the ram speed in their testing. I know they do just about every test you can think off in their analysis.
Might get lucky and it is free.

 

[setishock]

belarc...

It says FSB 66mhz and 256 ram but no speed. But it says the card is in slot "c". HUH? It's in the slot closest to the cpu cartrige. I'm going to move it out to slot "a" and try that first. If no joy I'll log off from this machine and get on that one and come back on.

 

[neil_kct]

I think that you can download sisoft sandra lite, this will allow you to bench mark your ram speed. also search google for memory bench mark freeware as i think theres loads around

 

[setishock]

Ding!!!

That's the ticket dude. Be back in a short...

EDIT: I have Everest. I ran the benchmarks and all came back saying nice things about the memory but it's just running a pc66. I knew it couldn't go past the FSB but was just courious about why the reported pc133.
Thanks guys. Now I'm off to install a second hard drive in it. Normally I would just check these baby systems and give them away. This one I'm gonna keep.

 

[lhuser]

Maybe your comp won't support higher. What's the date of it?

 

[setishock]

I know all that...

1998
It's just a toy system. Nothing to get all excited about. But the responce time from command input to command task completed is amazing for a p2 233mhz.

 

[lhuser]

Yeah, it won't support higher. I may be wrong, but it won't be higher.