RDRAM in Dell Dimension 8200

[Commontone]

Hi there, my first post here. I have a Dell Dimension 8200 that is about 7 years old now. It has a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 processor, and came with 256MB of RDRAM. It has a decent video card and some additional drives, but otherwise is the same as when I got it.

I'm working on building a PC (I know that's the best solution at this point), but in the meantime I noticed that RDRAM has gotten pretty cheap used on ebay (relatively speaking), so I thought I'd get some to improve things a little and tide me over. I installed 512MB (2 x 256) in the first two slots, moved the existing memory to the second pair of slots. So now it has 768MB total.

Wow, I just tripled my memory! I thought, this is gonna be impressive! Unfortunately, I can hardly tell any difference. The computer starts up, shuts down at the same speed, most programs run at the same speed, maybe slightly faster. I do notice it's easier to run multiple programs simultaneously, but the programs themselves aren't any faster. I am able to use more effects and such in my audio software without it totally bogging down, but again the general speed is not much different at all.

What gives? I thought memory was the most cost-effective way to boost performance. And running XP with 256MB was the bare minimum, so I thought tripling that would be a huge boost. The system recognizes the memory fine, in the BIOS and in Windows, so I'm sure it's working. Is there anything I need to do to take better advantage of the new memory, or are things going as they should?

 

[crisium]

Reinstall the OS? That should help.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Sorry I can't give you any REAL techie advice here but you'd probably see more of a boost if you went ahead with a 3.06 533 FSB Northwood Processor for that rig. As a side note, i didn't notice any real difference when putting in my extra RDRAM - thought about using the faster memory but that's still expensive.

EDIT: The rig I am on now is a RAMBUS rig and I love it

 

[Commontone]

Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Sorry I can't give you any REAL techie advice here but you'd probably see more of a boost if you went ahead with a 3.06 533 FSB Northwood Processor for that rig.

Unfortunately, I would need faster memory (40ns) to use a 533 processor. However I found a 2.6GHz, 400MHz FSB Northwood that would work with my computer, on ebay. I'd say nearly 1GHz increase in processing speed and twice the L2 cache should do something substantial.

 

[imported_wired247]

the good old days...

i remember when there was much hype about rambus ram

the main problem was the price, correct? but it was a superior technology?

 

[Commontone]

I remember an incident where one of the major places in the world where RAM was produced burned down or something, probably like 7 years ago. I think that had something to do with RDRAM's eventual demise.

 

[imported_wired247]

Originally posted by: Commontone
I remember an incident where one of the major places in the world where RAM was produced burned down or something, probably like 7 years ago. I think that had something to do with RDRAM's eventual demise.

combination RAM manufacturing plant + meth lab = bad idea

 

[Mondoman]

Originally posted by: Commontone
... I do notice it's easier to run multiple programs simultaneously, but the programs themselves aren't any faster. I am able to use more effects and such in my audio software without it totally bogging down, but again the general speed is not much different at all....

That's exactly the type of performance boost you should expect with more RAM -- seems like the upgrade has done its work.