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PCI RAM Extender Cards?

Posted by Cliff on from the bypassing-design-oversights dept.

stevejsmith asks: "I'm going to buy a Dell computer which supports DDR RAM, however it only comes with two DIMM slots. I have lying around two 128MB sticks of RAM, and want to use them. I know RAM is cheap, but I want some way to put more than two DIMMS in this system. Short of getting a new motherboard, is there any way I can add more RAM? On Slashdot I remember seeing a PCI card that help RAM for a RAM drive, but is there such thing as a PCI card that just held regular RAM for system usage? If not a PCI card, any other suggestions?"

2 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Don't buy an unexpandable Dell? by Toraz+Chryx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Putting ram on a PCI card is a bad idea in this day and age, peak PC2700 memory bandwidth is 2.7GB/s, peak 32/33 PCI bandwidth is 132MB... that presents something of a bottleneck :)

    Just buy a computer with a sensible number of dimm slots to begin with.

  2. Re:Not worth it... by tunah · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Point taken, but you will get something for it to offset the cost of the new ram.

    Depending how cheap ram is at the moment, it might not be worth it, in which case find a friend who doesn't have much ram and give them the chips. Many people don't realise how much of a difference going from 128M to 256M or 256M to 384 or so makes.

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