using an old ram.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by aharris, May 10, 2005.

  1. aharris

    aharris Bit Poster

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    hi guy i was wondering if i would be albe to use the from and older pc in my new one????
     
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  2. aharris

    aharris Bit Poster

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    sorry that was the worst sentence ever!!! what i meant to say would i be able to use the RAM from my old pc and in my new pc??? or would it not be worth the hassle
     
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  3. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Depends. Not all RAM and motherboards are compatible. If you plug in the wrong RAM, you could fry your PC (almost happened once to me...the smell of smoke is a telltale sign). You might want to check and see what kind of RAM your PC takes. I recently upgraded the RAM in my family PC and just went to www.crucial.com to find what was compatible.
     
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  4. aharris

    aharris Bit Poster

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    cheers that was quick i think i will give it a miss! just wanted to learn some practical skills
     
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  5. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    do you know any details about your old PC? processor would help me determine ram type

    generally it works in conjunction with a PCs clock/fsp


    so a Pentium 2/3 400 uses PC100 SDRAM
    a Pentium 3 733 uses PC133 SDRAM
    a Pentium 4 with 800Mhz FSB generally uses DDR 400 (PC3200)

    these are all different rams
    and to be honest if your rams not atleast DDR2700 id say no you cant use it in a 'new' ie modern PC
    as 2700 is pretty much the lowest ram ive seen in modern kit
    were already onto DDR2 711 now!! lol
     
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  6. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    If you just want to practice taking out a stick of RAM (assuming you have more than one), firing up your PC to see what happens, then shutting down and "upgrading" with the second stick, it would be an inexpensive way to simulate the experience.
     
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  7. Jakamoko
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    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    Just as an add-on to Trips advice, take ALL RAM out the PC, then boot it up, just so you get to hear what a PC suffering from a serious RAM problem sounds like, ie by listening to the beep (POST) code. Again, more good practical experience.
     
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  8. AJ

    AJ 01000001 01100100 01101101 01101001 01101110 Administrator

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    Dealing with RAM, you should always take the appropriate Anti-Static precausions :biggrin
     
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  9. Phoenix
    Honorary Member

    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    Hmm sorry to say guys id advise against that pretty strongly
    a wrong stick of ram could try and pull too much voltage and frazzle the capacitors,

    on the other end the mobo could push to much and frazzle the ram

    its never a good idea to just plonk ram in and hope for the best


    in a worse case scenario post as much info as you can and the guys here will try and advise you what to do
    but dont just blindly test different ram out if you dont know what its likely to do to the motherboard if its wrong
     
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  10. Jakamoko
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    Jakamoko On the move again ...

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    If you meant my post, Ryan, then my impression from the original post is that the "old PC" sounds like it may well be fairly old to begin with, and as such, I've done this numerous times and never had a sniff of a problem.

    However, that may be good luck on my part, so you maybe be better erring on the side of caution and following Ryan's advice.
     
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