As far as I know, there is no such thing as "non-parity ECC SDRAM". The
GX110 uses an Intel 810e chipset, which is for inexpensive systems (no ECC).
I'm a bit confused as to the type of RAM needed, though. If the GX110 has an
866 PIII , then it has a 133 MHz FSB (front side bus), and ought to require
PC133 memory. (Some machines permit memory to be run asynchronously, but
that seems unlikely, particularly as the price difference between PC100 and
PC133 has been small for a long time.) Dell lists the machine as using
PC100, which is also what Crucial (
www.crucial.com) lists for it. I hope
that it can use high-density RAM, as that is what is commonly available. If
it already has 256 MB of RAM, though, upgrading it may not be a high
priority.
One could commit an enormous amount of time to exploring the oddities
of Dell products (I hope you're following along here, Felger).
AFAICT, there are probably GX110 866's out there with slotted and
socket 370 PIII's and with 100 and 133 MHz front side buses. The fact
that it is an 866MHz PIII does not guarantee anything about the speed
of the FSB.
I have a Dell of that generation--the one I am forever telling war
stories about (not to worry, after 6 months of hammering Dell service
techs and probably a man-week on the phone, I got it all straightened
out and I haven't had a problem since). The model number on Dell's
records and on the web site from the service tag for my computer
indicates that it has a Slot 1 processor, and I can assure you it is a
socket 370.
If you want to find out what might be in store for you should you
decide to upgrade, check out
http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=oplex_other&message.id=12680
There is apparently Optiplex GX110 and GX110 L/MT/SFF. The Crucial
Web Site says that the GX110 (no L/MT/SFF) uses CL2 PC100. There's no
ECC involved, as far as I can tell. If that's the model in question,
then you need to make sure you get CL2 PC100 SDRAM for your upgrades,
and you'll probably pay a premium for it. That's just because people
aren't cranking out CL2 PC100 as a standard product anymore.
If your machine is an "L/MT/SFF", whatever that means, I don't trust
what any of the links tell me. In any case, if I wanted to upgrade
the memory, I would download a free copy of SiSoft Sandra and let *it*
tell me what kind of memory it had. If it's PC100, you need to get
PC100, and if it's PC133, you need to get PC133. The troubles that
people are reporting with trying to upgrade RAM are probably trying to
use CL3 memory when they should be using CL2.
There's another ugly little wrinkle to this story, which is that the
BIOS may have the memory info hardwired (my most likely guess), or it
may be expecting to get it from an SPD (information supplied by the
memory chip). I think that either is a possibility, and there is the
ugly chance that even SiSoft Sandra won't get it right, but I wouldn't
rate that a high chance. In any case, it being a *DELL* (still with
me here, Felger?), the BIOS probably won't tell you and probably won't
let you change anything.
The Optiplex was made for businesses and businesses don't plan on
mucking around inside their PC's--leastwise not the kinds of
businesses Dell wants to be doing business with.
All that said, 256Mb is probably enough for what a reasonable person
needs, you'll probably never have to worry about it, and the machine
still sounds like a good buy. If you do have to upgrade the memory,
you'll know that there are potentially some issues: PC100 vs PC133 and
the CL rating and maybe even whether or not the stick should have an
SPD unit (the ugliest of the possibilities), but the memory is almost
certainly not ECC.
RM
