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~~Johnny Faster~~ · 05-25-2005, 02:09 PM

I've been playing with an OptiPlex GXi with only 96 Meg or RAM and did some research looking to increase the RAM if it was cheap enough. Couldn't find anything for less than about $30/128 meg. (I anyone knows where I can get a bunch of cheap old RAM, I'd appreciate it...)

Anyways, during the course of my research I learned a bit about Dell RAM.

First, it's OEM, which I don't really know what it means, but from what I gather it means you can only use certain types of RAM. (The stuff you buy on-line is more "generic" and therefore more flexible, I suppose.

ANywyas, I had to only look for that RAM which was specifically usable for the OptiPlex, which really limits your options. I got "leads" on the specific RAM by first going to the Dell web-site. It had a sort of search engine there (somewhere) that gave you an OEM code. I could then use that code to find RAM compatible for this ancient dinosaur.

Did you do that ? If not, you should. First go to Dell, find the search thing and find out what is compatible. Then find out if that is what you have.

Second, I also recall (it was last week sometime) another web-page that Dell put out (might be off it's web-site) were it gives installation specifications for it's various models. As I recall (you should verify this), you can mix various "sizes" of RAM (128 & 256) but WHERE you install it is important. Again (as I recall) they want the largest RAM first, the smaller RAM after that. There was a diagram showing the various possible combinations of various RAM sizes and how they should be installed on the MotherBoard.

It's possible that you have the right RAM in the wrong place. Do some intelligent cruising through the Internet (meaning avoid the crapware sites and the sites that allow the average monkey to post whatever they think, without having to register or anything) and you should find it no problem. I did it in about 15 minutes or so, and I think I stayed entirely on the Dell site until I felt like I knew enough to go shopping.

05-25-2005, 02:09 PM	#4 (permalink)
~~Johnny Faster~~ Register user Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 517 OS: WinXP	OptiPlexisaurus I've been playing with an OptiPlex GXi with only 96 Meg or RAM and did some research looking to increase the RAM if it was cheap enough. Couldn't find anything for less than about $30/128 meg. (I anyone knows where I can get a bunch of cheap old RAM, I'd appreciate it...) Anyways, during the course of my research I learned a bit about Dell RAM. First, it's OEM, which I don't really know what it means, but from what I gather it means you can only use certain types of RAM. (The stuff you buy on-line is more "generic" and therefore more flexible, I suppose. ANywyas, I had to only look for that RAM which was specifically usable for the OptiPlex, which really limits your options. I got "leads" on the specific RAM by first going to the Dell web-site. It had a sort of search engine there (somewhere) that gave you an OEM code. I could then use that code to find RAM compatible for this ancient dinosaur. Did you do that ? If not, you should. First go to Dell, find the search thing and find out what is compatible. Then find out if that is what you have. Second, I also recall (it was last week sometime) another web-page that Dell put out (might be off it's web-site) were it gives installation specifications for it's various models. As I recall (you should verify this), you can mix various "sizes" of RAM (128 & 256) but WHERE you install it is important. Again (as I recall) they want the largest RAM first, the smaller RAM after that. There was a diagram showing the various possible combinations of various RAM sizes and how they should be installed on the MotherBoard. It's possible that you have the right RAM in the wrong place. Do some intelligent cruising through the Internet (meaning avoid the crapware sites and the sites that allow the average monkey to post whatever they think, without having to register or anything) and you should find it no problem. I did it in about 15 minutes or so, and I think I stayed entirely on the Dell site until I felt like I knew enough to go shopping.