Putting new memory on very old machine

Dross

Dross

New Member
I was wondering if anyone has any input on the following: I need a backup machine for when my wife is using our laptop...I have an old Dell Dimensions XPS T450 that was running Win98; it has a few G's of HDD, 96 RAM and a Pentium 3.
I installed Ubuntu on it just for kicks and it is really fine, just very slow (surprise surprise). In the next few months I am going to be doing some web development projects using PHP/MySQL . What are the chances that if I just added a lot more RAM to this Dell I would be able to use it for my purposes as a strictly back-up machine (i.e. to write code once every week or so when my laptop is being occuppied)? Thanks.
 
That would probably work assuming that you realize that backups aren't going to be snappy. I am assuming that you are only backing up the DB files or the php files not the entire comp.
 
If you can, max out the amount of RAM that can be installed in the laptop. For compatibility reasons, you may have to buy the RAM from Dell, or go to http://www.crucial.com/ to find out (and/or) purchase the memory.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the help. Greg J, did you mean that I should maximize the RAM on the Dell or on the laptop? We're going to get a G on the laptop (that will be our primary machine) and I was figuring I'd get two 256's for the Dell. I assumed that going beyond that on the Dell wouldn't make much of a difference. Do you think it would help if I upgraded to a G on my crappy old Dell? Thanks a lot.
 
Your old Dell Dimensions XPS T450 (which this RAM fits all Dell's in the "T" series) will hold a maxium of 768 MB of RAM. It should have 3 memory slots. So 3---256MB sticks will have to be installed for maximum RAM.

512MB for the old Dell should be enough (2 x 256MB)

See that right here:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listpa...bid=CR&model=Dimension+XPS+T+Series&submit=Go

As for you're wife's laptop, 1 GB will be fine.

Who knows? If you buy 2 x 256MB sticks for the Dell, you have that third slot still open. If you can, put the biggest old stick of Dell RAM back in----in the third slot so you don't waste RAM. :)

All in all, its up to you Dross. These are only some suggestions.
 
Last edited:
Good ideas. I didn't realize there were three ports for memory; I agree, I think going with the two 256's and sticking in an existing memory stick in the remaining slot is the way to go. Thanks!
 
Dross said:
Good ideas. I didn't realize there were three ports for memory; I agree, I think going with the two 256's and sticking in an existing memory stick in the remaining slot is the way to go. Thanks!
Click to expand...

You're welcome. Enjoy the Dell's faster speed! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top