PC Memory Cards.

[squidgelet10]

Greetings each.

I have a 1998 Patriot comp with Cyrix M2-300 processor. Motherboard has 4 x 72pin memory slots with 2 x 16Mb cards = 32Mb RAM.

I have fitted a 10Gb hard drive and want to install WIN-XP which needs a minimum of 64Mb of RAM to work.

I see EDO and FPS cards advertised on Ebay, but don't know what the motherboard will support. Ideally I would like to substitute for 4 x 32Mb cards = 128MB RAM. I believe that these cards have to be fitted in pairs.

Are these cards interchangeable?

Also: Can someone please explain how I can work out the memory rating of a card from the numbers printed on the chips?

Cheers.

Mike C.

[vehelpfulguy]

To be blunt it will be a total waste of your time trying to put Windows XP on this PC.

The processor is not fast enough, the memory is not enough, and the hard disk is too small.

Even though it says it can run in 64Mb it only does this by disabling certain function, and even then it performs like a dog.

The MINIMUM you need for XP is 128Mb, and even that is a on the low side. And the processor will still be too slow.

If you want to run Windows XP you need a new PC system unit, which you can probably get for less than �200 if you look around, with XP pre-installed.

[rojash]

Sorry, but I have to agree emphatically with vehelpfulguy. I don't think you are going to end up with have a useable system if you try to install XP

[j2buttonsw]

To answer your question I think you must use EDO SIMMS. They are installed in pairs so 4x 32 MB SIMMS will equal 128 MB. I have an old Dell Optiplex desktop with a 200 MHz Pentium processor and 4x 32 MB SIMMS RAM and a 10 GB disk and it does run Windows XP. The older mainboards used to used the fast page SIMMS (FPS) but since your mainboard has a cytrix processor I think it will prefer the more modern EDO SIMMS. The symbols and numbers on the SIMMS are a mystery and I used to have to fire them up in pairs and write what they were when I used to use them. You shouldn't mix EDO and FPS SIMMS and Windows XP does use a lot of memory, I would not run a machine on anything less than 256 MB (4x 64 MB EDO SIMMS which are expensive). vhg has a point that you are really polishing a turd!