dell mobo

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snowcolt17

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Jul 1, 2011
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i have a dell inspiron 530.. and in cpuz i get the mobo number. then in aida i get the same thing.. and on sites it tells me my mobo is only compatiable of 4gb ddr2 ram, but aida tell me i can have 8gb ddr3?


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The chipset can use DDR2 or DDR3. That's based on the chipset capabilities ONLY.

Physically, what your motherboard has (most likely) is only DDR2 slots. And it probably only has 2 RAM slots. 4gb DDR2 sticks as I recall are not exactly compatible with all chipsets, and at the time only 2gb DDR2 sticks were available. Hence, the 4gb DDR2 actual limitation.
 
Tsumi said:
The chipset can use DDR2 or DDR3. That's based on the chipset capabilities ONLY.

Physically, what your motherboard has (most likely) is only DDR2 slots. And it probably only has 2 RAM slots. 4gb DDR2 sticks as I recall are not exactly compatible with all chipsets, and at the time only 2gb DDR2 sticks were available. Hence, the 4gb DDR2 actual limitation.
Click to expand...

The BIOS or hardware implementation can limit the amount of addressable RAM as well.


If I remember right the 530 has four RAM slots, and above a certain BIOS revision (I want to say 1.2?) they enable the ability to address the full 8GB the chipset allows.
 
my mobo does indeed have 4 slots. i am currently using 4x 1gb ddr2 sticks. wish i had a few ddr3 sticks to test.

as for the bios. this pc was given to me. got hit by lightning. pulled it in. worked fine. and it was better then my amd.. but anyways i updated the bios. dont remember what revision. but thanks for the hell. i was just curious :)
 
snowcolt17 said:
my mobo does indeed have 4 slots. i am currently using 4x 1gb ddr2 sticks. wish i had a few ddr3 sticks to test.
Click to expand...

DDR3 and DDR2 slots are NOT the same and cannot be run together at the same time, so if you are running 4x1GB DDR2 slots, and you've only got 4 slots, there is no chance a DDR3 module will work on that board (they are physically and electrically incompatible). You wouldn't even be able to get it to fit in the socket.

You can get 2x2GB sets in the For Sale section for $30 if you look around.
 
snowcolt17 said:
my mobo does indeed have 4 slots. i am currently using 4x 1gb ddr2 sticks. wish i had a few ddr3 sticks to test.

as for the bios. this pc was given to me. got hit by lightning. pulled it in. worked fine. and it was better then my amd.. but anyways i updated the bios. dont remember what revision. but thanks for the hell. i was just curious :)
Click to expand...

The board can only use DDR2. DDR3 has the same number of pins, but it is electrically different. The two are also notched differently, so they won't physically fit in the other's socket.

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Inspiron 530&Cat=RAM

Crucial sells up to Dell's officially supported maximum, which is 4 X 1 GB. You could try larger DIMMs, but you'd be on your own. (No Dell support.)
 
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