1237a644eac2
tech



Hello Wayne - 

CA>> I don't know what the situation is for HP memory but after
CA>> they purchased Compaq it gave me a reason to suspect that
CA>> they had more in common than I would've thought at first. 

WC> Could well be as the manufacturers of _generic_ listings
WC> for Pavilion DIMM's seems to also list Compaq DIMM's. I
WC> found only 8 listings for DIMM's at google with keywords
WC> "Pavilion" "4483" "DIMM" :-( One was
of course H.P.and very
WC> pricey. 

Kingston was the manuf of Compaq Deskpro memory chips if I'm
remembering this correctly. That was some time ago and there
may be others at this point since HP purchased Compaq? 

CA>> I was discussing upgrading memory on my Compaq Deskpro
CA>> here with a guy who makes his living reselling old
CA>> computers and parts. He also had the identical machines
CA>> (two of them) and wanted to upgrade memory. He thought, at
CA>> first, it was a simple matter to match the type of memory
CA>> with what was already installed. He later discovered that
CA>> 'generic' memory even though outwardly identical would not
CA>> work and that only one chip manufacturer was licensed to
CA>> sell memory chips compatible with the Compaq Deskpro.
CA>> Naturally there are no 'sales' and the price is quite high. 

WC> Yup, a single generic supplier that claims compatability
WC> comes in at 27 dollars/128 Meg. while H.P. is nearly double
WC> that. 

Compaq didn't even offer memory chips, I don't think? They sent
you to Kingston's pages. 

CA>> It might be a good idea to verify that 'generic' memory
CA>> will function in the HP before you get too far along. I
CA>> would call HP and _ask_ them rather than spend the weeks
CA>> my friend did trying to pin this down? 

WC> I'm going another way. 

CA>> I never did upgrade the memory btw. :-\ 

WC> I'm going to wait for a similar machine to be offered used
WC> with 128 Meg RAM, at least one such chip and go that way.
WC> I'll never buy any of these proprietary systems new for the
WC> very reasons listed above. 

Well W9x versions have an upper limit to how much memory they
will actually use. I'm not certain W9x's will use more than
512meg. If you purchase new and max out the memory the only
other potential problem I can envision would be the dead floppy
drive and high price to replace it from HP (as my daughter has
found out). 

WC> I can at least use the listing at H.P.'s web site to get
WC> the list for Pavilions using the same RAM DIMM's. No
WC> mention of upgrading the processor anywhere either :-( 

It would seem advertising easy upgrades of processors would
hurt sales of higher priced equipment? 

WC> Next system I'm getting as a kit from Pricewatch after
WC> evaluating motherboards at least that way you can buy stuff
WC> that takes cheap generic parts and RAM, start with a lower
WC> speed processor and upgrade as prices fall. Gigbyte has a
WC> pretty amazing board IIRC will take 4 Gig RAM, 4 Ghz
WC> Pentium and every port, slot and option you could possibly
WC> want, just under 500 dollars at pricewatch as a kit case,
WC> power suppy, 2.5 GHz Pentium processor but no drives. 

I looked at some of those but to put legacy equipment into or
attached to such a box would seem a contradiction and when I
was adding all that was _not_ included I was reaching typical
whitebox prices as I've found them to be here locally. 

The 'quarterback sneak' is to find legacy hardware with just
enough oomph to tweak a good OS and use that. To run with the
'big iron' is going to cost one way or the other with
questionable results IMO. 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

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