Help me with RAM for my computer!!

[sbisheff]

OK, so apparently I don't know very much about computers. I have 1gig of DDR SDRAM in my desktop and it runs way too slow between programs and has issues processing video quick enough. Pretty sure that sounds like a RAM issue to me. I opened up the box and I have 4x256mb sticks populating all four of the available DIMMS. I want to upgrade and get more horsepower :)

Here's what I have: 256mb 1rx16 pc2-4200u-444-11-c3

Question is, what do I upgrade to without breaking the bank? Can I do 4gigs for $100 or less or?? What about the BUS speed (I think that's what its called). HELP PLEASE!!

Scott

[HuskerOmaha]

Go to http://www.crucial.com/ and hit Scan My System button. It will show you current and maximum memory you can install.

Or look at the motherboard. :)

See what it can handle first, then go for the max!

Of course don't buy it from these guys though. Newegg?

[sbisheff]

Go to http://www.crucial.com/ and hit Scan My System button. It will show you current and maximum memory you can install.

Or look at the motherboard. :)

See what it can handle first, then go for the max!

Of course don't buy it from these guys though. Newegg?

Nice! Looks like I can handle 4gb and they've got a 2x2gb upgrade for $56! That seems pretty good to me: http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartsp...8AF860A5CA7304

[dvenardos]

This guys are good to get memory from:

http://www.oempcworld.com

[woofersus]

Nice! Looks like I can handle 4gb and they've got a 2x2gb upgrade for $56! That seems pretty good to me: http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartsp...8AF860A5CA7304

Surprisingly not bad pricing for Crucial.com, but after sales tax it'll be over $61. Both of these sets have better timings and are $39.99 shipped after MIR. (both companies are good about MIR's too)

[cburbs]

What are the rest of the specs of the PC? Only asking as if it is a Pentium 4 even adding the memory is only going to take it so far.

[sbisheff]

Surprisingly not bad pricing for Crucial.com, but after sales tax it'll be over $61. Both of these sets have better timings and are $39.99 shipped after MIR. (both companies are good about MIR's too)

What does timing mean?

What are the rest of the specs of the PC? Only asking as if it is a Pentium 4 even adding the memory is only going to take it so far.

I am running Windows XP on a Dell Dimension E510 with a P4 (don't know the processor speed but can find out if it'll help). I realize that I may not be able to get super fast with this older PC but I can't buy a new PC and figured significantly upgrading the RAM would be the best way to get better performance.

[woofersus]

What does timing mean?



I am running Windows XP on a Dell Dimension E510 with a P4 (don't know the processor speed but can find out if it'll help). I realize that I may not be able to get super fast with this older PC but I can't buy a new PC and figured significantly upgrading the RAM would be the best way to get better performance.

It's a series of settings that, in general terms, control the latency of the memory and how it deals with various commands. In your case timings aren't all that important, but manufacturers tend to bin chips for performance so the ones with better timings are usually the higher quality parts. Mostly it's quality memory and the cheapest at the same time, which is a good combo in my book.

If you're running windows XP there's not much point in going beyond 2GB, since it won't really utilize it effectively, but you may not save much going to a 2x1Gb set. There may be other bottlenecks, but it's probably a worthwhile upgrade anyhow, since 2Gb seems to be the sweet spot for windows xp, and this would be faster memory to boot. You may also check the model of your hard drive to see if that's a total dog as well. You won't really be able to upgrade the other major parts without a total rebuild.

[Sandbagger]

I wouldnt waste money putting 4gig in an XP machine as unless its 64bit, it will only use 3.

2gig is plenty for an XP machine

[tthurman]

I wouldnt waste money putting 4gig in an XP machine as unless its 64bit, it will only use 3.

2gig is plenty for an XP machine

Yep....I would opt for the Mushkin or Corsair too for the faster timings, if you're going to put money into it.

You can find out a lot about your computer with this small application.

PC Wizard

Have you de-fragmented your machine lately? For free, I find Smart Defrag 2 much better than the built in Windows system.

Also, if you use Internet Explorer I would recommend you install, update and scan you computer with both of these programs.

Malwarebytes - Just click the download link and download the free version.

Spybot - Search and Destroy - When prompted I would skip the tea timer installation if you are uncomfortable answering questions about registry changes. It operates similar to UAC and will ask you anytime something is making a change to the registry. For example Java, of Flash....among others.

If you haven't run either of these before you may be surprised at what they find. Spybot has in the past brought seemingly unusable computers back to life just by getting all the crap off of them. I still have several P4 class systems in service and 1Gig of memory should do pretty well in most cases and certainly not perform like it's handicapped like it would with only say only 256 MB.

[sbisheff]

Yep....I would opt for the Mushkin or Corsair too for the faster timings, if you're going to put money into it.

You can find out a lot about your computer with this small application.

PC Wizard

Have you de-fragmented your machine lately? For free, I find Smart Defrag 2 much better than the built in Windows system.

Also, if you use Internet Explorer I would recommend you install, update and scan you computer with both of these programs.

Malwarebytes - Just click the download link and download the free version.

Spybot - Search and Destroy - When prompted I would skip the tea timer installation if you are uncomfortable answering questions about registry changes. It operates similar to UAC and will ask you anytime something is making a change to the registry. For example Java, of Flash....among others.

If you haven't run either of these before you may be surprised at what they find. Spybot has in the past brought seemingly unusable computers back to life just by getting all the crap off of them. I still have several P4 class systems in service and 1Gig of memory should do pretty well in most cases and certainly not perform like it's handicapped like it would with only say only 256 MB.

I defrag every few months but I'll use that other program and I've got spybot and malwarebyes also but I don't think I've ran them in a while so I'll do that too. I don't let the kids install programs on the computer so there shouldn't be much of that but I'll definitely give those a try and see if that helps performance.

So go with 2gigs only then? Save the money and don't bother with 4 since it'll only use 3 anyway? Won't that extra gig help though? If not, should I just get something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146773 Looks to be the same one as the dual kit but just in a single DIM.

[tesseract]

Don't waste money on 3 gig's.

CNET has a lot of good freeware. CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner ;)) cleans your registry, deletes cookies, gets rid of the crap that bogs down your comp over time and lets it run faster.

[sbisheff]

Don't waste money on 3 gig's.

CNET has a lot of good freeware. CCleaner (formerly Crap Cleaner ;)) cleans your registry, deletes cookies, gets rid of the crap that bogs down your comp over time and lets it run faster.

Nice! So much good info! I love cleaning out the computer and getting it to run faster :) I'll check that out too. Ok, so 2 gigs. Should I just get that Mushkin 2gig single dim option I linked to above?

[tthurman]

If your computer runs dual channel, and it's likely it does, you'll get better performance from 2 1 Gig Sticks like linked earlier in this thread.

I use CCleaner too, it's a good utility as well.

[sbisheff]

If your computer runs dual channel, and it's likely it does, you'll get better performance from 2 1 Gig Sticks like linked earlier in this thread.

I use CCleaner too, it's a good utility as well.

Ok I thought that might be the case. So of these ones, which would be the best for my application (web browsing and will be doing some video chatting):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226086

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146118

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590