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"RAM help, please."

My PC has been running sluggishly as of late, and I think it is time to get some more RAM. I have 256MB DDR RAM at the moment, and I opened up my tower today and saw there is another slot free. So, does that mean that I can get another 256MB of DDR RAM and add it, providing me with a total of 512MB of RAM? The thing is though the memory module I have at the moment is different from the ones shown here:

http://uk.special.reserve.co.uk/ q_GG6161_ddr_dimm__256_mb_r.html

As in the fact that it has a gap in the middle where there is no black rectangle. (I don't know the technical term). Does this mean it is compatible or not? I am going to check out the Dell website and see if there is anything there, as I can't find my motherboard manual. Any help aprreciated, and if you need any more info I'll give it to you.
Cheers.

Miserableman wrote:
> Here is what I reckon you should do: go to http://www.crucial.com/uk
> and use the prominent wizard to look up DELL->DIMENSION->4500
> SERIES, which will produce for you a list of memory sticks guaranteed
> to be compatible with your PC. The fact that nothing faster than
> PC2100 is listed tells me your board doesn't support faster RAM. I'd
> suggest getting the 256MB RAM stick, as 512MB in total is perfectly
> reasonable and any performance gains above that will be miniature.
>


You da man. You da Miserableman. Ahem. Yes, thats what I did the other day, and I am going to order the 256Mb stick when I get the time. Good advice there anyway, and if I wouldn't have found Crucial already I would have now. Cheers.

First up, take béSSánt ©opy®ight™'s advice with a spoonful of salt, a lot of what he's written he's guessed at, wrongly. AMD_MAN is largely spot on, although I wouldn't bother replacing your existing stick of RAM with a faster stick - unless you're an overclocker, more memory is better than faster memory.

Here is what I reckon you should do: go to http://www.crucial.com/uk and use the prominent wizard to look up DELL->DIMENSION->4500 SERIES, which will produce for you a list of memory sticks guaranteed to be compatible with your PC. The fact that nothing faster than PC2100 is listed tells me your board doesn't support faster RAM. I'd suggest getting the 256MB RAM stick, as 512MB in total is perfectly reasonable and any performance gains above that will be miniature.

PS the Special Reserve memory stick is almost guaranteed to work, and if they will post free to N.I. it might be worth considering them instead, as crucial.com want a fiver to send it.

PPS if your computer has been gradually getting more sluggish over months, it's unlikely RAM will solve your problem. How full is your hard drive? Have you defragmented it recently? Do you run spyware checks?

Hey, AMD_MAN, if you have MSN add me at [email protected], I have some stuff to ask you and its more convenient that way.

To be hounest matey you could do with both as i assume you have low spec graphics at the moment (probably onboard shared), it all depends on what you do with your pc, If it's Gaming then you will could do with the graphics card and if it's other applications such as divx encoding, picture editing then more memory, more memory will help anyway on both counts but gaming will need a good graphics card but i assume you are not a massive gamer as you would have chosen a higher spec graphics card, That memory should work with your system.

Colin

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/ products/index.html?action=c2hvd 19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product _uid=42142


Would that work?

Hmm, don't have to get from Dell then? Good, becasue they were looking £120 for a 512Mb card - rip. off.
Anyway, I might get what you said and buy it as long as you're certain it will most likely work with the other memory. Or I might scrap it and get this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/ customer/products/index.html?action= c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product _uid=52167

Haven't decided.

On another note, It would not matter what ram you get as most memory will work with eachother no matter what manafacturer they are, some have difficalty, Dell will only sell you one that is the same manafacturer as the original for a higher price, so you do not have to purchase from dell.

Colin

um...
maybe
can't say i know much about dells in particular
but i thought they were compatable with normal PC upgrades.

don't trust me i am just guiding you i don't want you to go out and but something because i said so, not that you would but i am just saying.

First of all there would be no point in you getting faster memory than your orignal 256mb PC2100 DDR module as both stick will only run at the lowest speed (i.e. If you have a 256mb PC2100 DDR module and a 256mb PC3200 module then the bandwidth will still only be 2.1ghz or Speeds of PC2100), There would be no problem in adding a 512mb DDR PC2100 Module with your current 256mb module, Don't worry about this banks thing, all DDR Dimm slots have 2 banks on each slot (DIMM = DUAL Inline Memory Module), memory is one of the easiest internal componants to upgrade on your own, you will also notice a differance in speed (more so with 512mb extra) or the other option would be to remove your 256mb PC2100 Dimm and replace it with 2 256mb PC2700/PC3200 modules (or 2 512mb modules) as long as your motherboard can take it, The amount of memory you need all depends on what you do with your computer but 256mb is not a good amount, these days even 512mb is low.

Basically a Quick recap is..
You should buy a 256mb or 512mb PC2100 DDR Dimm and thats it, do not buy a faster module (PC3200) unless you are going to remove the other chip and you motherboard supports that speed.

béSSánt ©opy®ight, I was just wondering where you learnt about computers, not digging at you i am just wondering?

Colin

I live in Northern Ireland, so I would be fitting it myself. But Robin said that only Dell would be compatible with my memory I have already, so I guess I'll have to get it.