Is it worth it?

Evening or Afternoon CT. Your motherboard only has room for two sticks of memory. This is what I would do. I would either get 2x512mb or 2x1gb of ram and sell what you've got already. The max your mobo can take in memory is 2048MB of Ram.

Here are your specs for your mobo. Taken form cruical's website.
184-pin DIMM Banking
2 (2 banks of 1)

Chipset
VIA ProSavageDDR P4M266A

DDR SDRAM Frequencies
PC2100, PC2700, and PC3200

Error Detection Support
Non-ECC only

Graphics Support
AGP 4X

Max Unbuffered DDR SDRAM
2048MB

Module Types Supported
Unbuffered only

Supported DRAM Types
DDR SDRAM only
USB Support

2.x Compliant

Hope this helps CT.

Regards,
Steve

Thanks so much for that info Liono, that is really helpfull.

What I think I'll do is sell my 256mb RAM stick and buy a 1GB stick so I have a total of 1512mb RAM!

But what I still want to know is, will it be worth it? I have quite a low speed processer and I don't know if having that much RAM will neccercerly increase my PC's preformance?

I think what you'll find with the upgraded ram is not better performance or framerates, but the amount of things you can run at your current frame rates. I have 1gig of ram in my laptop with a 1.9ghz processor and a 64mb videocard. I was getting approximately 15-25fps on average previous to my upgrade (I started at 256), and that didn't change with the upgrade. But what I did find, was that now I could render more texture on the ground, further distances, better weather, etc. I'm still not sure I understand how that works!

Hi Liono,
I have enough $ now for getting some RAM, which I am looking to buy off the NZ ebay called TRADEME

Could you look here: http://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categorylistings.aspx?mcat=0002-0359-0164-&rewritten=true&sort_order=price_desc and tell me if there is anything suitable for my PC?

All I have to go is take out my 256 stick, and put in my new stick in the same slot and my memory will increase right?

Also, are there such things as a 1GB stick of ram, or do they only come in 2x sticks of 512mb??

cheekytrolly wrote:

Hi Liono,
I have enough $ now for getting some RAM, which I am looking to buy off the NZ ebay called TRADEME

Could you look here: http://www.trademe.co.nz/browse/categorylistings.aspx?mcat=0002-0359-0164-&rewritten=true&sort_order=price_desc and tell me if there is anything suitable for my PC?

All I have to go is take out my 256 stick, and put in my new stick in the same slot and my memory will increase right?

Also, are there such things as a 1GB stick of ram, or do they only come in 2x sticks of 512mb??

Yes there 1GB Ram sticks Cheeky. 😉

Hi CT sorry for not getting back to you. It all depends on how much $ you are willing to spend. That's your barrier.

Have a look over these ➡
2x512MB
1024MB

Also anything by Kingston or Cruical are good makes.

Ok, well I seriously wanna get some RAM this week, definitly a 1GB single stick from trademe.co.nz

I want to know if this one is suitable for my PC: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Components/Memory/1-GB-or-more/auction-52907298.htm

One stick of 1gb DDR400 ADATA

- DDR / 184 Pins
- ADATA Branded
- Double Sided
- 1GB

I am not sure what DDR means Liono- so I am wondering will it work of have any effect.

Also, what is the difference between "PC2100, PC2700, and PC3200" RAM?

Cheers,
CT

CT,
Run this http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html and see exactly what you have and duplicate it. You have to have both the same speed or the fast will run as slow as the slowest stick.

You have to have both the same speed or the fast will run as slow as the slowest stick

So if I have a 512mb stick and a 1gb stick, it will only run at 512mb speed?

If you buy the wrong speed (1 gig) you still will have 1.5 gig but the faster type will run slower to match the slower type. The slower cant run faster to match the other.
They have to be the same type of ram, that's why you have to match them.

Use this site to match the ram you now have and then buy 1 gig to add to the 512mb.
Read the site over, it has test-ware in the left side.

http://www.crucial.com/

The speed is depending on the memories clock.Memory clock is the speed that memories are processing the data's in order to co-operate with the CPU in simple words.

You will notice RAMs which are DDR333 and DDR400.
If your old RAM is in 333 and you put another one in 400 your system by itself is going to dicrease the 400 ones clock to 333 in order to be suitable with the other one.You wont understand so big difference in your PC performance but its recommended to be suitable each other.

Thanks for the replys guys.

I went to the Belarc website as you suggested Radarman and the results page showed this:

768 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 256 MB (serial number SerNum0)
Slot 'DIMM1' has 512 MB

It does not say anything about "DDR333 and DDR400" though?

All I know is that I have "768 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)"

I still have a few more questions:

If I get a DDR333 stick, will it make a huge performance descrease on my PC or will it still appear much faster than before?

How can I find out if I have DDR333 or DDR400 RAM?

Also, what is all this about frequencies? What is the difference between PC2100, PC2700, and PC3200?

As always, your help is very much apreaciated- I can't wait to upgrade my system!

Sorry GM, I did not see your post there.

I went to the cruical website and found this out:

Slot 1 -256 MB
Non-parity DDR PC3200

Slot 2- 512 MB
Non-parity DDR PC3200

❓ ❓ ❓

This means what??

When I get my 1GB stick, can I just swap it with my 256mb one or do I need to put it in slot 2 and have my 512 stick in slot 1? Is there any particual order of RAM size or anything?

Now you know what to buy and you only have 2 slots (unusual) put the 1 gig in 1 (or zero) and then the 512 in the next.
Boot up and see if it's recognized.
Shame you cant use the other, take it to an independent computer store and see if they'll give you something for it.

Clean the fan's while your in there.

Okie Dokie, I'll put the 1GIG stick in the zero slot.

Is all you have to do pull it out and plug the other one back in, because it that is the case I will do it myself and save mysef a trip and instalation fee.

I still need to know wheater I need DDR333 or DDR400 RAM and what frequency to get before I make a purchase though...?

The stick you are going to get will be DDDR400.And i suggest to get at 400 just in case you want in future to upgrade more.