Ram?

G

Gibsonfire

In Cryo Sleep
Well I was thinking of doing a little upgrading for my PC and at the moment I only need to upgrade the RAM. I currently have 1Gb and I was thinking of upgrading it to 2Gb however I know very little about RAM :p so what do you suggest I do in terms of manufactuer, where to get it and so on?

Oh yes and its 184 pin DDR however if you need more information on it I will gladly get it :)
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
we're gonna need to know which RAM speeds your motherboard will support. You will find this information in your motherboard's manual.
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
thatbloke said:
we're gonna need to know which RAM speeds your motherboard will support. You will find this information in your motherboard's manual.
Click to expand...

LIES!

Crucial Memory UK (there is also a US site) asks you for your mobo manufacture and type, and then tells you what it thinks is the best memory for it! Ok, they want you to buy the most, but still, it's a relatively cheap site and tells you want you need to buy. For example, it knew my mobo was dual channel, so told me to buy packs of 2 sticks (eg, 2x 1Gb) rather then single (eg, 2Gb) sticks as it would run faster.

How handy!
 
thatbloke

thatbloke

Junior Administrator
elDiablo said:
LIES!

Crucial Memory UK (there is also a US site) asks you for your mobo manufacture and type, and then tells you what it thinks is the best memory for it! Ok, they want you to buy the most, but still, it's a relatively cheap site and tells you want you need to buy. For example, it knew my mobo was dual channel, so told me to buy packs of 2 sticks (eg, 2x 1Gb) rather then single (eg, 2Gb) sticks as it would run faster.

How handy!
Click to expand...

This implies that you know what make/model motherboard you have. not all people do and would need to look at the book to find out... So while you're looking to find the make/model you can find out what RAM is compatible at the same time :p

EDIT: and that scanner can't tell what my motherboard manufacturer is anyway... :p
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
Pfft, the scanner is rubbish! Use CPUz instead. That tells you EVERYTHING about your CPU, mobo and RAM.

And the crucial site makes it easy to buy RAM when you know your mobo, yes. It makes it easier then looking for all the info on the RAM that your mobo can take, etc. :p
 
SgtFury

SgtFury

Junior Administrator
Staff member
From what I saw you can put into that crucial thing, who made your computer, what model it is and that will tell you want ram to get.
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
elD that scanner is a pile of yite, with every field filled in me being as helpful as i could it tried to sell me ddr2 sticks. dumb arse thing. anyway Corsair FTW.

If cpuz is a little too ugly for you google everesthome which i find to be more user friendly and generally more helpful, also CPUz makes my pc die.

Give us your mobo stats and then its hunting time:D
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
bob, you need to read, I agree that the scanner is shit, but the site (chosing your RAM based on your mobo) is good and useful :p
 
waterproofbob

waterproofbob

Junior Administrator
elDiablo said:
bob, you need to read :p
Click to expand...

Pah need to read, if i started reading things i'd not have time for sitting around doing nothing.
Anyhoo my point was that crucial tried to suggest i get some nice new ddr2 sticks for my ddr mobo, it made me chuckle is all.
 
Pestcontrol

Pestcontrol

In Cryo Sleep
If that 1gb of memory you have is 2x 512mb you might have trouble upgrading. Like ElD i suggest you use cpu-z or better: sisoftware sandra or a comparable hardware analysis program to figure out what kind of memory you have, how fast it needs to be and how many free slots there are.
 
G

Gibsonfire

In Cryo Sleep
Right okay I used CPU-Z and here it showed the following information:

Processor

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+

Motherboard

Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Model: A8N-E
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce 4

Memory

Type: DDR
Size: 1024 Mbytes
Channels: Dual
Frequency: 201.0 Mhz
Slots: 4

Slot 1 DDR:

Size: 512 Mbytes
Max Bandwidth: PC3200 (200Mhz)
Manufacturer: Hyundai Electronics

Slot 2 DDR:

Same as #1

Slot 3 + 4:

Empty


Hope thats the info you need, if you need any more then just say and I'l get it.

Cheers
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
TADA!

As you have a gig in there already (and it's a pretty awesome speed) I would either get the 2x 512Meg sticks to get yourself up to 2Gb (though, actually, it looks cheaper to buy 2 single 512Meg sticks as it's non error checking, which you don't really need for a desktop...). However, if you want to up it to 3Gb (by keeping your two 512Meg sticks), get the 2x 1Gb sticks - but make sure you put the 1Gb sticks in slots 1 & 2, and the 512Meg sticks in 3 & 4 dual to the lovely dual channelness of your mobo.

The data sheet also says your mobo takes non error checking (NON-ECC) RAM, which pretty muchs means it won't be used if you buy error checking (ECC) stuff - so it's just a waste of money really, but won't mean it won't work if you do buy ECC.

ENJOY!

PS - shop around for cheaper stuff if you want. You want PC3200, NON-ECC (preferred) memory, and your mobo can hold up to 4Gb (so buying two 1Gb sticks would be best for you at this point without throwing out your RAM you have at the moment). BUT REMEMBER! You have a dual channel mobo, so slots 1 + 3 need to be the same as 2 + 4 respectively to get the best performance out of the memory!

[mod]Fixed tags//doc[/mod]

Edit - don't want to make a new post for this, but whoever moderated me, thanks! I would give you some rep, but your name is unknown to me! Thanks though! :)
 
PsiSoldier

PsiSoldier

Well-Known Member
Start > Run > dxdiag.

Find the name of your mobo and it's current ammount/type of RAM.

Go to a specialist site and try to get the same ammount as I think it runs faster like that.


Meh, I try to steer clear of the fancy RAM, if it breaks it's a damn lot of cash to fork out for a new stick. Anywho, cheap RAM does the job pretty much the same and costs less :).
 
Taffy

Taffy

New Member
Your computer is better than mine. I don't need a new RAM, just thought i'd take a peek at that nifty little program lol.
 
G

Gibsonfire

In Cryo Sleep
So 200Mhz is a fast speed for RAM? I thought the higher the Mhz the faster the thing works and I see things like 400Mhzs RAM's all the time in shops, is this true? or am I being a noob (which as you can tell anyway as I'm not very technical :p )

P.S. My RAM at the moment is 184 pin, what does that mean?
 
Pestcontrol

Pestcontrol

In Cryo Sleep
Gibsonfire said:
So 200Mhz is a fast speed for RAM? I thought the higher the Mhz the faster the thing works and I see things like 400Mhzs RAM's all the time in shops, is this true? or am I being a noob (which as you can tell anyway as I'm not very technical :p )

P.S. My RAM at the moment is 184 pin, what does that mean?
Click to expand...
200MHz is the base rate, it is 400MHz DDR. It's the same. 100/200MHz DDR memory has existed for a short while in a distance past, but i'll eat my shorts if that's what's in your machine. :)
Personally i find it's easier to rate memory by bandwidth and remember the PC-3200 nomination.

Also you should know that despite having two free slots you will lose some speed when plugging memory in them. Because there is more electrical load on the memory bus some timings have to be relaxed to allow voltage swings to complete. In the real world it shouldn't be more than a few %'s you lose though.
 
E

elDiablo

Guest
Crucial and Corsair are both awesome manufacturers. They are all the same specs, so lets look at price!
  • The 2x1Gb sticks from Crucial are £137.46 inc. VAT (plus £5 P&P ish)
  • Ebuyer's 1Gb stick of Corsair is £84.21 inc VAT. So 2Gb would be £168.42 inc VAT
  • Ebuyer's 2x1Gb sticks of Corsair are £160.22 inc VAT

I would definately go for 2 sticks though, and as the cheapest is Crucial, go for that (if you are happy with paying that much). I have Crucial memory on my ASUS motherboard, and it's awesomely awesome! Though that's not to say if the Corsair was cheaper, I wouldn't go for that!
 
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