BF2S Forums Need to upgrade my RAM.. HELP plz! :)

rabee2789b wrote:

slo5oh wrote:

rabee2789b wrote:

OMG I am confused NOW... LOL

How would I know if my ram is DDR or DDR2?

I think I am gonna take the ram out and go to a pc shop and ask them for exactly the same one.... OR, I can call dell and tell them I want to upgrade the ram? maybe.

Bertster7... I don't think I can afford 2x1GB + I don't want to throw 1GB  lol

THANX for the help everyone!

Don't have a hearattack!
What is your system???  (dell? P4? Core Duo? AMD? AM2?)  CPU-Z should show you what your CPU is if you don't remember.
If you have either a P4 or AMD Athlon 64 based system you're using DDR, if you have a core duo or AM2 system you need DDR2.
If you have a custom built system there is a serious advantage to getting some faster DDR2 ram, but if you have  a middle of road Dell or other locked down bios system you might as well just get another pair of DDR2 512 sticks, matching or not.  From reviews I've read there's about a 2% memory speed increase with dual channel, so don't break the bank worrying about it unless you've got a high end system already.

NOPE my PC aint that good, My processor is P4 3 GHZ with HT and the graphics card is 6800, don't think u need to know anything else!. OH I got the computer in august 2005 from dell!

I don't think Dell put DDR2 with any of the P4 systems, but I'm not 100% sure.  On the back of your system you'll find a system tag.  Go to support.dell.com, click on your sytem (dimension) and put that # in and viola!

slo5oh wrote:

If you have either a P4 or AMD Athlon 64 based system you're using DDR, if you have a core duo or AM2 system you need DDR2.
If you have a custom built system there is a serious advantage to getting some faster DDR2 ram, but if you have  a middle of road Dell or other locked down bios system you might as well just get another pair of DDR2 512 sticks, matching or not.  From reviews I've read there's about a 2% memory speed increase with dual channel, so don't break the bank worrying about it unless you've got a high end system already.

None of that is true. A lot of P4 systems run DDR2 memory.

The memory performance increase for dual channel memory is a lot more than 2%, I don't know where you're getting that figure from. In memory tests dual channel configurations perform up to about 80% faster than equivalent single channel DIMMS. That's a worthwhile increase. People who say running in dual channel makes no difference are chatting rubbish.

Here's an industry white paper showing the performance boost dual channel configs give.
http://kb.nitix.com/images/8/84/DualVsS … Memory.pdf


Your memory is definately DDR2 - I made a mistake earlier, sorry.

Last edited by Bertster7 (2007-01-14 12:16:01)

Marine_fighter77 wrote:

what i did was just open my computer up look at my ram stick and check if its like ddr or ddr2 pc300 , check ur ram and there should be  a sticker on it. Then i took my ram to the "source" and they got the exact same one in stock and i bought a gig

Ok I think I am gonna do the same thing xD .... BRB gonna check it now

THANX

rabee2789b wrote:

Ok i just check it and it says PC2-3200U-333-10-A1 xD

PC2=DDR2? xD

Yes.

Bertster7 wrote:

slo5oh wrote:

If you have either a P4 or AMD Athlon 64 based system you're using DDR, if you have a core duo or AM2 system you need DDR2.
If you have a custom built system there is a serious advantage to getting some faster DDR2 ram, but if you have  a middle of road Dell or other locked down bios system you might as well just get another pair of DDR2 512 sticks, matching or not.  From reviews I've read there's about a 2% memory speed increase with dual channel, so don't break the bank worrying about it unless you've got a high end system already.

None of that is true. A lot of P4 systems run DDR2 memory.

The memory performance increase for dual channel memory is a lot more than 2%, I don't know where you're getting that figure from. In memory tests dual channel configurations perform up to about 80% faster than equivalent single channel DIMMS. That's a worthwhile increase. People who say running in dual channel makes no difference are chatting rubbish.

Here's an industry white paper showing the performance boost dual channel configs give.
http://kb.nitix.com/images/8/84/DualVsS … Memory.pdf


Your memory is definately DDR2 - I made a mistake earlier, sorry.

Yep, I was wrong.  Dell did put DDR2 with their P4 systems somewhere after december 2004 (rough guesstimate).  I have IBMs at work and they still (as of November last year) use DDR in their thinkcentre systems, sorry for the assumption on my part.
As for dual channel vs. single, I still stand by the fact that there's VERY LITTLE gain, although if there's no difference in price it's obvious you should run dual, but to spend an extra $150 or $200 to keep a dual channel setup is redicilous.
Even in the bechmarks you linked there's HUGE gains in memory only tests, but only a 3.8% increase in the only semi "real world" test they did where the dual channel scored 234mb/s and the single scored 226.  The evidence is out there, search yourself.  Don't put all your pennies in the "memory only" tests since they will obviously be flawed.
Like I said before... if there's no price difference obviously go dual channel, but if it's going to cost you considerably more, there's nothing wrong with running in single channel.  It's the same debate between going SATA over PATA.  Sure the controller can pass more data, but the drive is still the limiting factor for now.  A single 10k rpm raptor will still be faster than any single 7200rpm drive SATA or PATA.
Here's another "real world" test: http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Memory/Dual-Channel/3/  It shows about a 5% increase in counter strike when setup in dual channel.