Pages: 1

 

2006-01-03 15:15:06
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center
i like to consider myself pretty computer literate, but when it comes to RAM, i'm pretty ignorant...so if anyone could help me out, i'd appreciate it.

i have a dell (badmouth it if you want, but i haven't ever had a bad experience with them) up at school that i'm looking to upgrade.  right now the system specs are:

p4 3.0ghz w/ HT
2x512mb 533mhz ddr ram
nvidia 6800 256mb
80gb 7200rpm hdd
soundblaster live! 24-bit soundcard (soon to be upgraded to an x-fi xtrememusic once i get back up to school)

anyway, i'm looking to upgrade from my 1gb of ram to 2gb and i have a few questions about it.

1. whats the deal with installing ram?  do i just pop it in and go?  or are there drivers i have to download?  do i have to scan for it?  will my system auto-detect it?

2. my system runs 533mhz ram.  i'm looking on newegg and all i can find is ddr400.  whats the deal with that?

3. am i better off just buying 2gb of ram and replacing what i already have?  the price difference between 1gb and 2gb really isnt that extreme...so this is an option.

4. does anyone have any recommendations?  i'm looking at the corsair 2gb (4x512) dual channel ram.

any help would be appreciated...thanks in advance.

also, i did a search on the forums...i know there are quite a few threads on RAM and memory, but nothing i found answered these questions.

Last edited by ThomasMorgan (2006-01-03 15:49:52)

2006-01-03 15:41:38
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center
oh yeah, and one more thing...is newegg the best place to buy parts from?  i just ordered my soundcard from there and although i havent gotten it yet (its not slated to arrive until the 5th), i didnt have any problems ordering it.  hopefully there wont be any problems as i leave for school the 7th...and therefore need the soundcard and any RAM i order from them before that date.
2006-01-03 15:49:23
sleepy127
Member
+4|6729

ThomasMorgan wrote:

i like to consider myself pretty computer literate, but when it comes to RAM, i'm pretty ignorant...so if anyone could help me out, i'd appreciate it.

i have a dell (badmouth it if you want, but i haven't ever had a bad experience with them) up at school that i'm looking to upgrade.  right now the system specs are:

p4 3.0ghz w/ HT
2x512mb 533mhz ddr ram
nvidia 6800 256mb
80gb 7200rpm hdd
soundblaster live! 24-bit soundcard (soon to be upgraded to an x-fi xtrememusic once i get back up to school)

anyway, i'm looking to upgrade from my 1gb of ram to 2gb and i have a few questions about it.

1. whats the deal with installing ram?  do i just pop it in and go?  or are there drivers i have to download?  do i have to scan for it?  will my system auto-detect it?

2. my system runs 533mhz ram.  i'm looking on newegg and all i can find is ddr400.  whats the deal with that?

3. am i better off just buying 2gb of ram and replacing what i already have?  the price difference between 1gb and 2gb really isnt that extreme...so this is an option.

4. does anyone have any recommendations?  i'm looking at the corsair 2gb (4x512) dual channel ram.

any help would be appreciated...thanks in advance.
1. no drivers just pop it in
2. your ram is probably ddr 2 ram I will look for some and post a link (and it does matter)
3. Buy 2, 1 gb sticks.
4. My corsair value works great

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi … t=Property

There is a link of the search I did. Here are some trusted names, OCZ, GSkill, geil, corsair, mushkin, patriot,
get something with timings 3,3,3,8 or better (lower numbers) and PC2 4200 or better (higher numbers)

Last edited by sleepy127 (2006-01-03 15:58:02)

2006-01-03 15:51:33
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center

sleepy127 wrote:

1. no drivers just pop it in
2. your ram is probably ddr 2 ram I will look for some and post a link (and it does matter)
3. Buy 2, 1 gb sticks.
4. My corsair value works great
thank you.

so 2x1gb is better than 4x512?
2006-01-03 15:55:00
RDMC_old
Member
+0|6727|Almere, Holland
sorry this doesnt have anything to do with ur posts.. cause i dont know much about i myselve but i just upgrade to 1gb and i am just wonderin what diffference in gameplay or anything does it make to have 2gb instead of 1gb.. because with 512 to 1gb it makes little difference in loadin times and when enterin a game its a nice and smooth but what kind of extra's does 2gb give me?
2006-01-03 15:57:11
sleepy127
Member
+4|6729
2x1 because of the access times and for RDMC's question 2GB really helps load times big time. I can usually cap a flag before the rest of my team  spawns.
2006-01-03 15:58:42
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center

RDMC wrote:

sorry this doesnt have anything to do with ur posts.. cause i dont know much about i myselve but i just upgrade to 1gb and i am just wonderin what diffference in gameplay or anything does it make to have 2gb instead of 1gb.. because with 512 to 1gb it makes little difference in loadin times and when enterin a game its a nice and smooth but what kind of extra's does 2gb give me?
well BF2 is a huge RAM hog...if you check your system stats while its running, you'll see its always hovering around like 800-950mbs of RAM used.  i've read a few posts where if you set the audio to ultra high and have the graphics on high, itll use up to around 1.2-1.5gb of RAM.  also, i'm about 95% sure that more RAM decreases the amount of time it takes to verify client data, which, with 1gb isnt terribly long...but it could be much faster.
2006-01-03 16:00:04
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center

sleepy127 wrote:

2x1 because of the access times and for RDMC's question 2GB really helps load times big time. I can usually cap a flag before the rest of my team  spawns.
ok, thank you very much sleepy...youve been really helpful.  quick, simple answers...thanks again.

i just saw that link...thank you for that too.  makes things a lot easier on me. 

Last edited by ThomasMorgan (2006-01-03 16:04:40)

2006-01-03 16:04:26
smefeman
Member
+0|6740
i dont think that 2 gigs would be super helpful really.. in my opinion anything over 1 gig is pretty much overkill and i havent seen any of that 4X512mb dual pack that you've been talking about.  They usualyl come in 2X1GB dual packs OR 2X512 dual packs.  Besides for that point, i would like to say that 1 GB sticks are not as fast as 512MB sticks.  The timings are not as fast (usually like 2-3-2-5 are the fastest you';ll get for 1GB, but 512 on the other hand can hit as low as 1.5-2-2-5 for geil one ram http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe … e=85002-40)  Anyway about your ram speed thing, as the other guy said, its probably DDR2.  Here is another article on ram and definitions etc.  its  DFI guide but you might be able to learn from it also http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthr … mory+guide
2006-01-03 16:06:20
atlvolunteer
PKMMMMMMMMMM
+27|6762|Atlanta, GA USA
Newegg has DDR 533 memory.
I'm not sure if there would be an advantage to buying 2 1GB sticks over 4 512MB.  If you have 2 empty slots and the memory you have has decent latencies, I'd just buy 2 more 512MB sticks.
EDIT: looks like they only have 512MB sticks...

Last edited by atlvolunteer (2006-01-03 16:07:17)

2006-01-03 16:06:49
RDMC_old
Member
+0|6727|Almere, Holland

ThomasMorgan wrote:

RDMC wrote:

sorry this doesnt have anything to do with ur posts.. cause i dont know much about i myselve but i just upgrade to 1gb and i am just wonderin what diffference in gameplay or anything does it make to have 2gb instead of 1gb.. because with 512 to 1gb it makes little difference in loadin times and when enterin a game its a nice and smooth but what kind of extra's does 2gb give me?
well BF2 is a huge RAM hog...if you check your system stats while its running, you'll see its always hovering around like 800-950mbs of RAM used.  i've read a few posts where if you set the audio to ultra high and have the graphics on high, itll use up to around 1.2-1.5gb of RAM.  also, i'm about 95% sure that more RAM decreases the amount of time it takes to verify client data, which, with 1gb isnt terribly long...but it could be much faster.
ok i see now well thanks guys =-) well i aint runnin my game on ultra high or so and i have smooth gameplay now but when i am going to upgrade my graphics card or sound card then i will probaly look for more RAM, thanks
2006-01-03 16:07:27
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center
wow...you guys are rock stars.  can you do my grocery shopping too?
2006-01-03 16:09:54
atlvolunteer
PKMMMMMMMMMM
+27|6762|Atlanta, GA USA
You should probably run a utility like Everest to verify whether you have DDR or DDR2.
2006-01-03 16:16:38
sleepy127
Member
+4|6729

atlvolunteer wrote:

You should probably run a utility like Everest to verify whether you have DDR or DDR2.
or cpu-z
2006-01-03 16:21:44
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center
i would, but the computer i'm upgrading is at school and i'm at home right now.

also, i would wait until i got up to school...but i go to school in canada.  newegg doesn't ship up there. 
2006-01-03 16:26:07
TriggerHappy998
just nothing
+387|6838|-
On the subject of newegg.com, if you ever have any problem with any of their products you can usually return them without any hassle whatsoever. Most of the time you will be sent back the same product as the only time I've ever sent anything back was for defective products. But in the case of not getting what you want or something that is incompatable, there is a 10-30 day money back thing (depending on the product). So to answer your question, yes newegg is probably the best place to get parts
2006-01-03 16:31:05
Zantham
Member
+1|6712|Canada
RAM is really confusing stuff.  I'd be very surprised if your P4 - 3.0GHz takes DDR2 RAM...but I suppose its not unheard of.  More likely is your system is a P4 - 3.06GHz which runs 533 Front Side Bus, which is completely different from DDR2-533.  DDR and DDR2 RAM is not interchangeable, they look similar but won't plug into the slots properly.  You can use a small free utility called CPU-Z to find out exactly what your system is, and the type of RAM it requires.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Oh yeah, and 4x512MB is actually better then 2x1GB, because smaller size RAM chips tend to have better RAM timings (CAS, RAS, etc, etc).  Note that a larger stick of higher quality RAM might still have better timings than a smaller stick of lower quality RAM, but high quality smaller sticks will have best of all.  Not all motherboards will take advantage of very fast RAM (in some it won't even run), and for Intel CPUs it is not as big of deal as it is for AMD CPUs (because of the way they use the RAM...)
2006-01-03 17:38:23
notorious
Nay vee, bay bee.
+1,396|6737|The United Center
i think i found what i decided to get.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6820227044

sleepy, you were right.  i checked the manual for my compy on dell's website and it definitely is DDR2.

i decided to keep the gig i have now (since theres no point wasting it when its just fine) and im buying another gig.  this way i can have 2gigs dual channelled (even though i'm not quite sure what that means...but it sounds good)...keeping the original two sticks in slots 1 and 3 and putting the new sticks in 2 and 4.

so yeah, that memory would appear to work with my computer.  if anyone is wondering, here is the online manual for my compy.  this link should send you right to the memory section.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s … #wp1364711

so thanks everyone for your help...i don't think i should have any trouble installing it...but if i do, i guess i know where to come. 

 

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