new pc will extra ram help

scooter100_2

wonderfullife wrote:

Hi Scooter
When it scans your system, it wil bring you to a page, where it says "Crucial Recommends" and it will list all, if you look next to this it also says "All Compatiable Upgrades, click on this and it will now show you all the ram that you can buy for your system.

Hope this helps

hi
it doesnt come up with the above page
it some up with
Get Maximum Performance From Your Packard Bell By Adding More Memory!
The Crucial System Scanner was unable to determine the exact Packard Bell model that you have. You can still find the right memory upgrade for your Packard Bell computer by using the Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool.

To use the Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool, check your computer case or computer manual to determine the exact model name of your computer. Then select the model from the list below to find upgrade information for your computer.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Dont go to the select a manufacturer etc, go further down the page to the Blue Button "Scan my System" you will have to download a little program, download that, double click it, it will then take you back to Crucial, where you can see what it recommends.

Hope this helps

scooter100_2

thanks for the replies so far


im thinking of going for an extra 512mb to give 768mb.would this give a considerable improvement in performance or should i opt for an extra 1gb?

timread

It appears that the Packard Bell iStart 352 you have is a desktop PC with DDR RAM slots.

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/index.php?m=home&pn=PB34233001

If you know the serial number of your PC, you can put it into the webpage above to get more detailed specs of your PC.

It appears that the motherboard in this PC is made by ECS, (Elitegroup Computer Systems). It is either the 661FX-M or the 661FX-M7. These motherboards take either PC3200 (also known as DDR-400) RAM, or they will also take PC2100 (DDR-266) or PC2700 (DDR-266).

The only tricky bit is what speed your current RAM runs at - it will probably either be DDR-333 (PC2700), or DDR-400 (PC3200).

You could always try contacting Crucial! Their support very good...

timread

timread wrote:

The only tricky bit is what speed your current RAM runs at - it will probably either be DDR-333 (PC2700), or DDR-400 (PC3200).

Just to explain that comment - if you mix RAM speeds, most motherboards will just run BOTH modules at the lowest speed... but some motherboards just plain don't like it, and won't recognise one of the modules, or won't run at all. So it's generally a better idea to match the speed of your existing module, if you're keeping it.

If you just surf the web, use email/office applications etc, then 512MB total is fine for XP. If you play games released in the last 2-3 years, then 768MB would be better. If I'm right in the above post, then your motherboard only has 2 RAM slots... so to upgrade to 1GB, you'd need to remove the 256MB and get 2x512MB.

timread

oops, just saw on the previous page that the Crucial tool said you had PC3200 RAM. So you can ignore my comment on mixing memory speeds.

...So, contact Crucial, and get them to tell you which 256MB or 512MB PC3200 module they guarantee to work on your Packard Bell model.

scooter100_2

opted for 512 mb from pc world which on first install xp wouldnt load, but tried again and everything worked.had computer on for 8 hours now without having to reboot so a definate improvement.
thanks to all