Tips on more ram

Horlock

Afraid I've completely lost track of ram but want an upgrade.

In my system at present I have:

4096MB 1067 MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [4x1024]

The question is how best to upgrade.

I'm planning on buying 8GB ie two 4GB strips.

I've used crucial system recommendation etc and it recommends any of


8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT1029717 (0 Ratings)


£32.99 ex. VAT £39.59 inc. VAT*

Qty:




8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.35V • 512Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT2316145 (0 Ratings)


£32.99 ex. VAT £39.59 inc. VAT*

Qty:




8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-12800 • 10-10-10-28 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1600 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT1826607 (0 Ratings)


£41.99 ex. VAT £50.39 inc. VAT*

Qty:




8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 • • Part #: CT1797486 (0 Ratings)


£34.99 ex. VAT £41.99 inc. VAT*

Qty:





I'm currently assuming that I want to remove 2 slots and replace with the new.

Can I just get some advice.

Basically the system is a couple of years old now
Dell XPS8000

Intel Core i7-860 (2.80GHz, 8MB, L3 Cache)
What I'm really unclear about is while all the above memory is "compatible" what the real difference is between each (except of course the price).

I'm also wondering whether I'd be better ditching all 4 GB of current memory during the replacement (ie will the old force the new to work slower - hence running an 8GB system at high speed is better than a 10GB system at low speed).

Any other advice relating to where to buy, alternative brands is always welcome too, but the main issue is what type of memory I should buy. Obviously I don't want the "super amazing wonderful" variety if my system can't handle it. It is a dell PC - out of the box - ie no overclocking or anything clever!

Yolina

The first question is: is your OS 64 bit? If not and in which case you're running a 32 bit one then it can't "see" more than 3GB of RAM (or thereabouts) anyway so you'd need to upgrade that to see any benefit from the increased RAM

Horlock

Sorry should have said that - yes I'm running windows 7 ultimate 64bit

paddyrg

Horlock wrote: »

Afraid I've completely lost track of ram but want an upgrade.
Basically the system is a couple of years old now
Dell XPS8000

Go to crucial.com
Enter your lappy type
Pick the 'crucial recommends' option! You won't get better value (quality for money) than Crucial.

Yolina

Not sure about whether there's a noticeable difference between what you've listed so you'll have to wait for someone more knowledgeable to come along. I'd consider ditching the old ones as from personal experience, new and old strips don't always play nice together but things might have changed since I've last stuffed extra RAM into a PC which was a few years ago!

spannerzone

CL - lower is better
PC3 - 10600 is running at a slower speed than PC3 - 12800

However, the ram will run at the speed of the system bus so if your current ram runs at 10600 then installing 12800 alongside it will mean the faster ram slows down to 10600. It's worth noting that all these speed differences are generally unnoticable in every day situations and somewhat irrelevent. The important thing is to get the most compatible memory, so use Crucial's scanner and choose one or the the other.....it's arguable that you might as well get the faster speed ram although it'll probably run at the slower speed anyway....although as it's a few quid more then that's for you to decide.....either will work fine.

It's very occasionally necessary to update the BIOS to recognise newer ram, this happened with me recently although Dell provide very easy BIOS updates if it's necessary.

Hammyman

You already have 4GB which is about 2.5GB more than most people will ever need. Just what are you intending doing which will need more than 4GB? My computer I use for gaming only has 4GB in it. My wifes at work which she uses for CAD and Photoshop has 4GB in.

Horlock

spannerzone wrote: »

CL - lower is better
PC3 - 10600 is running at a slower speed than PC3 - 12800

However, the ram will run at the speed of the system bus so if your current ram runs at 10600 then installing 12800 alongside it will mean the faster ram slows down to 10600. It's worth noting that all these speed differences are generally unnoticable in every day situations and somewhat irrelevent. The important thing is to get the most compatible memory, so use Crucial's scanner and choose one or the the other.....it's arguable that you might as well get the faster speed ram although it'll probably run at the slower speed anyway....although as it's a few quid more then that's for you to decide.....either will work fine.

It's very occasionally necessary to update the BIOS to recognise newer ram, this happened with me recently although Dell provide very easy BIOS updates if it's necessary.

How can I tell what speed my system is running at? I'm guessing from my OP that its running slower than 10600, but I have no idea if it is the ram which is the slowest component.

If My system will be faster with faster ram then I'll buy faster. If not I might as well keep a tenner in my pocket it seems - all moneysaving I guess.




Just adding in answer to Hammyman previous question that recently I've noticed memory full (or at least almost) at least 3.8GB full according to task manager. Firefox tends to be eating a good 1.5gb - I don't like closing tabs! I never play games - which is why I'm happy with the bog standard graphics card.

closed

stop using firefox or tweak some settings

8GB for browsing is ott

HO87

Learn to close some of your tabs, also uninstall any add-on toolbars you have running in FF and examine the programs you have starting on boot - a good many of them do not need to do so. You can start them when you need them - so change their settings so they don't start on boot. The plethora of programs with constantly running update utilities may well also be a contributory cause. Shut them down and manually update things once a month - few require more than that.

spannerzone

Horlock wrote: »

How can I tell what speed my system is running at? I'm guessing from my OP that its running slower than 10600, but I have no idea if it is the ram which is the slowest component.

If My system will be faster with faster ram then I'll buy faster. If not I might as well keep a tenner in my pocket it seems - all moneysaving I guess.




Just adding in answer to Hammyman previous question that recently I've noticed memory full (or at least almost) at least 3.8GB full according to task manager. Firefox tends to be eating a good 1.5gb - I don't like closing tabs! I never play games - which is why I'm happy with the bog standard graphics card.

Download and install Speccy to see what hardware is in your PC

http://www.piriform.com/speccy/download

I'd agree with closed in that 8Gb for web browsing is OTT. - I run a couple PC's with Win7 64bit and they're fine with 2GB ram. I suspect you've got other things loaded up and running which might be dragging things down, toolbars, unnecessary sidebars, messenger apps etc.