Limits to upgrading RAM

14Westfield

I'd like to upgrade the RAM in my desktop (currently 2gb and 1gb DDR2 PC2-5300).
On the crucial memory advisor, it says i can only upgrade to a maximum of 4gb (2x2gb).
Is that right? it hardly seems worth the hassle to only add another 1gb.

i have a PackardBell 2712 ixtreme

thanks for any advice.

closed

you're unlikely to notice any performance difference

forgotmyname

Depends on the operating system.

32bit XP and 3 GB is about its limit.

Windows 7 64 bit can handle a lot more.

Whether it will speed up the PC will depend on how many programs you open at a time.

John_Gray

I haven't found the Crucial memory advisor to be wrong more than about a couple of times!

Check in whatever documentation came with your PC, or (if it exists) online.

bod1467

http://www.mrmemory.co.uk/memory-ram-upgrades/model/Packard+Bell~iXtreme~2712 says it has 4 RAM slots, but can only accept up to 4GB. Yet elsewhere I find results saying it only has 2 RAM slots.

Either way, getting matched pairs of RAM sticks may give a little boost but not hugely ... the limiting factor will likely be the CPU.

Lum

bod1467 wrote: »

http://www.mrmemory.co.uk/memory-ram-upgrades/model/Packard+Bell~iXtreme~2712 says it has 4 RAM slots, but can only accept up to 4GB. Yet elsewhere I find results saying it only has 2 RAM slots.

Open it up and have a look is the most sensible option, but as others have said, if you are still on 32 bit Windows XP then your limit is going to be approximately 3.5 GB and any additional RAM you install will be simply ignored.

If you have a 64bit OS then this is not an issue.

Edit: According to this thread. Your computer has a VIA PT890 chipset that supports a maximum of 4GB memory.

Upgrading from 3GB to 4GB doesn't really seem worth it to me.

paddyrg

... Especially as you're upgrading from 3 gigs too 3.25, effectively! It is to do with 32-bit addressing of memory locations (2^32 is roughly 4000000000 addresses) and then about 2^29 address video and other stuff, so are not available to programs.

prowla

If you are running Windows 32-bit, upgrading from 3GB to 4 GB may only give you a 0.5 GB increase, or even less depending upon your computer model.

(The reason for this is that the OS uses "memory mapped i/o", which means that it talks to things like your graphics card, your hard disk, your USB, and the other components in the machine as if they were memory locations, and to do that it blocks out that portion of your computers memory addresses and basically just wastes any memory that would fall into that range. Different manufacturers and different models choose to use different amounts of the memory address range for that.)

However, some computers will run faster if you have matching memory (ie. 2x 2GB of the same type from the same manufacturer).

Lum

prowla wrote: »

However, some computers will run faster if you have matching memory (ie. 2x 2GB of the same type from the same manufacturer).

The computer being discussed in this thread is not one of them.

The PT890 chipset only supports single channel memory.

prowla

OK - Crucial (http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/Packard+Bell-memory/iXtreme/iXtreme+2712-upgrades.html) says:

Although the memory can be installed one module at a time, the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules.

14Westfield

thanks for the advice - im currently running Windows 8 (64bit) which seems to have struggled more than 32bit systems so might have to switch back to 32bit or just get the RAM for just a little extra benefit..