Upgrading RAM. What's best?

muffinhead

My computer is due for a RAM upgrade and I was thinking about sticking in another 1GB of RAM. Is it better to put in two 512MB RAM sticks or just one 1GB RAM stick?

Coveredinbees!!!!

What have you got at the moment ?

muffinhead

A measly 256MB.

planemad

Just get a 1gb stick mate

Coveredinbees!!!!

leave in the 256 do what planemad said and 1.25G bobs yer uncle, if you had said .5G it might have been worth just putting in another .5G

superscaper

It's only worth getting two 512s if your motherboard supports dual channel memory (then it'd be faster than a single 1024).

GoofyGAT

Always good to be safe than sorry when getting more RAM. Here's a small checklist (some may/may not be applicable for you):

1. What type do you need - SDRAM / DDR / DDR2 / something else? Very important as you shouldn't install the wrong type &/or mix different types.

2. The number of RAM slots present, & how many are free? Check motherboard.

3. What's the max any one slot will take? E.g. some older motherboards won't take a single 1GB stick (Mb manual/website specs should tell you).

4. Your OS? E.g. not worth installing >512Mb in Win98, or >3Gb in 32-bit OSes.

5. As superscaper mentions, you may get slightly better performance if your motherboard supports dual-channel. [However, having more RAM in single-channel may be better than less RAM in dual-channel - see this. So, to keep costs down & Mb permitting, you could still get a single 512Mb/1Gb stick & use your 256Mb alongside to get a significant boost nonetheless!]

6. Where to buy from? Companies like Crucial rarely get it wrong but eBay isn't as forgiving - an example of what to buy/avoid from the latter.

7. Your budget? Buying from eBay can save you a bundle (I have on 3 occasions with RAM alone), but always do your research/ask seller all questions prior to buying. If in the slightest doubt about compatibilty/etc, simply do not buy - no matter how tempting the price!

If you already knew the above, please forgive me , G

BillScarab

Just run the system scanner on the Crucial site that GoofyGAT referred to. That will tell you what slots you have free, what type of RAM you need and what your options are.

donnajunkie

i have a problem with upgrading ram. after doing a scan on crucial it tells me i have 4 slots and two of them have 512mb each. they are DDR2 PC2-5300. the problem is the scan says they have nothing available but when i go the other way and search for my pc it then brings up 3 choices. 2 times 512mb DDR PC2-4200 or 2 times 1gb DDR PC2-5300 or 1 times 2gb kit(2 times 1gb) DDR PC2-4200.
so what should i believe? is the scan right? or is the system search correct and all 3 of those above are compatible? my pc is compaq presario sr5129uk.

GoofyGAT

donnajunkie, having had a look at your PC & motherboard specs at HP, it would appear that you can get a max of 2x 1Gb (as two slots are free) more of PC2-4200 or PC2-5300.

So yes, all 3 Crucial suggestions are compatible, though the PC2-5300 (even 2x 512Mb of it, if available) would be preferable over the PC2-4200 - as that's what you have now & is quicker of the two. G

donnajunkie

GoofyGAT wrote: »

donnajunkie, having had a look at your PC & motherboard specs at HP, it would appear that you can get a max of 2x 1Gb (as two slots are free) more of PC2-4200 or PC2-5300.

So yes, all 3 Crucial suggestions are compatible, though the PC2-5300 (even 2x 512Mb of it, if available) would be preferable over the PC2-4200 - as that's what you have now & is quicker of the two. G

so should i not worry that the scan said they had nothing compatible?
there are no other factors that should be considered are they? i know that for example they can have different speeds. i know this probably wont be an issue but having windows vista isnt an issue is it? i know that maybe a stupid question.
a mate recomended another company called orca. i have never seen them be mentioned here before and wonder what people think of them?