Upgrading RAM

[Jason1]

Ive been seirously considering buying another 512MB stick of ram for my computer, upping it to 1gig. Especially since I just got my tax refund check today in the mail, a hefty 243 dollars. Its that or new tires for the Car, im still not quite sure which I'll purchase...

Anywho, ive never really done much PC upgrading, but ive heard installing a new stick of ram is pretty easy, basically just plug it in right?

Currently ive got one stick of 512MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM.

As long as the RAM I decide to purchase is PC3200, it should be just plug it in and my bios should automatically detect it right? I shouldnt even have to go into the bios right?

[Null]

you just plug it in and turn it on yes. and it only fits one way.


you dont HAVE to buy pc3200 either, Just note the speed of your ram will only run at the lowest speed you have in it.

so if you have one at 3200
and one at 2700,

they will both run at 2700

check your motherboard booklet or look it up to see what type of ram it can take, somtimes you can get a higher speed at a cheaper price, even tho it wouldnt be able to use the extra speed cuz of the slower chip. would save money.

[GameMaster]

Yeah, when I upgraded our PCs memory, it was very easy. I was nervous when I was doing it but it all turned out fine. It was just kind of hard to plug in and I was afraid the memory was going to break but they're suprisingly tough.

[KillerGremlin]

Yeah, the boards are pretty durable. You can put a lot of the components inside your PC through a decent amount of punishment.

[Jason1]

Is there any point in paying more for my 512 MB stick of RAM?

Because I was browsing newegg.com, and theres 4 pages of 512MB PC3200 RAM, with prices ranging from 55 dollars up to damn near 200 dollars.

Whats the advantage of paying more, its all the same amount of RAM right? Should I pay more than 100 dollars? What are some good brands?

[Jonbo298]

Kingston is a good brand. Trying to remember others but my mind is having a huge blank right now >_<

The cheapest, stay away from. They can die pretty quick. Don't get the most expensive one because for something like your case, you dont need to. More expensive ones have nifty little things for people who like to overclock theirs a ton.

Something around $100 should suit you well. Get a name brand that people gave good reviews for. Your best shot.

[Audio Soldier]

A gig of ram seriously improves performance.

[MuGen]

it seriously does

[GameMaster]

A gig of ram seriously improves performance.

What areas of performance?

[Jonbo298]

OS Boot time improves, gameplay performance goes up alot, you can multi-task even more now :p

[Jason1]

I should be recieveing it tomorrow, I think I'll run a few benchmarks tonight and see how much it improves with the new RAM.

[quiet mike]

Don't expect too much improvement on tests. Unless you magage to get the same type of RAM and have a dual memory channel board, you will se improvements just barely, but the system will be much more stable.

As to the the more expensive RAm, if you buy OCZ, Kingmax, Crucial or other elite types of RAM you can push those sticks at much higher speeds with a very low latency, resulting in much faster gaming and faster computer in general.

[CamFu]

Seems I'm a little late to put my input in here, but I'm going to do it anyway. Since I work at Mircon, I would recommend Crucial. Maybe because I know how they work around here and I trust them. Also a big reason is because I get an employee discount.

I've recently started reading up on their Ballistix Memory. Looks pretty sweet if you are into PC gaming. I think thats the memory I'm going to get for my next computer... if they keep producing it. Here is their website if you want to read up on it and get your own opinion on it.

Ballistix (http://www.crucial.com/ballistix/)

[Jason1]

Welp, you guys are a little late, I got my RAM today and allready installed it with no problems. Quite Mike was absolutley right, Aquamark 3 gave me not even quite a 100 point increase, which is very minimal considering My score was in the 32,000's

That FPS test thats built into Counter Strike Source also gave me a very minimal 1.5 FPS increase. But like Mike said, hopefully stuff will be more stable. And I certaintly didnt get the most expensive type of RAM by any means, so I guess its understandable. But for games that recommend 1Gig of RAM, this should help em out right?

[GameMaster]

So what do peolple do with the old RAM once they've installed the new RAM?

I have 512 currently but I've thought about jumping to 1G. It seems kind of wasteful to just throw the old RAM away. I'm not sure how many RAM sticks my computer holds. I assume it's just two but if it holds four, I could keep what I have (two 256 pieces) and just buy an additional two 256 pieces.

[Jonbo298]

Yeah, if it holds 4 you can put 4 in but if not, just get a 512.

As for old RAM, I just store it and sell it to someone I know that may need it. Or sell it online if need be.

[Jason1]

I just kept my old 512 stick in there and put in another 512 stick. Ive still got one empty slot in my mobo.