memory upgrade

I recently upgraded the memmory in my Dell from 256 to 768. I added an extra stick of Kingston 512mb pc3200 valueram. I didn't notice any significant change in the pc's speed. Can this lack of performance boost be caused by the lower speed of the original stick of 256 which is probably pc2700? Is it preventing the new stick from working at its full potential? If so, I will take out the 256 and leave the 512 as it is. Thanks in advance

 

While I think matching memory sticks is best, your processor and hard drive may have more to do with lack of speed than the ram. Also, cleaning up your drive of old files and checking for virus's can help. If you have an older computer, sometimes upgrading to a new one is the only thing that helps. Ask me how I know I've had one since pre-windows days, and found getting a new one is the only thing that really helps.

 

haha yea thats very true but my pc is working fine and i only need it to browse internet and do some word and excel work im not planning on watching dvds or playing games for that i would just built a new pc

 

Well, there you go Could just be your ISP. Even if you have DSL, it won't necessarily be super fast. And I find Word and Excel consistantly slow. I think you need at least 1gig or even 2 to speed those programs up! I have those same problems and I just live with it till I give in a buy a new pc. I built one from scratch once, but don't think it saves money unless you just enjoy building them.

 

Not true. These programs run extremely fast with 512 MBytes of memory, as long as the files don;t get too involved.

Systems runs slow because of too little memory, too little swap space, or numerous (ans often unnecessary) programs and processes running at the same time.

 

I have a good amount of space left on the HD (its a 40 gig and I always try to keep at least 15 gigs free) and I always use msconfig to keep down the number of programs running at startup. Every week I check for viruses and about once a month I check for spyware and manually delete it if i find any from the registry so in this case I think its the lack of RAM my pc can support up to 1 gig (it's about 5 years old) so maybe ill get an identical stick of 512 valueram and make it a gig but for now I'll just remove the 256 and to see if it helps

 

with the older ram, if you put a stick of slower memory in, the bus would only run as fast as the slowest speed RAM installed... so it was always recommended to match your sticks when installing..

 

Most so called computer experts do not know this simple fact. The speed of a computer is not measured by how much memory is available as long there is enough to run whatever is required it is not the CPU clock speed for sure 4gigahz is in the microwave radar range. so why when you people upgrade to big ram numbers big H/D nothing misteriously happen. Can i tell you sure it is the I/O the PC is designed for a certain I/O and no matter what you do to it nothing will make go faster then the i/o is the final chocke chain. you want a faster computer buy a faster i/o capability. the rams can be as fast as possible but a 100mkz i/o buss will make a 100 mhz PC. PERIOD and the rams and CPU will wait for it just loafing or laughing at god money spent on bad decisions for lack of knowledge.

 

sounds like what yur saying is that no matter the speed limit or the fast car, a small highway will move heavy trafic real slow. Just like on holiday week-ends. YUP got ya

 

neon, have you been drinking too much cough syrup? I understand what you’re trying to say but just. ;-) I/O isn’t the term you’re looking for, it's bus; more specify the Front Side Bus (FSB). Yes upgrading the RAM will not increase the FSB but it can increase the memory bus speed, thus speeding up memory read/writes, thus causing the CPU to wait less time for data, thus speeding up the system. Anything that cuts down latency will help the system. Also the increased amount RAM will cut down page faults speeding the response of the system up drastically when under large memory load.

sergeyg, the performance increase you should get is mainly seen when you are switching in between applications. Before you added the memory your computer it would probably hang for a few seconds when you switch between Word and a web browser or any programs that takes up a lot of memory. Now that time should be way down or eliminated completely.

Find out the speed of your old ram and if it is significantly different then the new take it out and see how things feel. You may have to increase the memory’s speed in BIOS too. It would be an option under advanced called something like memory timing or latency.

 

Increasing the ram in a Dell can sometimes be a pain because they want you buying the stuff from them. Quite frankly, they seem to charge more also.

Try this first. Right click on a My Computer ICON and select Properties. What's it say about how much ram is being recognized. If he's hitting on all cylinders then it should be displaying 756 megs, right? If it is saying something else, try swapping sticks from slot to slot. Don't worry if your computer doesn't boot, just return the dimms to their original homes. You can also try pulling the 256 stick and plug in just the 512. What is she recognizing now after that switch?

Another thought, at boot up check your BIOS settings for RAM recognition. Some Dell's will need manual configuration in BIOS after an upgrade for proper ram recognition. If you are offered the switch in BIOS, don't forget to save and then exit.

bs5

 

You can also increase your virtual memory (page file). I see there are a lot of opinions in this thread. I am a desktop support tech for a large company, so I get this request a lot. The honest answer is that it depends what you are doing. There are certain programs that use more memory than others. If you are simply browsing the web, then, honestly, going from 256 to anything higher may help slightly, but you may not notice. For the more resource intensive programs, you might see the benefit a little more easily. But, in agreement with one of the first repliers, much of this boils down to what processor speed and HD read speed you have.

Good luck.

 

this won't tell you what type memory, but it will tell you everything else about your computer you ever wanted to know.. its a great program to use... download it at
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
its called belarc advisor...