What RAM do I need?

Darylt · 28 Feb 2006 at 12:03

I am relitvly new to this adding bits to my PC lark, however I have in the past added new RAM and a DVD RW drive.

I cant remember how I figured out which type of RAM I needed to upgarde.

How can I find out?

Thanks

Synergy · 28 Feb 2006 at 13:35

Simplest way is to open up the PC, and read the sticker on the RAM, it'll probably say something like DDR400 or PC3200 (same thing)

Street · 28 Feb 2006 at 14:32

Post your PC specs and we can probably tell you as well

Synergy · 28 Feb 2006 at 14:46

Thinking about it, a tool I've always used is this http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php (CPU-Z) just run the .exe and that should tell you.

Darylt · 28 Feb 2006 at 16:52

What a cool tool!

Well it says that I have 4 slots,

slot 1; DDR SDRAM 256MB PC2700 (166 MHz) Kingston
slot 2; DDR SDRAM 512MB PC2100 (133 MHz) Nanya Technology
slot 3; Empty
slot 4; Empty

Now I'm not sure what to buy! I have read on here about 'matched pairs' etc but it is a little jibberish to me!

I was thinking of getting a 1GB strip.........

bellylard · 28 Feb 2006 at 16:56

What motherboard and cpu do you use?

Synergy · 28 Feb 2006 at 17:11

Well the first thing you should know is that because you have 'mismatched' ram, your (faster) PC2700 stick is already running at the slower PC2100 speed. Depending on what your motherboard / chipset etc is it may be worth your while just ditching your ram and buying some PC3200 (the standard these days).

Darylt · 1 Mar 2006 at 09:48

Hmmm, looks as though this could be expensive......

Intel Celeron CPU 2.00GHz
Dont know the make of the motherboard although CPU-Z says
Model M266A
Chipset VIA P4M266

Darylt · 1 Mar 2006 at 09:56

Found the motherboard here I think http://www.asrock.com.tw/product/product_m266a.htm

Darylt · 5 Mar 2006 at 10:48

Can I run PC3200 SD RAM on this PC?

quadboi · 5 Mar 2006 at 12:01

Get Everest.... that will tell you the Make... of the mobo

lemonkettaz · 5 Mar 2006 at 12:04

Darylt said:
What a cool tool!

Well it says that I have 4 slots,

slot 1; DDR SDRAM 256MB PC2700 (166 MHz) Kingston
slot 2; DDR SDRAM 512MB PC2100 (133 MHz) Nanya Technology
slot 3; Empty
slot 4; Empty

Now I'm not sure what to buy! I have read on here about 'matched pairs' etc but it is a little jibberish to me!

I was thinking of getting a 1GB strip.........

with that mish mash memory setup i think you would benefit with some dual channel memory (depending on your motherboard)

a simple 2x512 pc3200 memory setup would give you some benefits. 1gb dual channel (if it will run dual channel) would be cheap and a good upgrade

Darylt · 5 Mar 2006 at 16:35

sjohal2006 said:
Get Everest.... that will tell you the Make... of the mobo

Unfortunately they do not do the freeware version any longer.

Another product gave me the following information

Processor
2.00 gigahertz Intel Celeron
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
128 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Main Circuit Board
Board: M266A. 3.0X
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. P1.90 09/15/2003