i ram confused

[mira77]

Hi guys im a newbie so please bear with me
I have a 6 yr old Maxx 4d desktop bought from Special Reserve
spec list from them as follows but they had to change machine shortly after purchase and replacement was upgrade on previous dont know if this list is for 1st or 2nd machine!
intel pentium 4 1.7
40 or 80 gb? think its 80
m/board either intel 815i or 850i or VIA KT133
256 ram made up of 2x 128mb 168 pin (Rimm pc800)or(Dimm pc33)
spec sheet lists both options (tech looked at them said not enough info on stickers think they were Samsung if that helps?)
heres the confusing bit
Ran online scan with Orcalogic which said i had 2x 128 mb Rimm cards plus 2 spare slots (which i have seen but look shorter than the 2 used.) and a capacity of 2 gb
However when i ran scan from Crucial that said i was at maxiumum ram. !
How do i find out for sure as Spacial Reserve has gone dont know who Maxx are etc.
can anyone help thanks.

[Suspishio]

Intel 815 goes to maximum 512MB RAM

Intel 850 goes to maximum 2GB RAM.

You can go to www.cpuid.com and download CPUZ. When you run it it'll tell you what your chipset is on the Mainboard Tab.

But if this is a P4 @ 1.7GHz, that's dead lame and you should consider something newer if possible.

[mira77]

thanks again suspishio
cquid report says
intell p4 1.7
850i board
2x 128 RD Ram pc800-45 dual channel with 2 spare slots 2GB max

although P4 1.7 is not fantastic i have to say machine performs quite well most of the time but people said it would improve a lot with Ram increase. i read on another thread cards have to be fitted in mached pairs or will not work to the new capacity is this correct?
Ram of this type is relatively expensive from what i can see and i wouldnt know how much diference increase to 512mb or 1GB
would make.
So do i...
add 2x 128mb to the spare slots or fit new 2x 256
will an increase to 512 make a difference? (will i notice?)
or
spend a million pounds on 2x 512 or 100 million on 4x512 etc etc etc...
will 1GB make much difference? im already lost.....

if i can get dead machine going that i spoke to you about on other thread ill change to that! but im not holding breath on that one

anyway happy new year to every one. :yawn:

[Suspishio]

Mira77,

I think you're caught between the classical rock/hard place on this. There's no doubt that if you're satisfied with CPU performance, adding RAM will rack up performance particularly by shortening boot time.

But RAM of this type is expensive. And if you're going to add RAM, 1MB is a whole lot better than 512MB. But if all you're doing is Word or something like that one at a time, then 512MB will be fine and will perform a hell of a lot better than 256MB.

In that case you'd be laying out c. £100 for another 2 x 128MB RIMMS. That's your call. Personally I thin you'd be setting yourself up for a fall with this old PC where anything could fail at any time from now on. Buyt, I do appreciate that money does a lot of talking.

So back to you.

HNY.

[mira77]

Suspishio
"rock and hard place" and "nail on the head" seem to go well there!
i do usually have a few applications open at the same time and this old machine copes well initially but over a couple of hours it get fed up and starts nodding off ! so aggravating when your getting fed up yourself and want it to work faster than before.
i appreciate your comments and agree money does talk, on the other hand common sense and a look at the deals at the mo eg. 3GB ram 250G hard 2 core duo + flat screen for £399, it does make a new one look attractive.
ill wait to see what happens with the dead machine first i think, if a cheap repair works a swap is the answer.

[tigerbright]

Hi - what is your system vendor and model number or mainboard model number - look under the cpu-z mainboard tab
this will enable positive id and assist with better quality suggested solutions.
Also windows version will be helpful as well and an indication of degree of interest in optimising system within the constraints of the mainboard.
regards from Greg
ps - 512MB of installed ram memory will work fine for most home/office applications using single core processor using XP Windows.

[tigerbright]

Ok - you did quote info , brain fade on my part,
anyhow I checked prices and while not fully familiar with rdram memory 2 x 128 or 2 x 256Mb modules appear to be under US$20 on ebay - so maybe some cost effective options there
Computers & Networking > PC Components > For Desktops > Memory > RDRAM