512MB RAM upgrade, which one?

T

tn48th

Geek Trainee
Hello all, I'm upgrading my Dell from 128MB RAM to 512, I mainly use it for downloading, homework, basic aplications like the microsoft office suite, web browsing, and music. I'm looking to spend between $35 - $55. My System information is:

Sys Name - DELL 0985x0509P
Sys Model - Dimension 2400
Sys type - x86 based PC
Processor - x86 Family 15 Model 2 stepping 9 genuine int
Total Physical Mem - 128MB
Available Physical - 11.47MB
Total Virtual - 433MB
Available Virtual - 90.4MB
Page File - 307MB37GB Hard Drive

I was looking at the WINTEC AMPO, CORSAIR or KINGSTON ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory - Retail.

1.) would these be good for what I need? or do I need a specific Dell RAM drive?
2.) Also will upgrading my RAM to 512 increase my virtual memory or is that a seperate upgrade?

Does anyone have any links to articles or tutorials that will teach me all this so I can make these decisions for myself in the future? I believe that is it for now, any info or product recommendations are greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
,J
 
tn48th said:
Hello all, I'm upgrading my Dell from 128MB RAM to 512, I mainly use it for downloading, homework, basic aplications like the microsoft office suite, web browsing, and music. I'm looking to spend between $35 - $55. My System information is:

Sys Name - DELL 0985x0509P
Sys Model - Dimension 2400
Sys type - x86 based PC
Processor - x86 Family 15 Model 2 stepping 9 genuine int
Total Physical Mem - 128MB
Available Physical - 11.47MB
Total Virtual - 433MB
Available Virtual - 90.4MB
Page File - 307MB37GB Hard Drive

I was looking at the WINTEC AMPO, CORSAIR or KINGSTON ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory - Retail.

1.) would these be good for what I need? or do I need a specific Dell RAM drive?
2.) Also will upgrading my RAM to 512 increase my virtual memory or is that a seperate upgrade?

Does anyone have any links to articles or tutorials that will teach me all this so I can make these decisions for myself in the future? I believe that is it for now, any info or product recommendations are greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
,J
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well if its only for downloading nd that, then u shud get a good branded cheap ram such as the kingston value ram becoz u wont be oveclocking or anything so it will be fine.
 
which model of the kingston? Whats the difference between the SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700), and the DDR 400 (PC 3200) or DDR 266 (PC 2100), which one should I get?

Also will this improve my virtual memory or is that a seperate upgrade?
 
Those are just different speeds of DDR you can get for your board. Be sure to check to see if the motherboard supports the speed of RAM you plan on getting.

Windows in most cases managaes the 'virtual memory' as it sees fit. If your RAM for some reason becomes low, it will increase your virtual memory on the hard drive.
 
and I would check to see which one the motherboard supports how? and if it does support all of them should I go with the higher PC 3200?

are these drives compatible on pretty much any PC no matter what the make, Dell, HP etc.?
 
It most likely supports them all. In your case I think I'd just go out and buy a 512mb DDR400 stick of Kingston value RAM. They're fairly cheap, I've installed them in a few dells with no issues.
 
cool but for future reference, how would I go about finding this and could you recommend some sites/books where I could begin to learn more about the specifics of all of this and learning what affects what inside the PC and how to analyze and interprit what all the numbers and what not mean when upgrading and just general PC maintanance
 
There used to be a good book out called How to repair PC's, it gave an in depth look at as to how specific parts of the computer can malfunction and how to fix them. It was a bit outdated, written for 386's but the basics are still the same. Other then that just try googling around and see what you can find.
 
If you planning on keeping your current stick of ram in with your new stick of ram, i would suggest checking what type of ram is in at the moment, and then try to look for the same speed ram and type, becouse sometimes you can have problems with having 2 different bbrands of ram in at the sam time, thats also the case with 2 different speeds aswell, if its too difficult to get the sam exact ram i would suggest removing your current stick of ram and tottally replacing it, maybe you were going to do that anyway.
 
thanks for the excellent replies guys, I also wanted to know how big of a difference in speed this upgrade will make from 128 RAM to 512? How much of it will I notice?

Currently the internet loads at a decent speed but I wouldn't try having more than one browser up, songs download very slow, other downloads vary in speed but are never fast, start up is very slow despite going into msconfig to change start up apps, and occasionally PC freezes while loading programs.
 
it really depends. but my guess is about 50%. 128 to 512 is a big leap and could really help your system out so that it uses less virtual memory! your internet speed shouldn't be affected by the RAM only the amount of pages or programs you run at one time.
 
Did you know that 76% of statistics are made up?
But you will notice a pretty hefty increase in performance, the menu's will load faster, My Computer will open faster, browsing documents, etc. With more RAM it will allow you to have more then 1 browser open at a time, assuming you have a connection that can handle it.
 
thanks for the continuing support guys but I have one more quick question about this upgrade,

cureently I have a total of 433MB virtual memory with my 128MB RAM. I talked to an IT guy and he said with the upgrade to 512MB I will need to set my virtual memory minimum to 768 and max 1215. This obviously exceeds my current total virtual memory. my question is will my virtual memory automatically increase with my RAM upgrade or do I have to buy more virtual memory? How does this work and what will I need to do to fix it?
 
Virtual memory is nothing you buy. By default, Windows assigns an amount of virtual memory based on the physical amount of RAM you have.
 
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