Memory Upgrade Question

Early B.

I'm considering upgrading the RAM in my computer. I currently have 1 GB and I'm looking to go to 2 GB or 3 GB. I have a Dell E510 that takes a DDR2 PC2-4200 or 5300. I have 4 memory slots and the memory is supposed to be installed in pairs. I surf the 'net a lot and download large files frequently for work. I run Windows XP and don't plan to run Vista anytime soon.

Here are my questions:

1. Will a memory upgrade increase my page loading and download speed?

2. I'm assuming the PC2-5300 is "faster" and a better choice. Is this correct?

3. I currently have a pair of 512 MB 4200 memory modules. Should I remove them altogether if I move up to 2 GB?

4. I'm thinking of buying 2GB (2 x 1GB) of 5300's. Is it OK to keep mix PC2-4200 and 5300? If so, I'd have a total of 3 GB of RAM.

5. Will I notice a difference between 4200 and 5300?

6. Will I notice a difference between 2GB and 3GB of RAM?

Thanks.

engtaz

I went from 1 gig to 2 gig and it cleared up almost all the lag times.

PhantomOG

Early B. wrote: »

1. Will a memory upgrade increase my page loading and download speed?

Possibly. Alot of that is dependent on your connection speed. If you are already maxed out there, more memory won't help downloads. It will help other non-internet based aps.

2. I'm assuming the PC2-5300 is "faster" and a better choice. Is this correct?

3. I currently have a pair of 512 MB 4200 memory modules. Should I remove them altogether if I move up to 2 GB?

4. I'm thinking of buying 2GB (2 x 1GB) of 5300's. Is it OK to keep mix PC2-4200 and 5300? If so, I'd have a total of 3 GB of RAM.

5300 is faster. Your memory will run only at the speed of the slowest module. If you install 5300 with the 4200, it will only run at the 4200 speed. If you want to use the old stuff, I'd consider buying 4200 if it saves you any money.

5. Will I notice a difference between 4200 and 5300?

6. Will I notice a difference between 2GB and 3GB of RAM?

I personally doubt it on both counts based on your usage described, but that's just my opinion. DDR2 is dirt cheap right now, so its a good time to upgrade. Check out newegg or Fry's for some really good deals. I bought 2GB of DDR2 PC-5400 for about $80 plus tax recently.

izafar

1. It depends upon what is your current memory usage (i-e how many other apps and background processes you are running). More memory will speed the browser somewhat but wouldn't effect the download speed.

2. PC2-5300 is faster then 4200, but how much leverage you can get out of it depends upon the speed you FSB.

3. If you have FSB that can utilize 5300 better then removing 4200 would help.

4. It is ok to mix.

5. Depends upon your FSB

6. Depends on how many apps you run in parallel

PolkThug

Just upgrade the power cord.

bobman1235

Use task manager and check what your peak memory usage is; if you're never going above 1GB, chances are you won't see much of a difference; if you are, you will notice a difference.

As others have said, mixing is OK, but the entire memory will only run at the slowest common denominator, so it's almost a waste to mix.

phuz

PolkThug wrote: »

Just upgrade the power cord.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

dudeinaroom

if you are going to keep what you have in it go with the slower memory and save a few bucks. The only thing the faster memory is going to do is give you a few frames faster in games, a little faster rendering of images. For what you are doing the speed of the ram will not give you that big of an increase.

ben62670

dudeinaroom wrote: »

if you are going to keep what you have in it go with the slower memory and save a few bucks. The only thing the faster memory is going to do is give you a few frames faster in games, a little faster rendering of images. For what you are doing the speed of the ram will not give you that big of an increase.

What he said, and buy Corsair from newegg.

dylan

For # 6, save your money. XP realistically peaks about 2GB. In my experience (6,000+ company computers): XP = add anything above 256MB, great improvement. 1-2gb = modest improvement, but depends on what apps you're running, and if concurrently running. Greater than 2gb = almost no improvement. For our engineers that are running 3-d CAD programs, or multiple virtual machines at the same time, we switch to Server OS and add the appropriate amount of memory.

Early B.

Hey, guys, thanks for the responses. I'll let you know shortly what I decided to do.

BTW -- I never thought about upgrading the power cord!!! Ironically, I just purchsed a PS Audio XStream power cord, so I may try it.

Early B.

Based on the feedback here, I decided to save some money, so I purchased two Crucial 512MB 4200 memory modules for about $35 including shipping. That will give me a total of 2GB.

Thanks.

jflail2

Good choice Early. Enjoy the extra juice

petrym

I just bought a 1GB DDR2 chip today for this computer to bring it up to 2GB. I'll start the torture test tonight: I usually run 4 major apps (Quickbooks. Quicken, Excel, Outlook), 4-5 minor windows (a couple windows explorers, notepads, calculator, and volume adjuster) and 5-6 browsers with multiple tabs on the each instance of the browser. I'll let you know if I notice a difference.

sophie

i noticed a big gain when i went from 512 of value ram to 2X512 2-2-2-5 in duel channel a few years ago. helped with my overclock a lot too but because you have a dell and not a homebuilt comp my guess is your motherboard is locked.

sophie

and the cache of the hard drive, get 8 at the least and 16 if you can.

petrym

Lasareath wrote: »

...buy a Western Digital Raptor (10,000rpm) hard drive...

Those WD Raptors are SATA drives so make sure you can use them; I still have IDE since I've been upgrading over the years and have yet to spill for a new architechture.

As far adding the 1GB chip... it's made a huge difference, no more hanging while the swap file reads. I love it!

Early B.

I added an extra gig a couple of days ago. System is faster, even when surfing the Internet. It's twice as fast when running adaware and spybot. Great cheap tweak.

Rivrrat

Thanks for asking the question. I have the same machine, and as I was replacing the crapped out HD in a 14 month old machine ( insert choice words here), I saw the ram ports and it made me go hmmmm.

Early B.

Rivrrat wrote: »

Thanks for asking the question. I have the same machine, and as I was replacing the crapped out HD in a 14 month old machine ( insert choice words here), I saw the ram ports and it made me go hmmmm.

Really? My HD crapped out on me at 12 months!!

Rivrrat

Was it a Samsung 160 gig?

bobman1235

Be careful with heat on those HDs. I threw some coolers on my hard drives because they were scorching hot, and they've lasted me a couple years now with no problems and are running significantly cooler.

fatchowmein

Early,
Periodically, clear out your browser's cache (temperary internet files). That should speed up the page loads.