Shoutbox

okies, for those of you who have read the thread entitled things like 'a noob building a computer' and extensions of such will know that i get really confuzzled  when working with PCS. Well, i have done my homework, and have a full, well not really otherwise i wouldn't be writing now, understanding of building a PC. This question will be my last qu on comps until i gte my comp sorted and post a few pics. but for now, here is the qu::

~ on my motherboard it says RAM slots: 4 180summet pins, on my RAM it says 1GB 180sumet pins, does this theoreically mean that i can get a total of 4GB?!?! i dont wan this much, but i was talkin to my friend and he said he's upgraded from 1-2GB and says it has speeded up ALOT. So, do i just buy two sticks of 1GB of RAM then???? thnx guys an gals!

well, it depends on your motherboard. i found out on my dell the maximum amount of RAM my pc can support is 1Gb, so if you read your mobo manual it should tell you the maximum amount of RAM supported

in theory, yes...

in practice: highly depends on your motherboard. Not every motherboard will support that much ram. Look into your motherboard manual, it is clearly stated there which and how much ram and in what combinations you can get...

Note: I strongly doubt upgrading from 1GB to 2GB will increase the computer speed that much!

EDIT: I would suggest to keep your money in your pocket and spend it on other stuff instead (eg: upgrade graphics card, buy a bigger HDD, etc...). upgrading from 1GB to 2 or more GB is in most normal cases totally useless and you will gain nothing (except some nice numbers in diagnostics and a "wow" from your friends). Unless you are a professional designer of 3D movies or games or what not and have a killer machine to begin with.

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
in theory, yes...

in practice: highly depends on your motherboard. Not every motherboard will support that much ram. Look into your motherboard manual, it is clearly stated there which and how much ram and in what combinations you can get...

Note: I strongly doubt upgrading from 1GB to 2GB will increase the computer speed that much!

EDIT: I would suggest to keep your money in your pocket and spend it on other stuff instead (eg: upgrade graphics card, buy a bigger HDD, etc...). upgrading from 1GB to 2 or more GB is in most normal cases totally useless and you will gain nothing (except some nice numbers in diagnostics and a "wow" from your friends). Unless you are a professional designer of 3D movies or games or what not and have a killer machine to begin with.

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Or Upgrade motherboard which is sometimes a great thing to do, or upgrade psu etc...

okies, thanks, i havent actually received my mobo yet, im still in the ordering process, hehe, thanks!

ok, well if your looking to put a lot of RAM in, consider checking how much it can support before buying it

okz, fist of all

In RAM you should always consider quantity AND speed
quantity is measured in MB/GB and speed in MHz
(speeds in brackets are DDR speeds)

Most prolly your motherboard will support upto 1GB sticks, but you should check it out.

Second you should see what your processor clock rate is, so this is the maximum speed that the RAM will work, so if your processor is running at lets say 133.3 MHz (266.6 MHz), the maxinmun speed that RAM DDR will work is 266 MHz... even though you put higher speed RAM like DDR 200 MHz (400 MHz)

you should also check if your mother board supports dual channel RAM, well i think newer mobos support this, (my crappy one doesnt)

Anyway two slots will be of brown color and other two in blue color, not that color matters but you'll see that there are two pairs, of different colors.
This indicates that mobo supports dual channel ram...

Now if your motherboard supports duall channel RAM this means that it is better to have 2 memory sticks than one

Now if you have a single  DDR 1GB (400 MHz) stick then you have the same quantity but at lower speed aka (400 MHz)

Which means that 2 x DDR 512 MB (400 MHz) will give you a spead of 800MHz because data is tranfered direcltly to each RAM stick
So you have same quantity but double speed

Now you can see that having two sticks if way better than 1 IF the motherboard supports dual channel RAM.

Hope all the above makes sence and help you, in your decision.

the speed of your RAM isn't the same as your processor. I wish it was

Just check the manual for all the details about the maximum speeds and the supported types of RAM.

And 1 GB is more than enough for normal use

quote:

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Originally posted by Ezra
the speed of your RAM isn't the same as your processor. I wish it was

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If you were talking about my post...
RAM work on the same clock rate as the processor

for example my processor is a 133.3 MHz (clock rate) x 13 (a multiplier) which gives out a processor speed of 1733.3MHz which is my processors speed

Now my ram top speed will be 133.3MHz (DDR 266.6MHz) even if i put 200 MHz (DDR 400MHz) ram to it... because RAM have to slow down to work with the processor...

Hope this clears that point out...

wait a min, iver just check mobo out on the internet and it says max support is 4gb, and i have 4 RAM slots, hehe, and btw, i need 2gb for my gaming addiction, there is still lag in BF2 with only 1 gb but alot of webies suggest 2gb of RAM, but its will be a nice to have, not a need to have, thanks!!