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Upgrading RAM

Discussion in 'Computers & Modding' started by Almo, Dec 22, 2008.

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  1. Almo

    Almo Well-Known Member

    OK well having a look around RAM seems to be cheap as chips these days (excuse the pun) so ive decided it may be time to upgrade to something decent.

    Currently im on a presario desktop which cost me pretty much nothing, but struggles to do many of the things I ask it to. Ive currently only got 1GB RAM which adobe applications struggle with (i.e if I open more than one adobe application at a time my PC slows to a crawl). Im looking at removing that 1GB and replacing it with 2X 2GB to give me 4GB all up (which the manufacturer states is maximum, though im aware that 32bit only supports up to 3.3GB). What I want to know is willl this speed up my PC considerably or do I need to upgrade the processor,ect as well? (Celeron E1200 (C) 1.6 GHz (65W)). I dont intend to use the PC for any heavy gaming, just the odd alien arena or urban terror every now and then, I really just need it to run adobe applications (via a VM) at a decent speed.

    Any info would be great.
     
    Almo, Dec 22, 2008
    #1
  2. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    yes it will make a big difference, you are losing most of your current ram in the emulation overheads (VM, and virtual machine OS)
     
    Loonylion, Dec 22, 2008
    #2
  3. equitypetey

    equitypetey Well-Known Member

    it makes a difference with the speed of ram too
     
    equitypetey, Dec 22, 2008
    #3
  4. gambler_jim

    gambler_jim New Member

    It will speed it up considerably but you may want to check how many processes you have running in the back ground and try setting those to factory default except for your virus protection and see if that speeds it up first it may not be the ram or it may get worse after you swap out the ram based on how many processes continue to grow in the list after awhile
     
    gambler_jim, Dec 23, 2008
    #4
  5. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    he's not running windows as his main OS.
     
    Loonylion, Dec 23, 2008
    #5
  6. grimsim1

    grimsim1 Well-Known Member

    Is there any way to check your motherboards limits relating to RAM on your PC somehow (think I have misplaced my box)? I am using 32bit Windows XP and does that mean I am limited to 3.3GB or RAM? Because I wanted to get 2x2GB RAM chips myself...
     
    grimsim1, Dec 23, 2008
    #6
  7. equitypetey

    equitypetey Well-Known Member

    yes just get 3gb and let your GFX card do the rest
     
    equitypetey, Dec 23, 2008
    #7
  8. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    yes, use a program such as PC-Wizard 2008 to find the manufacturer/model of your board and look up the board spec on the website.
     
    Loonylion, Dec 23, 2008
    #8
  9. Almo

    Almo Well-Known Member

    Almo, Dec 25, 2008
    #9
  10. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    www.crucial.com will also tell you.

    Almo is correct that ram slots must be balanced. (If they arent the ram runs much slower)
     
    Loonylion, Dec 25, 2008
    #10
  11. grimsim1

    grimsim1 Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the info guys. Will look into it and find out what I need to. Thanks.
     
    grimsim1, Dec 25, 2008
    #11
  12. podpet24

    podpet24 New Member

    What also tends to be a factor is that the speed of the ram is optimized to fit your motherboard. If you can get the specs from your board's manufacturer, try and line up the processor's FSB, memory controller's recommended speed, etc...

    Built a computer the other day, had a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo with a FSB of 1066 mhz, and it was loaded with 4 GB of OCZ memory that was clocked @ 1066 mhz. Man, did that thing move...
     
    podpet24, Dec 29, 2008
    #12
  13. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    FSB and memory speed can be completely independent these days, there is no gain from having the FSB and memory clocks running at the same values.
     
    Loonylion, Dec 29, 2008
    #13
  14. Shuvo01

    Shuvo01 Well-Known Member

    Hell yeah!I have upgraded muh ram again.Now if this thing doesn't move like the wind then I'll change my username.(NOT!!!)I now have 6gB [email protected] one mem slot empty on mobo. T_T. :p. Darn it!Loonylion still has more.
     
    Shuvo01, Dec 31, 2008
    #14
  15. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    My board has 8 slots and supports up to 32GB. You aren't going to get more than me.
     
    Loonylion, Dec 31, 2008
    #15
  16. jc_106

    jc_106 Well-Known Member

    That means you'll have inferior specs than NASA. :p

    Right, Loony? :p

    Also, you could have tried and get a faster RAM.
     
    jc_106, Jan 10, 2009
    #16
  17. Almo

    Almo Well-Known Member

    My mate just purchased a new PC 4x2GB DDR3, and damn does that thing perform.

    On another note I should be getting my 2x2GB DDR2 800s next week, I assume that Ubuntu wil have no problems recognising it. Also I assume that Ubuntu is 32bit and has the 3.3GB limitation? Is it worth upgrading to a 64bit OS just to make use of an extra 1.7GB of ram?
     
    Almo, Jan 11, 2009
    #17
  18. anandjones

    anandjones Well-Known Member

    You probably would have the 32bit, if you ordered the CD or you just downloaded the image without changing anything. Otherwise there is a 64bit version available. 64bit isn't that bad.
     
    anandjones, Jan 11, 2009
    #18
  19. Loonylion

    Loonylion Administrator Staff Member

    there are ways and means of making some 32 bit linux distributions support more than 4GB. One is called IOMMU, but I think that requires hardware support and I don't know if ubuntu supports it anyway. I'm not a fan of ubuntu.
     
    Loonylion, Jan 11, 2009
    #19
  20. Almo

    Almo Well-Known Member

    Cheers loony ill look into it. Once I learn a bit more I was thinking of compiling my distro myself.
     
    Almo, Jan 11, 2009
    #20
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