Upgrading RAM memory - advice please?

[Andy B]

Okay, so my 4 year old Dell Dimension 3100 is slowing down! It's had a super valet this morning - defrag, CC Cleaner, Registry, all the old unecessary big files cleared out and its time to put some more memory in! At the moment it has 1.25GB in its two memory slots - 1x1GB and 1x256MB.

Looking on various websites the options seem baffling! It's a 240pin DDR2 slot. What are my options? One bank of memory seems to be a PC2-3200 and another PC2-6400. These numbers are loosing me!

I was thinking of a 2GB memory to replace the 256MB. Will this work properly in a 4 year old machine and is there anything I need to know about the PC2 number or the MHz before I order?

 

[Fanum]

You can mix memory speeds, but the memory will only run at the speed of the slower chip, ie in your case at the speed of the pc3200 chip.

What OS are you running? I'm guessing XP 32bit, in which case, I think you have a limit of 4gb ram....

I'd be inclined to buy a matched pair of 2gb sticks, as fast as the MOBO will run at, and bin (or keep safe in a drawer) the current ones.

Make sure you get/make an earthing strap before you go anywhere near the chips, and practice taking the old ones out and putting them back in a few times....there's a bit of a knack with some clips on MOBOs and it's easy to shag a chip/slot by bending them too mutch...DAMHIK

Use the CRUCIAL memory site and it will scan your system and come up with some recommendations and options....makes it all very simple and easy, and although they're not the cheapest full stop, they're not bad for pricing.

Resist the temptation to get the cheapest chips you can from some no-name brand, get a known brand and pay a few quid more and you'll have a better chance of longer life and quality in them

 

[Andy B]

Fanum - thanks for your thoughts.

Yes - it is running Windows XP Home Edition (SP3). System type is described as x86. There's no reference to 32 bit but it must be. Processor is Intel 2.793 Mhz.

What is MOBO?

 

[LOLGEOFF]

I'd agree with Fanum about Crucial. Went there when my old Acer started to slow down, after a scan by them they advised a few options and it's now like a new machine.

 

[Aidan1150]

What is MOBO?

MOBO = Motherboard.

Here's a link to the Crucial scanner that Bill referred to.

 

[Andy B]

Of course! Thanks guys. I think I know what I'm at now.

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

If you have over 1GB right now then I wouldn't go looking for miracles and I would say your OS install is getting tired. That said its bad practice to put two different sized modules in. As said speed doesnt matter as it will work at the slowest but different sizes can really hurt performance. Some machines it wont even boot like that. If you want to spend the money then get another stick the same as the 1GB one giving you 2GB in total which is more than enough with XP unless your doing some pretty heavy duty stuff like video editing.

 

[SJRoome]

Hi

You have made a good start to improving performance by using CCleaner and defragging.

The Dell Dimension takes 400 or 533MHz non ECC non buffered DDR2 memory in each slot, i.e. PC2- 3200 or PC2 - 4200. If you look at the specifications for the Dimension 3100 (http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim3100/en/sm/specs0.htm#wp1052310)
it will only handle up to 1Gb in each slot so you can only upgrade the 256Mb to 1GB.

If the 1GB you already have is 400MHz you could upgrade it to 533MHz and replace the 256Mb with another 533 MHz 1GB. Follow Fanum's advice about doing the upgrade.

Unless you run lots of processes simultaneously this upgrade wont make a dramatic difference.

You will probably get more improvement by removing unnecessary processes. Use Ccleaner to tell you what processes are being started at boot and remove any that are not essential.

Steve

 

[Deleted Member I]

I used crucial for this pc. Memory came pretty quicky and the prices for a pair was pretty reasonable.

 

[skyenet]

I used crucial for this pc. Memory came pretty quicky and the prices for a pair was pretty reasonable.

+1

Used them for iMac, iBook and Acer One memory. All working great and quite reasonable price. iMac was easiest to install, Acer One was definitely more complicated, but good guides on YouTube

 

[Slowdown]

As others have said, use the Crucial memory configuraton. It just doesn't get any easier.