Memory upgrade questions please

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AllenG

441 posts

Ultimate Geek

#23683 6-Jul-2008 23:08

Hi.

My sister bought a budget PC from Harvey normal, and it has been slowing down as she loads more apps on it. It gives a Vista rating of 2. Memory and graphics are both 2

It is a NEC L series desktop, (not sure which model exacly). It has a 3Ghz P4, 512MB DDR2 667 (PC5300) Ram, running Vista home basic.

I have turned off most of the Vista desktop graphics smoothing, etc, and this has helped a bit. I want to upgrade the Ram, but am not sure about a couple of things.

The PC has 2 DDR2 slots. there is 1x stick of ram labelled "SIS DDRII 512MB 667 SLX 264M8 T6E2"

1. Can I put a 1GB stick in the other slot, or do they have to be the same size?

2. Apart from the speed, do I have to try and match the voltages or anything else or are they all 1.8V?

Any help would be appreciated.

Allen.

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nav2u

42 posts

Geek

#143530 6-Jul-2008 23:21

I believe that the only time you need to have RAM of the same size (in fact should be identical RAM) is when using in dual channel mode. You should note the model number of the motherboard and search online if it supports "Dual channel RAM". If not then size should not matter.

Speed: Any DDR2 ram >=667 should be fine. Voltage is same (1.8v) on all DDR2 RAM.

Fossie

1240 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#143532 6-Jul-2008 23:40

any stick of generic DDR2 SODIMM will work. You can pick up another 512 for as little as $10.

AllenG

441 posts

Ultimate Geek

#143542 7-Jul-2008 07:42

Thanks Guys.

I almost think she has a case for returning the thing. As it is, It's not fit for purpose. She had ideas of doing video editing on it, and I don't think it will be up to this task even with more ram! 3Ghz P4?

Actually I might lookup what the reccommended specs are for Vista and get her money back. I can get a AMD A64X2 5200+ dual core machine with 2GB ram, 320G HDD for what they ripped her for this

Regards Allen

nav2u

42 posts

Geek

#143567 7-Jul-2008 08:56

I think "SO-DIMM" only works with notebooks and desktops require the standard "DIMM" type RAM.

coffeebaron

6234 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#143592 7-Jul-2008 09:44

AllenG: Thanks Guys.

I almost think she has a case for returning the thing. As it is, It's not fit for purpose. She had ideas of doing video editing on it, and I don't think it will be up to this task even with more ram! 3Ghz P4?

Actually I might lookup what the reccommended specs are for Vista and get her money back. I can get a AMD A64X2 5200+ dual core machine with 2GB ram, 320G HDD for what they ripped her for this

Regards Allen

You may indeed, I have actually seen some entry level PCs & laptops actually sold under spec. The minimum memory requirements for Vista Basic is: "512 MB of system memory". However, I have seen some of these that have integrated graphic cards that reduce this system memory total (even though they have 512MB physically installed). This is technically under spec, and I feel you will be well within your rights to take it back if this is the case. So have a look at your system properties again, and see how much system memory Vista reports, and if it's less that 512, take it back.
Personally I feel selling Vista with less that 1GB is just not on, and ideally 2GB would be better.

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