Upgrade of RAM

[willywilson]

Hey, I've got a 2 yr old computer and I'm wanting to upgrade. I've got ASUS motherboard with 4 slots for ram. 2 are filled with 2x512mb kingston and 2 are free. Am i able to get 2x1gb of kingston and put it in? to make 3gb of ram that is.

[+shift. MVC]

There SHOULD be no problem with mixing and matching RAM. But I think we will need more details, what is your motherboard, and what is current rated speed of the 2x512MB?

[willywilson]

Well it is ASUS...hard to remember exactly, as I won't get to be at my own computer for nearly another week, but like i said it was about 2 years ago and I think it had an "8n" in it, so perhaps it was k8n...I really should remember as I built it myself, but ahh how the memory fades over the years;)...and at the age of 17 its nearly gone. What do you mean by the current rated speed exactly?

Yeah, I'm checking as I've been told that as long as the RAM is paired it is alright to have 2 different sizes of RAM

[AdzzzUK]

Hi,

On the machine in question, go over to the Crucial website and click on "Scan my system", this will then identify the type/speed of memory you have in your machine so you can ensure you get the right kind.

Hope this helps,

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[+shift. MVC]

Open up CPU-Z. Should give you all the information I asked for, it's hard to figure out what to recommend when I don't even know your motherboard model yet.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Here's the link. :)

[willywilson]

Hey Shift, ok got the details - here they are. If I buy two 1gb DDR400 Kingston i should be right yes? Compatible and all that?

cpu_2010.bmp

mainboard.bmp

memory_2010.bmp

[willywilson]

this one didn't fit within the 2mb upload limit.

spd_1.bmp

[+shift. MVC]

2x1GB DDR-400 Kingston should be fine :)

[AdzzzUK]

Why not go to the Crucial memory checker like I suggested?

Anyway, no matter. Your board is an Asus A8N-SLI - so it has 4 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 4GB DDR400/DDR333/DDR266 ECC/ non-ECC un-buffered DDR SDRAM memory. So yes, DDR400 would be the ideal choice.

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[willywilson]

thanks guys. I didn't go to crucial website as I had to direct someone at my house to do the other stuff and then link me the pics.it was a pain in the butt as it was as the person i was telling what to do was computer illiterate;)

[AdzzzUK]

no worries, was just curious -that link is a keeper if you need it again! :)

Glad you're sorted.

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[jingarelho]

no worries, was just curious -that link is a keeper if you need it again! :)

Glad you're sorted.

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maybe he didn?t go there because the link you gave is mistyped.;))

[willywilson]

hey jingarelho...yeh i realised it was mispelt, and fixed it up;)

One more question, one of my buddies has xp 32 bit and says he can only run 2.5gb of ram on his computer. Now I have 64 bit cpu...does that mean I can run 3gb of ram all up on my comp, cause thats what i was planning...or is it gonna screw up?

[+shift. MVC]

You can run 3GB on both 32bit and 64bit. It's when you have about 4GB of RAM that the OS will have trouble UTILIZING the entire 4GB.

Remember that on a 32bit OS (XP or Vista for example), the OS will still recognize 4GB of RAM, but only about 3GB will be able to be used.

As for your 2.5 or 3GB, both those amounts are within the acceptable parameters for 32bit OS'. :)

[Sir Topham Hatt]

If the system can take it, is upgrading to DDR3 a wise choice?

[+shift. MVC]

No. DDR3 shows no significant performance increases over DDR2 and I don't think it will until Nehalem comes along.