An Extra 128 MB of RAM - Worth It?

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue May 30, 2006 1:14 pm

I have a five-year-old Dell, and I don't think I am going to be able to replace it any time soon. *sigh*

Currently I have 384 MB RAM, and I am considering maxing its 'upgradability' by adding a final 128 MB so that it is at 512 MB.

Is it worth spending the money for additional RAM? I'd be getting a 256 stick (I already have one), and ditching the 128 MB stick.

I also plan to activate my second hard drive in the hope that it will make a slight difference.

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue May 30, 2006 1:30 pm

I think it is, though if you're not going to upgrade for quite some time to come, you might want to bump it all the way to 1 GB RAM. Memory is cheap these days, and games want increasingly more of it to run.

ch85us2001 · Post by **ch85us2001** » Tue May 30, 2006 1:31 pm

You can get a Gig stick from Walmart (Yay!) for something around 120 USD.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue May 30, 2006 1:39 pm

Thanks guys

Thing is.... I'm not sure my system will allow me to upgrade beyond 512 MB.....

I have a 996 MHz Pentium 3.... and I seem to recall that when I ordered my computer, it could only be upgraded to 512 MB RAM.

But, I really don't know very much about this stuff at all, so any information would be great

Denethorn · Post by **Denethorn** » Tue May 30, 2006 1:59 pm

A gig would be nice, but 512megs would be satisfactory

I have 512 and my system runs Oblivion.

With regards to maximum memory, that depends on operating system and motherboard. If you could name either of those it would help

It should be able to handle a gigabyte, since Windows 98 was capable of 2 I think, and I'm assuming you run XP so the motherboard is the deciding factor.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Tue May 30, 2006 2:51 pm

[QUOTE=Denethorn]A gig would be nice, but 512megs would be satisfactory

I have 512 and my system runs Oblivion.

With regards to maximum memory, that depends on operating system and motherboard. If you could name either of those it would help

It should be able to handle a gigabyte, since Windows 98 was capable of 2 I think, and I'm assuming you run XP so the motherboard is the deciding factor.[/QUOTE]

lol! But you probably have a much faster CPU than I do, I believe Oblivion requires a P4 to even run. I have enough trouble just running Morrowind

I do indeed have Windows XP (though it came with ME pre-installed

). I'm a total neophyte when it comes to hardware issues, how do I determine whether or not my motherboard is up to an entire Gig of RAM? Do I need to open up my computer or is there some way of telling by poking around the "Control Panel or something?"

EDIT
Hang on.. I think I might have found my motherboard type by looking under System Board. I have three IDs here:

Device Installer ID - ACPI\PNPOCO1\1

Hardware IDs
- ACPI\PNPOCO1
- PNPOCO1

Ravager · Post by **Ravager** » Tue May 30, 2006 3:36 pm

I upgraded this computer from 128MB to 512 and that was definitely worthwhile...though I was getting lots of Virtual Memory messages before. It could barely handle Opera.

This PC is limited to 512MB too, though it was built in 1999.

I think it'd say the name of the motherboard under the BIOS, or just after you turn on the computer.

Malta Soron · Post by **Malta Soron** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:14 pm

I'd put in the 256 stick. I don't think it's worth to buy 1GB, because you processor won't be able to fill it and you'll have a part of your RAM sitting around and doing nothing most of the day.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Wed May 31, 2006 12:18 am

[QUOTE=Denethorn]A gig would be nice, but 512megs would be satisfactory

I have 512 and my system runs Oblivion.

With regards to maximum memory, that depends on operating system and motherboard. If you could name either of those it would help

It should be able to handle a gigabyte, since Windows 98 was capable of 2 I think, and I'm assuming you run XP so the motherboard is the deciding factor.[/QUOTE]
98 slows down beyond 512MB.

Denethorn · Post by **Denethorn** » Wed May 31, 2006 2:32 am

[QUOTE=Rookierookie]98 slows down beyond 512MB.[/QUOTE]

Yes but its memory manager can handle upto 2Gigs

Whereas XP is theoretically limitless, but it too will slow down at somepoint.

I wasn't suggesting you could run Oblivion DW, just an illustration that 512 is adequate, and won't be a bottleneck on your system.

As Malta said one gig might be excessive as with a P3 cpu you're not going to be running any cutting edge games which will fully utilise 1 gig, still Morrowind would certainly see a benefit (to what degree I don't know) from having a gig - especially if you use loads of mods.

I was going to ask this in my original post, but didn't want to be too blunt: do you know about what type of RAM you system will take? There are alot of variations. So finding your motherboard is important.

Two methods: if you find the model number of your Dell, you can go traipsing around the internet looking for the specifications (incl. motherboard), or you can post it here and I'll try and do it

Other option is a bit of shareware: either [url="http://www.hwinfo.com/"]HwInfo[/url] or the more popular [url="http://www.sisoftware.net/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a="]SiSoft Sandra[/url]. You got a trial period which is enough time to get what you want. Just install and poke around - they basically compile info on your system, and are relatively easy to use.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Wed May 31, 2006 2:50 am

[QUOTE=Denethorn]A gig would be nice, but 512megs would be satisfactory

I have 512 and my system runs Oblivion.[/QUOTE]

Yup. Oblivion can handle 512MB but wait till you try Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter with 512MB RAM. It'll make your computer suffer especially with the loading times. I tried the demo and it took me a whopping one and a half minute to go from the game screen to the menu screen. Goind back is also that same duration.

Oh yeah, a good tool to identify your computer components will be Everest Home. Plus its free again. Can't remember where I got it but do a Google search and you'll bound to find some matches.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Wed May 31, 2006 5:39 am

Yes but its memory manager can handle upto 2Gigs Whereas XP is theoretically limitless, but it too will slow down at somepoint.

Erm, 32-bit limit?

Malta Soron · Post by **Malta Soron** » Wed May 31, 2006 9:53 am

IIRC WinXP 32-bit can't handle more than 3GB, or it doesn't handle it well.

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Wed May 31, 2006 10:40 am

You will notice a slight improvement by going up to 512MB of RAM but that is as high as I would advise you going for your system but certainly do it.

Also be aware that enabling a second hard drive will only speed your system up if they are RAID configured and are of the same speed. Your system will only run as fast as the slowest hard drive so if you main hard drive is 7200 RPM and your second is 5400 RPM then you will actually slow your system down by enabling it.

Such is the reason why a CD drive and a hard drive never share the same cable.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed May 31, 2006 11:35 am

@Denethorn,
I know you weren't suggesting I attempt Oblivion, I only meant that since you'll have a P4 or similar, your system will be smoother than mine anyway

I have SD RAM, and a Dell Dimension 4100. Still working on the motherboard, I'll probably try those software links, thanks!

EDIT, here are some Google results, I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at, so I'll just paste the pages:
http://www.ascendtech.us/itemdesc.asp?ic=MB3DEL97UJY
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1 ... 701,00.asp
http://www.labdv.com/leon-lab/pc/multib ... 100_en.htm
http://www.labdv.com/leon-lab/pc/multib ... 100_en.htm

@Daemon,
I'm going to sound like a total idiot... But what does "RAID Configured" mean?

. I do know, however, that my second hard drive is faster than my present hard drive, I can't recall by how much though.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Wed May 31, 2006 12:10 pm

Okay, I downloaded some hardware identification software, this is what it is telling me:

Field Value
Motherboard ID 51-2300-000000-00101111-030199-$EA815_
Field Value
Motherboard Name Intel Easton D815EEA

Field Value
Motherboard Physical Info
Field Value
CPU Sockets/Slots 1
Field Value
Expansion Slots 5 PCI, 1 AGP
Field Value
RAM Slots 3 DIMM
Field Value
Integrated Devices Audio, Video
Field Value
Form Factor ATX
Field Value
Motherboard Size 210 mm x 300 mm
Field Value
Motherboard Chipset i815E

******

Field Value
Physical Memory
Field Value
Total 383 MB
Field Value
Used 228 MB
Field Value
Free 155 MB
Field Value
Utilization 59 %

Field Value
Suggestion Install more system memory to improve applications performance.

D

)

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Wed May 31, 2006 12:44 pm

[QUOTE=DaemonJ]You will notice a slight improvement by going up to 512MB of RAM but that is as high as I would advise you going for your system but certainly do it.

Also be aware that enabling a second hard drive will only speed your system up if they are RAID configured and are of the same speed. Your system will only run as fast as the slowest hard drive so if you main hard drive is 7200 RPM and your second is 5400 RPM then you will actually slow your system down by enabling it.

Such is the reason why a CD drive and a hard drive never share the same cable.[/QUOTE]
Files on the 7200rpm drive would be accessed at 7200rpm speed, and files on the 5400rpm drive would be accessed at 5400rpm speed.

Also, my CD drive and one of my hard drives share the same cable, and I haven't noticed any slowdowns.

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Wed May 31, 2006 7:49 pm

[QUOTE=dragon wench]@Daemon,
I'm going to sound like a total idiot... But what does "RAID Configured" mean?

. I do know, however, that my second hard drive is faster than my present hard drive, I can't recall by how much though.[/QUOTE]
RAID is a method of splitting your drive across multiple drives to improve performance. Your system doesn't have it.

If your second hard drive is faster than your current main drive, you should ghost your current drive to the second drive and then swap the second drive to be your main drive.

@Rookierookie
I am betting that you have an SATA interface while DW still has an EIDE interface.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Wed May 31, 2006 7:52 pm

I have two IDE hard drives, one connected with the DVD writer, and one SATA hard drive.

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Wed May 31, 2006 7:58 pm

[QUOTE=Rookierookie]I have two IDE hard drives, one connected with the DVD writer, and one SATA hard drive.[/QUOTE]
I was asking about the actual controller, not the drives.