Upgrade Your RAM on a Budget - Advice for Finding the Best Deals

[Jameson]

So I've heard that adding RAM is one of the best ways to see a noticeable change in the CPU's performance. I've done some searching and have found deals on Ebay that just seem to good to be true. Offers such as 512 MB RAM for only $30 and such. I know that their are different kinds of RAM, low density, high density, SD, DDR, and other things. I would like some advice as to what the best choice would be to add a nice chunk of RAM to my computer. The poor thing is only has 128 MB.

Thanks guys

PS I'm on a budget

 

[chroot]

You will need to consult the computer's (or motherboard's) documentation to see what kind of RAM it uses. There are myriad different sorts, and you'll need a specific type.

- Warren

 

[Jameson]

Ok, generally it is SDRAM if that helps at all. I have the book with some specifics on the number of pins and such...

Jameson

 

[chroot]

Generally? An enormous variety of different kinds of RAM are all called SDRAM. You will need the specifics, as read from your manual.

- Warren

 

[Jameson]

I consulted my manual and found all of the specs... where would you suggest finding the cheapest RAM?

 

[chroot]

RAM is so cheap that I wouldn't bother with ebay. Just go to a site like crucial.com and order new memory.

- Warren

 

[exequor]

crucial is the best, and they have a feature that will select the correct ram for your system (this is important because ram is a sensitive thing). Great prices too.

 

[DaveC426913]

How old is your system? By far the best way of speeding up a system is to get a more modern one. You may be disappointed with the results from installing more RAM.

 

[gonpost]

Well to be honest it's not as simple as adding more RAM, depends on your system specs.

If you give me ALL of your computer specifications, I could probably tell you what to do. Also, if you're running off 128mb you should probably get a new computer ;).

Oh, and for the ram, I assume you'll want SDRAM, and you should probably include the mhz it runs at...

You'll also need to find out how much RAM your motherboard can support.

 

[franznietzsche]

How old is your system? By far the best way of speeding up a system is to get a more modern one. You may be disappointed with the results from installing more RAM.

Or to stop killing it with bloatware. If i killed azureus and xmms right now, my total system memory usage would drop to under 100M . As it is, I'm using 184. Out of 768. Huge quantities of RAM are entirely unnecessary, if the software you're using isn't crap (or doing super-instensive things that actually warrant memory use. However, if you are using a system that came with only 128 M still, I assume you're not doing those sorts of things.)

But a brand new system is entirely unnecessary, not to mention wasteful.

 

[ramollari]

Huge quantities of RAM are entirely unnecessary, if the software you're using isn't crap (or doing super-instensive things that actually warrant memory use.

The more RAM will always yield better performance, because it will eliminate the ubiquitious need for paging and disk accesses. So isn't it better to find data directly in the fast RAM rather than trying to access the slow disk? About 1GB of RAM is an excellent thing. Make sure it is DDR SDRAM with more than 166MHz bus speed. Also check compatibility.

 

[Anttech]

The more RAM will always yield better performance

So if I have 10G of ram and add another 1g I would find my system would yeild better performance?

 

[Anttech]

Or to stop killing it with bloatware. If i killed azureus and xmms right now, my total system memory usage would drop to under 100M wasteful.

azureus.. pretell what sites you using that with ;-)

 

[ramollari]

So if I have 10G of ram and add another 1g I would find my system would yeild better performance?

That is an extreme case. The case here is with normal PCs such as with 128MB. Adding more RAM will result in a lower rate of page faults and disk access. Besides that, more RAM means more programs in number and complexity executing simultaneously.

 

[franznietzsche]

The more RAM will always yield better performance, because it will eliminate the ubiquitious need for paging and disk accesses. So isn't it better to find data directly in the fast RAM rather than trying to access the slow disk? About 1GB of RAM is an excellent thing. Make sure it is DDR SDRAM with more than 166MHz bus speed. Also check compatibility.

I'm using 93M of RAM currently. and I'm not using any of my swap partition at all. My entire system is using only 93 Mb of memory currently, no need to access the disk. You missed my entire point, the problem is not the lack of power in his hardware, its the **** software running on it.

Adding more RAM will not always add performance. I'm using only 93M of memory. I have more than 80% of my RAM available. Adding more RAM will do nothing. This is because I'm not using poorly designed bloatware.

That is an extreme case. The case here is with normal PCs such as with 128MB. Adding more RAM will result in a lower rate of page faults and disk access. Besides that, more RAM means more programs in number and complexity executing simultaneously.

Not necessarily. I could add RAM till the cows come home on my system and i would enver get a performance boost. Why? I'm not even using 20% of my RAM, and I'm not using any of my swap partition at all. I've yet to see my RAM usage jump above 50% on this system. And I only have 768M. I have yet to see the swap partition get used at all. So rather than adding more RAM or getting a new system (as he said he was on a limited budget) I say put a proper OS on the computer. Problem solved, for free.

azureus.. pretell what sites you using that with ;-)

At the time I was downloading the three OCRemix torrents.

 

[ramollari]

I'm using 93M of RAM currently. and I'm not using any of my swap partition at all.

Once again, nietzche, the use of page files is usally unavoidable. If you go to Task Manager you can view the page file usage in the Performance tab. I have upgraded the RAM from 256MB to 1G myself and observed incredible performance, even when running tens of programs simultaneously. The page file usage is now near to zero. Besides I find it impossible that you're using 20% of your 90M RAM.

 

[franznietzsche]

Once again, nietzche, the use of page files is usally unavoidable.

*sigh*

You don't know what you're talking about, since you have not even notcied i was calling it a swap partition and not a page file for a reason. Why? Because I prefer to use a proper OS. I don't use windows.

If you go to Task Manager you can view the page file usage in the Performance tab.

No, i really can't. Doesn't exist. I can glance over at gkrellm, running in the slit, and it says 93M of RAM being used, and 0 M of swap being used.

I have upgraded the RAM from 256MB to 1G myself and observed incredible performance, even when running tens of programs simultaneously.

Because your OS does not know how to use memory properly.

The page file usage is now near to zero. Besides I find it impossible that you're using 20% of your 90M RAM.

You don't know what you're talking about, nor have you even correctly read my posts. I said i have 768 M of RAM, I'm only using 93 of it.

93/768 < 20%

I have no page file, my OS does not use a page file it uses a swap partition. I am using 0 of that. *glances over at gkrellm* Yup, 93M of RAM being used, and 0 M of swap being used.

 

[Anttech]

if u had guessed yet he's using *nix.. and what he is saying is true.. and believeable