Metropol

I'd appreciate some advice, please.

I want to increase the RAM (basically, to double it) on both my computer, and that of my Gran's. I've heard that it's simply a matter of buying some more memory and just plugging it into any vacant memory slots in addition to the existing RAM (or replacing it if all the slots are full). Is that the case? Also, there seems to be different types of RAM, and I'm confused as to which sort I need.

And if you get it in the wrong way round, it WILL burn. ah, the good old days of pokey computer cases...

Re: RAM

Good band. Man in the Moon, Losing My Religion and Imitation of Life are my favourites.


Seriously though, half the problem would be your processor. No point getting more space to store errant electrons if you can't get said electrons to move fast enough.

Couple of extra do-dahs to be aware of:

1) - If either of these machines use Windows 98 or ME, be aware that these operating systems can't support any more than 512MB. If you're allready there, then there's no point adding more.

2) - Certain types of motherboard and CPU need memory to be fitted in matched pairs (or just require 2 modules to be fitted) - so you couldn't just add 512MB to 256MB to make it 768MB in these cases.

Best advice - open them up and see what is written on the existing RAM. That will help us to readily identify what you need. As others have said, upgrading really is as simple as pushing the buggers in, the hard part is making sure you buy the right stuff in the first place.

cwathen wrote:
Best advice - open them up and see what is written on the existing RAM.

Ewe said it and if he can fit RAM onit in capital letters ewed be better off not going there darling.

Saturday night groaner..

* I'm on fire tonight!

Thanks.

Both comps run on XP. They were both built at different times by a friend of a friend (whom it would take far too long to contact, hence why I'd rather do it myself), and are a few years old now.

Technically, my comp is OK for the moment, really - now I've got a few spare pennies, I'm thinking of a year or so down the line when I'd be more likely to want to upgrade to Vista, that's all. My gran's computer is the one which really does need the RAM upgrade. So I'll go and take a peek inside and see what's what.

I've replaced and changed other bits on my comp over the years, so I'm happy with doing the job myself - it's just that I've always been a bit confused by RAM, to be honest.

Actually Katnap, RAM may not be the problem. If your pooter is as old as you say then normally it will run quicker simply by installing a larger Hard Disk (it would pick up the data faster etc).

My first little 'puter had only 4Mb, my second 20Mb and the third and fourth had 80 and 120Mb respectively. The processor speed improved from 350MHz to 4GHz but that wasn't at the same time.

The RAM (which we all used to pinch from work whenever anyone left - and before IT took their PC away) never made much difference.

I'd go for a bigger Hard Drive if I were you.

It's very very little to do with the size unless you're really low on space. A hard drive's influence on the speed is more to do with its RPM and cache, 7200 and 8MB are reasonable numbers

Alexia wrote:Re: RAM

Good band. Man in the Moon, Losing My Religion and Imitation of Life are my favourites.

Pink Floyd is better. Slightly. Both are amazing bands, though.

It's REM not RAM.

miss hellfire wrote:It's REM not RAM.

well it is RAM if the middle word just happens to be Scottish dialect for 'yes'.