RAM – how do I find out what I need

[RioferMember]

My PC at home is geting a bit slow and I’m planning to start doing some Photo processing so I thought a RAM upgrade may help keep performance up.

Are there any significant differences and if so how do I find out what I need short of opening up the box to have a look?

Thanks

Rio

[scaredypantsSubscriber]

get onto crucial’s website – they have a scanner thingy that’ll tell you

[RioferMember]

Cheers

[StonerSubscriber]

second crucialmemory

[Minish ManMember]

For photoshop on XP you really want 2GB, certainly no less than 1GB.

For vista, you probably need 3.

[OffroadingMember]

Let me know what you need – ive got some for sale 😆

[RioferMember]

According to our scan, your system already has the maximum amount of memory installed.

Got 2GB in there, was just wondering if I could up it to 4GB as I had seen a few offer recently. Seems 2x1GB is the most my system will recognise.

Oh well – any other tips for speeding things up?

[OffroadingMember]

What system you running ?

XP will use up to 3gb. Are you running 4x 512mb sticks ?

[RioferMember]

No running 2X1GB and according to the scan the MB only has 2 slots

[OffroadingMember]

only 2 slots?? How old is it ?

[RioferMember]

About 2 years – it is a Packard Bell PCWorld special.

[OffroadingMember]

Hmm, you might be able to stick a 2gb stick in there not sure to be honnest. Do you know the specs of the ram you have at the momment or even the mb specs ?

[RioferMember]

MB is a Packard Bell Cuba MS-7301, and the RAM is DDR2 PC2-5300 (info from the Crucial scan.

It says something about installing a 64 bit version of the OS, but also state 2GB is the max manufacturer supported memory.

[OffroadingMember]

I checked – 2gb is as good as it gets with that MB so you aint going to get it faster im afraid.

[RioferMember]

Cheers for the help. I’ll just have to give it a good spring clean to get the best out of what I have.

[RudeBoyMember]

Why are so many PCs limited to only 2GB RAM or so? I understand Vista needs loads, yet many motherboards only seem to have 2 slots, and can only take up to 2GB. Mine can only take 2GB, and it’s only a couple of years old. my Mac Pro, by comparison, can take up to 32GB, which is just silly.

And why does Windoze seem to use so much RAM? I’m told running Vista requires 2GB minimum!

Time for a new MB for my PC?

[simonfbarnesMember]

That Crucial site is very useful, as I had no idea what type of RAM I needed. Just added 2GB. Cheers 🙂

[mboySubscriber]

Most laptops older than a year or so will only recognise a maximum of 2GB, installed in 2x1GB chips. It’s only newer laptops that the ability to recognise 2GB chips, and hence up to 4GB max, has been the norm really.

Regarding Windoze using so much RAM, and especially Vista as it’s sooooooo resource hungry, well there is a simple answer. Buy a computer with a well thought out, streamlined Operating System! Such as a Mac 😉

But then you know that already obviously RudeBoy. 8)

Oh, conversely, whilst your Mac Pro (which one you got, do you need that much power for what you use it for?) can recognise up to 32GB, many PC desktops could recognise 2 or 4 times that, if you could actually install it all! Or so I’m told by PC experts at least. Of course, they’d then need Microsoft to create an operating system capable of using more than what most people determine the minimum sensible amount of RAM for most of their duties these days! 😆