Memory Improvement

[Shelby07]

My PC is about 4 years old and has always performed well. I take the time to make sure it is free of viruses and spyware, clean out all the temp and caching directories, rebuild the paging file occasionally and have invested in a 3rd party defragmentation program (PerfectDisk 8.0) that really seemed to improve disk access speeds. My point is that the machine was probably running as well as I could expect it to and I was very satisfied with it.

A few weeks ago I noticed that I only had 512MB or memory in it. For some reason I always thought I had ordered it with 1GB and never really thought about it any further. I usually have a lot of stuff running in the background so I spent about 70 bucks and bought another GB of memory. I figured it would help during some of the peak usage times.

All I can say is "Holy Cow!" The difference in the machine is phenominal. Although it always ran well, the difference in it now is like night and day. The network runs faster, it boots up and loads faster, I network to other machines as well as a TiVo box and it isn't bogging down with high network activity.

So my point is if you're running XP or higher and have less than a gig of memory it seems to be well worth spending the bucks for an upgrade. Memory is cheap and the extra memory will give your machine one hell of a shot in the arm.

If only it were as easy to upgrade my brain!

[guado]

what speed RAM did you buy? I am getting some more soon.

[CgarDan]

Good point Mark.

My machine has been running ok But could be much better so I am deliberating between more RAM or a new PC. For around $400 Dell sells machines that are pretty decent unless you are doing programming or publishing.

[Shelby07]

what speed RAM did you buy? I am getting some more soon.

I have a Gateway machine so I got the memory right from them. Got two of these at 32.99/ea

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: Gateway Memory - 184 pin DIMM DDR2 RAM
CATEGORY: System Specific DDR
MEMORY SPEED: DDR2-400 (PC2-3200)
STORAGE CAPACITY: 512MB
FORM FACTOR: 184 pin DIMM
TECHNOLOGY: DDR
MANUFACTURER WARRANTY: Limited One-year & One-year Technical Support

[Smoked!]

I just upgraded memory for 3 computers that I use daily. Processor speeds have not improved that much recently. Currently, in my field, there is not enough software written to take advantage of the additional processing power offered by dual core chip designs. Adding a couple gigs (yes, gigs) cost me about $80 per machine. The improvement was immediately noticeable.

The listed "speed" is not as important as compatibility with your computer's chip set and front-side bus speed. If you want a free scan of your machine, you can go to 'crucial' memory's site and use their on line tools. Then go to the web and find compatible memory sticks as cheap as you can. If you browse around, you may find "refurbished" memory dirt cheap. Just my .02.

[Shelby07]

Here's another great (free) tool to help you examine your hardware and software.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html