Alex Dark Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Rightogot an acer aspire sa90 desktop .....Anyway., its very slow...running 512mb of ram with vista, so ive decided to upgrade to 2gb, but do i get a 2x1gb kit, or a 2gb module, and keep the 512mb as well?I know its this RAMAny ideas guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 (edited) http://crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx...l=Aspire%20SA90You need one of them. Personally I'd go with 2x2GB, although 1x2GB and 1x512MB would be my second choice. Edited March 24, 2009 by JonMack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 It's always best to keep them in pairs, but for the amount Ram costs these days, may aswell get 4gb.You'll need to know the maximum MHZ rating your motherboard can run though, I'm pretty sure you can run ram with too high a rating, but not too low....Krisboats is the guy to ask though, he knows all about Ram and it's magical properties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Dark Posted March 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 i know i need ddr2, pc5300 (667mhz)So the 2gb x1 , with the old 512mb stick be best then?I cant really affoird 4gb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si-man Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Best getting 2 x 2gb and getting rid of the 512mb one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Dark Posted March 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 i know i need ddr2, pc5300 (667mhz)So the 2gb x1 , with the old 512mb stick be best then?I cant really affoird 4gb Best getting 2 x 2gb and getting rid of the 512mb one.anyone else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 anyone else?You'd be better off with 2x1gb than 1x2gb and 1x512mb. As Muel said, it's best to keep them in matched pairs. Which is also why you should try to get the extra cash together for 2x2gb if you can, because you'll only have to do it some other day anyway! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Dark Posted March 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 You'd be better off with 2x1gb than 1x2gb and 1x512mb. As Muel said, it's best to keep them in matched pairs. Which is also why you should try to get the extra cash together for 2x2gb if you can, because you'll only have to do it some other day anyway!i would have thought id just have a bottleneck then....i mean i doubt my processor will keep up with the 4gb of ram, and ill probably ditch the whole setup before i really need 4gb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonMack Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Whatever you end up doing, you're going to notice a MASSIVE speed increase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JD™ Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 i would have thought id just have a bottleneck then....i mean i doubt my processor will keep up with the 4gb of ram, and ill probably ditch the whole setup before i really need 4gb?To be honest, I haven't looked into the specific specs of the laptop you have, but you're probably right there. If you're confident that you wont need 4gb any time soon (i.e. you don't do any mega editing of video or photos or run hench games) then go for the 2gb - it's still a huge jump from where you are right now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Dark Posted March 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 To be honest, I haven't looked into the specific specs of the laptop you have, but you're probably right there. If you're confident that you wont need 4gb any time soon (i.e. you don't do any mega editing of video or photos or run hench games) then go for the 2gb - it's still a huge jump from where you are right now!yeh thats what i thought...its kind of bearable now, but certainly not amazingThanks everyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Ward Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 dont go with 2x2GB unless your running 64 bit vista which i assume your not seeing as youve only got 512 mb ram now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHI-sam Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 2 1gb sticks. you could get a 2gb and keep the 512 but i doubt they would run properly as they are different makes ect ect.2 1gb sticks of the same make ram will do you nicely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomm Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 It might be worth getting 1x2gb now (and still binning the 512, probably). So you'd have 2Gb now and space for another 2Gb in the future. Running matched pairs doesn't make THAT much difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrayvon Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 Well there is no point running 4gb until you get 64bit windows (as has already been said). Windows 32bit will only recognise it as 3.25(I seem to remember, its been a while since I had 32bit). So I'd stick to 2x1gb sticks, just make sure you get the fastest speed possible. Or get 64bit windows and go the whole hog of 4gb, you WILL notice the difference, especially if your using vista... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZHI-sam Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 windows xp is in 64x, it can use upto 128gb of ram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 i would have thought id just have a bottleneck then....i mean i doubt my processor will keep up with the 4gb of ram, and ill probably ditch the whole setup before i really need 4gb?It doesn't quite work like that. The 4gb of ram won't run any faster than 2gb... that's a complete misconception. The RAM acts to allow the processor to have a greater bandwidth of data. Basically the information goes from your hard drive, to your ram then it gets fed to your processor. Getting faster RAM will give you a potential for a speed based bottleneck, but you'd need a god awful processor with really good RAM. Cleverly they stopped this possibility by introducing ddr2 and more recently ddr3, meaning your processor can be bottom of the range but it will not be holding anything else back too much.Having more RAM allows larger programs to run from the system memory which means you'll see an increase in system speed when using things like computer games and massive images in photoshop. The files can be fully loaded into the RAM ready for the processor to use without having to page information to your hard drive (hard drives are the slowest part of a computer system). If you've been fine with 512mb for all this time though i'd be inclined to say that 2gb of RAM will be plenty. I have 6gb myself and even with some heavily intensive applications going i'll still only use 2-3gb for 80% of the time i'm on the computer.Your choice of going for 5300 RAM though puzzles me slightly. I mean, your processor is supposed to be a celeron dual core yes? In which case it'll be good for RAM that's nice and fast to go with it. Unless your motherboard is specifically tied to a maximum speed of pc2-5300 then i'd go for some pc2-6400 or even pc2-8500 stuff to be honest. The cost increase isn't too much because RAM is cheap as anything these days, where as buying the slower stuff is just limiting yourself unnecessarily. The decent brand pc2-6400 stuff i've seen is usually cheaper than the slower stuff to be honest due to current popularity and competing manufacturers. The pc2-8500 stuff is just fractionally more and 2gb of that would set you back around £30.Download this and run it. It'll tell you the make and model of your motherboard (mainboard) and from there we can look at its maximum speed.windows xp is in 64x, it can use upto 128gb of ram It does yes, but if he's only got 512mb of ram there's no way he's running a 64 bit operating system as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukasMcNeal Posted March 27, 2009 Report Share Posted March 27, 2009 Erm.. http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs....KIT102472BB1067 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si-man Posted March 28, 2009 Report Share Posted March 28, 2009 PowThere you go, cheap as hell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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