increase memory

[T1J]

Is it a good Idea to upgrade my memory 512mb? I've heard so many people
wanting to upgrade because it would add performance on older pc (2-3 years)
but what are the chances of the system becoming damage, unstable, faulty
memory and crashes that may occur after upgrading to a high capacity memory
1GB specially when Bestbuy geeksquad is doing the upgrade.

I have two 256mb of memory on the motherboard slot that total 512mb.
When i decide to upgrade is it a good idea to get two 512mb of memory total
of 1GB to put on the two slot or is it beter to just get 1GB of memory?
is two 512mb faster than one 1GB of memory?

[Ted Zieglar]

It's a good idea to upgrade your memory if you commonly do memory-intensive
tasks, like editing photos or video, or you like to run several large
programs at the same time. Only you know this.

If you are upgrading the operating system of your computer to Windows XP,
it's important to keep in mind that XP requires more memory than earlier
versions of Windows. You need at least 256MB for decent performance with XP
but you'll get better performance with 512MB. When upgrading a computer, you
also need to remember that memory is only one component that factors into
the performance - you may also want to upgrade your hard disk and video
card, among other components

Provided that you choose the correct memory for your computer and that the
upgrade is done correctly, no harm will befall your computer.

One stick of 1GB is no faster than two sticks of 512MB.
--
Ted Zieglar
"Backup is a computer user's best friend."

"T1J" > wrote in message
...
> Is it a good Idea to upgrade my memory 512mb? I've heard so many people
> wanting to upgrade because it would add performance on older pc (2-3
years)
> but what are the chances of the system becoming damage, unstable, faulty
> memory and crashes that may occur after upgrading to a high capacity
memory
> 1GB specially when Bestbuy geeksquad is doing the upgrade.
>
> I have two 256mb of memory on the motherboard slot that total 512mb.
> When i decide to upgrade is it a good idea to get two 512mb of memory
total
> of 1GB to put on the two slot or is it beter to just get 1GB of memory?
> is two 512mb faster than one 1GB of memory?

[Jerry]

If your motherboard supports hyperthreading you must have two identical
sticks of memory to take advantage of it. Check the motherboard manual on
installing memory - it is easy enough to do yourself.

"T1J" > wrote in message
...
> Is it a good Idea to upgrade my memory 512mb? I've heard so many people
> wanting to upgrade because it would add performance on older pc (2-3
> years)
> but what are the chances of the system becoming damage, unstable, faulty
> memory and crashes that may occur after upgrading to a high capacity
> memory
> 1GB specially when Bestbuy geeksquad is doing the upgrade.
>
> I have two 256mb of memory on the motherboard slot that total 512mb.
> When i decide to upgrade is it a good idea to get two 512mb of memory
> total
> of 1GB to put on the two slot or is it beter to just get 1GB of memory?
> is two 512mb faster than one 1GB of memory?

[Bob Willard]

Jerry wrote:

> If your motherboard supports hyperthreading you must have two identical
> sticks of memory to take advantage of it.

Huh? HT runs fine on PCs with only a single stick of RAM.

--
Cheers, Bob

[Ron Martell]

T1J > wrote:

>Is it a good Idea to upgrade my memory 512mb? I've heard so many people
>wanting to upgrade because it would add performance on older pc (2-3 years)
>but what are the chances of the system becoming damage, unstable, faulty
>memory and crashes that may occur after upgrading to a high capacity memory
>1GB specially when Bestbuy geeksquad is doing the upgrade.
>


Adding more memory can noticeably improve performance only if the
added memory results in reduced usage of the virtual memory paging
file. Therefore if the paging file is not currently being used to any
significant extent then adding more memory will not provide a
significant improvement.

Unfortunately there is no ready way of determing actual paging file
usage provided with Windows XP - it does not have an equivalent to the
'Memory Manager - Swap File In Use" reporting provided by the System
Monitor utility in Windows 95/98/Me.

There is a free utility that you can download and run which will
provide this information for you. It was written by MVP Bill James and
you can get if from
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm or from
http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/

If that utility shows actual page file usage of 50 mb or more on a
regular basis then that is indicative of fairly significant paging
file activity. Adding more RAM will reduce or even eliminate entirely
this activity thereby improving performance.

This apples regardless of how much or how little RAM is currently
installed in the computer, at least up to the 4 gb RAM maximum for
Windows XP.

>I have two 256mb of memory on the motherboard slot that total 512mb.
>When i decide to upgrade is it a good idea to get two 512mb of memory total
>of 1GB to put on the two slot or is it beter to just get 1GB of memory?
>is two 512mb faster than one 1GB of memory?

It depends on the specific motherboard in your computer. If your
motherboard supports the new dual channel memory specification then
having two 512 mb modules would provide a speed advantage over a
single 1 gb module.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

[Ron Martell]

"Jerry" > wrote:

>If your motherboard supports hyperthreading you must have two identical
>sticks of memory to take advantage of it. Check the motherboard manual on
>installing memory - it is easy enough to do yourself.
>

You have confused hyperthreading (a CPU function) with dual channel
memory access.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."