Installing RAM and a couple of questions.

I'm going to upgrade the RAM on my computer and I just have a couple of questions about it.

1) When installing, do I just take out the old ones and plug in the new ones?

2) RAM should be installed in pairs right?

3) I have this computer, as of right now I have 4 x 256. Could I take out 2 of the 256s and put in 2 1gbs.

4) Is there a big noticable difference between 8 GB of ram (4 x 2GB) to 4.5 (2 x 2.5, 2 x 256). I don't use the computer much except for MS, listening to music, and homework.

5) Which brand do you prefer? OCZ, Transcend, Kingston?

1. Yes

2. Yes, if its a kit. If its a single stick, this does not apply.

3. Yes.

4. If you don't have a 64-bit Operating system, 3 Gigs of RAM is all you're going to get out of it. 64-bit Operating systems don't suffer from this limitation; I'd rather wait for the 64bit version of Windows 7 to be finalized before switching to 64 bit because XP 64 bit is very very very bad and is about to be not supported and Vista 64bit cannot go to Zakum or Horntail.

Back to topic, yes. More RAM = more performance, but you don't need TOO much RAM since most apps don't take 4GB of RAM at the moment. Highest i've seen an application take is about 2 gigs?

5. Kingston for cheap casual use RAM. OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, or Mushkin for Overclocking.

Oh um, I have a question about RAM too.

Yesterday I bought my RAM (1g stick) and I installed it. Before installing, my computer had 4 x 256mb sticks. Now it's 3 x 256mb and 1 x 1g but when I go to system properties, it still says only 1g, which is the number I had when I had 4 sticks of 256. So about this pairs thing, should I just take out one of the 256's for it to be like [256][256][1g]?

Your motherboard DIMMs probably don't support more than 256MB.

I looked up my computer's stats online and it said that it can hold up to 4gigs.

Try removing the 256MBs and see if you can see 1G then.

1) The slots for memory on the 5150 is configured as: (1,3) (2,4) slots 1 and 3 are closest to your CPU. When installing your RAM, you can remove the modules in slots 1 and 2 and replace them with the 1GB modules.

2) See answer 1, you should end up with: (1GB, 256MB) (1GB, 256MB)

3) You can, if you're just using it for tasks listed in 4, then you probably won't need the extra 512MB from the two 256MB modules. BUT if you're going to have them in, make sure they're 533Mhz modules, or else if they're 400Mhz, it will force your 533Mhz 1GB sticks to run at 400Mhz, thus less performance. You can check what the speed of your current modules are either on the modules themselves or googling a program called CPU-Z.

4) Assuming you are still using the operating system that came with your computer (Windows XP 32bit), it can only have 2^32 unique physical memory addresses, that translates to 4096MB of memory. 32 bit operating systems are limited to only 2-3.5ish GB because some of those addresses are reserved for hardware on the motherboard (mainly the graphic card; if you have two 1GB graphics cards, there goes 2GB of ram.) So even if you have 8GB (4 x 2GB) installed, you will not be able to use half of it, unless you go 64bit. In an 64 bit operating system, you are limited to 2^64 number of address, thus SIGNIFICANTLY increase the amount of RAM you can utilize. But most motherboard manufacturers commonly restrict the size to 8GB in a 64 bit operating system.

5) I've had OCZ, Kingston and Crucial. As for you, you don't need anything fancy. Nothing with the heatsinks and stuff. Just basic value RAM will do. Go with a Crosair, G Skill or Kingston pair here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis...%20x%201GB)

@John, you should remove all other 256 modules, your motherboard might not support the configuration you're trying to do. when you have 1 x 1Gb and 3 x 256MB, there's a 256MB on the same channel as the 1GB and might cause problems. Either buy another 1GB and have the same configuration as Fear or just stick with the 1GB.

So, to make it work, I need to buy another 1g stick? poopy.

No, you can either have just 1Gig of ram (1 x 1GB) or get another identical 1GB stick and either have 2x1GB or 2x1GB + 2x256MB. Also whatever I said in my other post would apply to you if you chose to populate all 4 slots.

The less slots you populate, the less strain you put on your chipset. So if you stick with just the 1x1GB it is still an improvement.

It says my DRAM is at 266Mhz, is something wrong with my RAM because using CPU-Z I don't see any 400Mhz or 533Mhz.

Oh is this it?

Max bandwidth PC2-4300 (266Mhz)

What's 266 x 2 for dual channel? Just make sure your have your ram installed the order I described in my previous posts.

Oh dam, I feel so stupid :[

Thanks.

Edit: Would this work on my computer? It has 533 Mhz. 1GB memory, 240 pin and is cheap

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?m...&po=0&ps=2