There is a program called Everest. You can download it here. http://www.freespace.com.au/filehosting/212433 The program will tell you exactly what you have running hardware wise. Your PC seems to be old so the specs of the motherboard may not support the new RAM chips currently available. I would suggest you run the program to see exactly what motherboard specs you have and then check on kingston or the corsair website to see whats compatible with it. Depending on price I would go either 1 GB or 2 GB. with 512 blocks being the minimum). If the machine is running SD ram then don't bother with it and get a new machine altogether.
the crucial system scan will tell you what other speeds of chips your pc can take, its the best scan for ram, as it is only built for ram, and it is linked to their ram database so you'll know what you can use in minutes. crucial costs a little more, but thats because they test every ram stick they make, they never ship a chip thats not been tested. cheap ram providers save money by testing 1 chip in 1000 so make sure the batch aint duff and then you test them when you fit them, if it works then fine, if not, you send it back to them and they send you another untested one. shit way to treat your customers if you ask me, but thats what they do
Crucial does not cost more!!! I dont think you will find many places where they sell unbranded RAM anymore since the market is dominated by big names now and high quality products. I build PC's from little ones your mum would use upto highend water cooled gaming monsters.
it does cost a little more, they said so on their own site, the reason i gave about testing every stick, is the reason they gave on their site. buy crap from pcworld and tell me it's been tested and it's branded lol i build pc's too.
PCWorld = Over priced... But never unbranded, why? because of guarantees and unbranded RAM does not really exist anymore due to price reduction of named RAM. Higher price for Value-Ram does not make it any better. There are other companies who do top-line RAM at cheap prices... G.Skill Geil OCZ Corsair I would buy from Overclockers.co.uk or Scan.co.uk but never from PCWorld.
and who's branded ram is sold in pcworld? see i just scanned that box and the word branded aint on the box, infact pcworld wont even put their own name on the box. ha ha ha branded my ass
Denmark is being skanked then... But does it matter PCWorld suxx rotten eggs. Get Corsair Crucial G.Skill OZN PNY Branded RAM... Most have lifetime warrnety and are cheap depending on what RAM you buy. I say build a new PC... You can build a nice new one for less than 400Quid without a monitor.
M3MONSTER, Thanks! That really helps. So if I get 2 1gig cards, they'll only act as a 256MB if I don't take the 256 MB out?
read your mainboard manual if you still have one. it should say the information about your RAM slot sna how much it can go for. if your PC is an old model (more than 5 years old) i think you better change the whole thing.
No... If you got 2x1Gb sticks and put them in plus keeping your original 256MB stick the 2x1Gb sticks would only work at the rated speed of the 256MB card. 1Gb = PC-3200 256MB = PC-1600 The PC-**** rating refers to the memory clock speed so PC-3200 is 200MHz and the PC-1600 is 100MHz, so what would happen is the 1Gb sticks would only work as fast as the PC-1600 speed memory already in the PC. You would still have the increased RAM it would just run slower than it is made to.