Ram Overkill?

  • Thread starter Thread starter news_reader
  • Start date Start date
N

news_reader

Windows XP running 4 DDR 400 ram chips on a ASUS P4C-800. They are all dual
channel ram, first 2 slots are DDR 466 Kingston, second 2 slots are Crucial
Value Ram all total 2 gs of ram. Wastage of ram? 1g enough? Keep the DDR466
only?
 
news_reader said:
Windows XP running 4 DDR 400 ram chips on a ASUS P4C-800. They are all
dual channel ram, first 2 slots are DDR 466 Kingston, second 2 slots
are Crucial Value Ram all total 2 gs of ram. Wastage of ram? 1g
enough? Keep the DDR466 only?
Click to expand...


You have other hosts that are starving for memory that you need to
remove it from this host?
 
Windows XP running 4 DDR 400 ram chips on a ASUS P4C-800. They are all dual
channel ram, first 2 slots are DDR 466 Kingston, second 2 slots are Crucial
Value Ram all total 2 gs of ram. Wastage of ram? 1g enough? Keep the DDR466
only?
Click to expand...


It might be quite useful to consider how much memory you
need for your most demanding tasks. Task Manager will
reveal this, then add a bit more (at least 100MB) for
caching OS files... though even more is better up to a
point. Since you don't seem to know if you need the memory,
that you don't have specific tasks in mind that warranty the
2GB, it's likely you don't need it all, but it brings up the
other question, then why did you buy 2GB of memory to begin
with?

Random speculation is that "most people" don't need more
than 1GB, yet. For those people, removing the slower timed
memory will not only (usually) raise the timings the board
uses for the remaining memory, but simply having less memory
installed also may cause a timings reduction, speed
increase. "Most people" isn't all that useful to consider
though, most people don't have a GB of memory either, nor
use usenet or (etc, etc).
 
Never had the opportunity to try 2g. Just came across some on a trade and
decided to try it. Did notice that the ram defaulted to 320mhz on startup
with bios setting in Auto mode. Runs at 400mhz when manually set. Can't say
its worth keeping it this way, I do some gaming and might get into digital
photo imaging.

So maybe I sell 1g of the stuff and stick with 1g. The 466 stuff I have has
slower timings, but does let me boost the cpu speed up more than the Crucial
stuff does.

Thanks for input folks....
 
Windows XP running 4 DDR 400 ram chips on a ASUS P4C-800. They are all dual
channel ram, first 2 slots are DDR 466 Kingston, second 2 slots are Crucial
Value Ram all total 2 gs of ram. Wastage of ram? 1g enough? Keep the DDR466
only?
Click to expand...
I made it a practice 5 years ago to max out my ram on any PC that i
purchased or currently owned. I'm very satisfied with that decision
although the cost up front was high.

What I found was that sellers typically install (dump) ram on MOBO's.
In other words, they populate the 2 slots with lets say 128mb of ram
when each can take 512mb. So, when Joe customer wants to add ram, he
has to replace the ram he has. I believe that's done by design.

When I called Dell to order a new PC and went over the specs, I was
told that I had to pay more to get the same amount of ram if I wanted
the maximum capacity per slot. If I wanted 512mb on one stick, it
would cost me more than 2-256mb sticks.

Since I edit video, the ram is almost a necessity. But everything
else runs better and the hard drive is not accessed nearly as much as
a system with not as much ram.

I tell customer's that if they can, purchase the maximum ram available
for their machine. In the long haul, it pays off.
 
Is there a utility that one can run on a machine to diagnose whether more
memory will help, whether an upgraded video card will help?

any ideas?
 
Is there a utility that one can run on a machine to diagnose whether more
memory will help, whether an upgraded video card will help?

any ideas?
Click to expand...

Basically, any hardware "upgrade", be it ram , video......etc. will
help the system. That's a given. But, how many customers want to
spend that kind of money.

I own two Dell's. They now, along with HP, are offering PC's for next
to nothing. Read the fine print and you will see, you are getting
what you pay for.

I just got a P4 donated to me so I could spike it up and give it to a
needy family. I did just that. I added more ram for $230. That gave
the machine a 60 Gig hard drive with 2 Gig of ram. Try to match that
with what Dell or HP are offering. It's a far better machine.

But, when I tell students or a needy family that this machine will
cost them $230, they come back with "I can buy a new machine for
$300....keep it." I now have a nice Formfactor P4 sitting in our
guest room doing nothing. Go figure.....
 
.... snip ...

I just got a P4 donated to me so I could spike it up and give it
to a needy family. I did just that. I added more ram for $230.
That gave the machine a 60 Gig hard drive with 2 Gig of ram. Try
to match that with what Dell or HP are offering. It's a far
better machine.

But, when I tell students or a needy family that this machine
will cost them $230, they come back with "I can buy a new machine
for $300....keep it." I now have a nice Formfactor P4 sitting
in our guest room doing nothing. Go figure.....
Click to expand...

Not only that, but your machine probably has some real serial and
parallel ports and real PCI and ISA slots available, and maybe a
real reset switch. You probably overspent on the RAM. 128 to 512
MB will suffice for most purposes. The only real reason to change
it is to install ECC.
 
Back
Top