Too MUCH RAM?

[Bobtheduck]

Ok, I'm talking to this tech guy, and told him I was gonna upgrade my comp next month (for DVD burning) I said I was gonna get a gig of ram, but my Processor is only 1 ghz... He said I can't on my computer" and I said "Yeah I can... 512 Meg upgrades are standard, now... I can just get two of them" He said. "u can upgrade ur hard drive but only put 512 ram in it. u can have too much ram either ur computer won't start or it will b slow."

Ok... What do you have to say about this? Is this true? Allready, the upgrades are looking upwards of 600 bucks, but if I have to upgrade my processor too, I may as well get a new computer...

[Arnobius]

I can understand if the motherboard was limited to the size of the memory card it could hold. I had a Compaq with a AMD 1900 XP that was limited to 2 cards with no more than 512mb each, even though there was larger memory cards that came out later for the PC2700. I recommend looking up the specs for your computer to see what size it can take.

[TurkishMonky]

a motherboard runs for around $100, and you could get one that's compatable with your processer and RAM type, but with a higher amount of RAM allowed, probably.

what other upgrades are you getting? you can get a pretty good computer nowadays for $1000, if you can go that high.

[shooraijin]

Depends on your CPU. Some CPUs only had caching available for the first X amount of RAM, and the rest was non-cached. On the other hand, it's still faster than swapping to disk, and these were CPUs several generations old, so I don't think it applies to newer motherboards. I think he's full of it.

[Mithrandir]

What kind of mother board do you have? If it's home grown, when you first boot it, you should see something in the upper left corner that tells you.

Once we know that, we can help you figure the rest out.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

also if you bought like a dell (for example) you wont beable to replace the motherboard. Many companies do that (especially dell, try to replace the motherboard and it wont work on your computer)

[Mr. Rogers]

i dont think adding more ram makes your computer slower.... >__>

[Steeltemplar]

To be honest, by the time you finish upgrading your motherboard - and likely the processor and the RAM, possibly the power supply as well - you've almost built a new system. I would say you should just go all the way and buy a new one altogether. That would likely be a better way to use your money if you must have that upgrade. 1Ghz isn't terrible, but it's getting to be fairly outdated.

[Warrior4Christ]

I have heard that adding too much RAM might slow it down, but if anything, it would only slow it down a negligible amount. However, if you use memory hungry programs, like paint or video editing programs, it would help with performance.

[Arnobius]

I have heard that adding too much RAM might slow it down, but if anything, it would only slow it down a negligible amount. However, if you use memory hungry programs, like paint or video editing programs, it would help with performance.

It does... when I went from 512mb to 1.5gb ram, my computer flew

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I have heard that adding too much RAM might slow it down, but if anything, it would only slow it down a negligible amount. However, if you use memory hungry programs, like paint or video editing programs, it would help with performance.

I heard using four 256 cards is slower than one 1 gig card. That true?

[Arnobius]

I heard using four 256 cards is slower than one 1 gig card. That true?

Might be. You also have to throw away memory if you want to upgrade past 1gb. I get my upgrades in the biggest block possible per card

[Kaligraphic]

It can be faster to have it all on one stick, it can be faster to spread it out - depends on the situation. Either way, it probably won't be that great of a difference.

Well, on certain motherboards it can make a real difference, but I seriously doubt that it would in this case. Either way, what motherboard is it? (download Everest free edition if you're not sure - it's no longer supported, but you can still download it from sites like majorgeeks.)

[Warrior4Christ]

I call them memory sticks rather than cards. Cards are things you stick in PCI/AGP/ISA slots.

[LorentzForce]

Adding more RAM does not cause performance loss whatsoever. It however can introduce instability problems, but that's either because the motherboard is cheap and can't handle lots of sticks of RAM properly, or because one or more of the sticks have flaws in them, which it's then that stick's problem and nothing else. If you stick with good stuff you shouldn't find problems. Even if you do, that's what warranty is for.

Of course, there's a point where adding more RAM is completely a waste of money. Windows is just silly with its weird memory usage.

[shooraijin]

Well, with any VM-based OS, you need to have paging space available for at least the size of physical RAM. Windows' VM architecture isn't all that bright and there is a certain amount of paging even below the high-water mark. However, you'll find that even OS X and Linux do that to a small extent.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

It can be faster to have it all on one stick, it can be faster to spread it out - depends on the situation. Either way, it probably won't be that great of a difference.

Well, on certain motherboards it can make a real difference, but I seriously doubt that it would in this case. Either way, what motherboard is it? (download Everest free edition if you're not sure - it's no longer supported, but you can still download it from sites like majorgeeks.)

ehhh. Dell Dimension 4600i is the mobo name (poo on dell)

everest is a nice program by the way, bye bye dxdiag!

[Steeltemplar]

It can be faster to have it all on one stick, it can be faster to spread it out - depends on the situation. Either way, it probably won't be that great of a difference.

Well, on certain motherboards it can make a real difference, but I seriously doubt that it would in this case. Either way, what motherboard is it? (download Everest free edition if you're not sure - it's no longer supported, but you can still download it from sites like majorgeeks.)

It can make a difference if your board supports dual channel RAM. If that is the case then the optimal configuration is to have your RAM installed in matched pairs (so two 256's would be better than a single 512).

Some RAM, specifically RDRAM which has been phased out but will be found in some P4's (mainly Dell systems), actually has to be installed in matched pairs to work.

[Kaligraphic]

Indeed, the 4600i's motherboard is dual channel. Thus RAM should be installed in matched pairs.

The 4600i can handle up to 4GB of RAM - that's up to a 1GB module in each slot.

here's the spec sheet.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Yes it is a 4600

im running a gig of ram, and prior to that I noticed a large difference when upgrading