So all I have is a P4 with par-graphics card, and one of the 256m RAM cards blew out so I'll be shopping for a 1-2 gig to fill the slot. Any tips?
Well you shouldnt mix 2GB sticks and 256MB sticks. Youll have some serious problems with dual channel. Unless your P4 is pre-dual-channel... then.... wow.... a P4 with 256MB RAM sticks now days huh? Considered an upgrade at all?
Pentium 4s use DDR1 or DDR2, judging from his 256MB sticks, it would be the DDR1 era. Which was what made me think pre-dual channel as well. Pentium 4s were some HORRIBLE processors, both in speed, cost, power draw, and heat. The one good thing that came from them was Intel drove the RAM market to push new technologies like dual-channel and DDR2. Here are some parts I just looked up, that while still "old" and slow compared to now days stuff, is still a HUGE improvement on what you have. Cost is only $338, and if you look them up through NCIX (big Canada supplier) it might be a bit cheaper. The parts I picked are not the cheapest around, but provides the best performance to price ratio at the moment while also keeping up with slightly modern components: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154095 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157199 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146748 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136180 PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not say "I have a hard drive I can use", old hard drives are SLOW and will just bring the entire performance down to a crawl. modern hard drives are significantly faster. Even with plain old HDDs, not even talking about SSDs. If you wanted to spend another $50, you could get a motherboard with 15% faster graphics performance, as well as the latest connectivity like USB3 and SATA 6gbps. It would also have an HDMI output and built in support for surround sound speakers. Here is the upgrade MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131646 Also, it is a RAM stick (or the proper term of dimm), not a RAM card. a RAM card is something completely different and VERY expensive.
Oh ya! thats true too. I forgot about that. RDRAM was really sucky. technically it was "better" that the SDRAM out at the time. but SDRAM quickly overcame it and RDRAM was just so expensive!
Yeah they use DDR1 or 2, I can't tell the difference. A few months ago it was running at some weird number, around 400-500m but I opened it up today and there is clearly only 1 256 stick in there, so I am confused, I thought I had 2 sticks and 1 blew out, but I'm 100% sure the computer hasn't been opened and I am significantly confused. I've monitored the readings over the last year with process explorer too. I don't have a lot of money right now, but I'll save the links and see what I can do-- bank balance always in the redline but I have $80 surplus this month and wanted to fix my computer... at least past the "ouch" zone.
I was just thinking of walking into my local computer store holding the ram and asking for more. Thanks!
You know what, if it is RDRAM I think I might have another couple sticks of 256MB laying around in my old junk pile. Ill have to check to be sure, but if I do and you can verify that your computer uses RDRAM then ill sell all the sticks I have to you for $25 shipped
I checked and I have four 256MB sticks of ECC RDRAM. To check what kind of RAM you have, try downloading this program: ftp://ftp.cpuid.com/cpu-z/cpu-z_1.55-setup-en.exe Install it and then look on the "memory" tab. See what it says for type.
Single slot of DDR 256 says CPUZ, and I've looked inside, it has room for 1 more slot, 2 if i squish some wires down, and 3 if I remove one of the hard drives.
do you mean DDR-266? Your memory tab should look something like this: See at the top of the "General" box right beneath the tabs? What does it say right in that "Type" box. Posting a screenshot would be really helpful too.
So wait you have one stick of 256 RAM running and that's.. it? Ouch that's seriously got to hurt. If you have 2 slots, I'd say replace your remaining 256 and buy 2 new ones. This is a 1GB stick DDR 400, get two of them and make your life easier, haha. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141198
ok you have DDR1, not RDRAM. I would just get a single one of those sticks posted by Lillyth. I mean sure 2GB would be nice and all. But at this point with everything so old and slow, why spend more money on a temporary fix when you should be trying to save for a new computer?