How Much to Spend When Upgrading Your RAM-_1385

How Much to Spend When Upgrading Your RAM? Time to Get New Memory

DDR3 memory is set to take over, and your computer probably takes DDR2 (read a comparison here). That isn’t bad news though. Prices on DDR2 have dropped and continue to drop Dell Inspiron e1505 Battery, making an upgrade a good idea. You can get another two 1 GB sticks to match the ones you already have for less than 50 bucks; a lot less than 50 bucks if your existing memory isn’t particularly fast.

And we aren’t talking CheapTech Brand Corporation of No Fixed Address products either. Corsair, OCZ, Buffalo Dell Inspiron B130 battery, Crucial, Kingston, and the other big names, along with their resellers, are all happy to get DDR2 out of cheap their warehouses. Expect big discounts and look for big rebates.

The thing is, DDR2 is getting so cheap; should you just get that extra 2 gig to match your replacement existing memory, or find another use for the existing memory (there is always eBay) and get a shiny new 4 gig kit?

Out with the Old, In with the New

Instead of going shop with another pair of 1 GB OCZ Platinum XTC Rev.2 PC2-6400 for about $50, I found a pair of 2 GB Buffalo Firestix PC2-8500. After a big discount from the reseller and cheap a rebate from Buffalo, they came in just under a hundred dollars.

This allowed me to put my old memory to use in another computer, and allows us to see what charger difference the extra speed (PC2-6400 runs at 800Mhz, PC2-8500 runs at 1066Mhz) makes.

The Old:

2 x 1 GB OCZ Platinum XTC Rev.2 OCZ2P800R22GK PC2-6400; DDR2 gateway 800MHz 4-4-4-15

The New:

2 x 2 GB Buffalo Firestix FSX1066D2C-K4G PC2-8500; DDR2 1066MHz 5-5-5-15

Test Configuration

One advantage of faster memory new is, if you have a reasonably fast CPU and motherboard, you can get them to run at speeds closer to each other.

Newer CPUs have Front Side Bus (FSB) speeds of 1 store 066, 1 333 or even 1 666 MHz. Intel locks the multiplier on its non-Extreme CPUs, so overclocking one of those CPUs involves taking your FSB even higher. As shown by compaq the CPU-Z screen capture, the test bed’s FSB runs at 1700 MHz. The other system specs are below dell inspiron 1525 battery, and the test results are in the next article.

CPU: Intel Core 2 discount Duo E8400 OC: 3.82GHz, L2 Cache: 6MB Motherboard: Asus P5N32-E SLI, Rev A2 Chipset: nVidia 680i Bios: 1404 Memory: 2 X 1GB OCZ2P8001G OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 800Mhz Video acer aspire Adapter: BFG 8800 GTS (640MB DDR3 Dell Vostro 1000 Battery, PCIe 1 x16, 500Mhz) Monitor: SyncMaster 205BW, 1680 x 1050, 32-bit Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 250GB WD2500KS, SATA 300, 16MB zxcsky09520 Cache, 7200 RPM Power Supply: Silverstone Zeus 750W ST75ZF Optical Drive: Sony DVD RW DRU-820A Enclosure: Thermaltake MozartTX OS: MS Windows XP Home SP2 5.1.xxxx