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Thread ID: 107244 2010-02-09 21:56:00 Adding more RAM - advice please? John H (8) Press F1
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856738 2010-02-09 21:56:00 My PC seems to be a bit sad/slow these days managing multi-tasking, and I wanted some advice please.

According to Belarc Advisor, this is what I have got:
Operating System
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600)
Processor
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 2.00 gigahertz
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Main Circuit Board
Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. NF-CK804
Bus Clock: 201 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. F4 12/14/2004
Memory Modules
1024 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'A0' has 512 MB
Slot 'A1' has 512 MB
Slot 'A2' has 512 MB
Slot 'A3' has 512 MB
Display
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 [Display adapter]

I have Sygate Personal Professional Firewall and MSSE installed (the latter is regularly updating itself), and update and use CCleaner and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware weekly, and nothing is showing up as nasty.

I would have thought that I had enough RAM installed - would more RAM improve this situation? If so, should I pull all of those modules and replace them with 1GB per slot? Or am I just being optimistic, given the current motherboard and processor?

Thanks for any helpful advice.

PS: I have just checked this Belarc Advisor report against the System Control Panel, and under General it says I only have 1GB of RAM? And this made me be more careful and notice that Belarc says I have 1024 MB installed memory, but it shows 4 slots filled with 512MB per slot. What is going on here?
John H (8)
856739 2010-02-09 22:01:00 I would go for 2X2Gb sticks.

bla bla windows wont see it all... but it is so cheap now and wont matter if windows wont see it all, it will see most of it.
Coaster (270)
856740 2010-02-09 22:07:00 Do a defrag. When did you last reinstall windows? You could also run disk cleanup.
:)
Trev (427)
856741 2010-02-09 22:12:00 Looks like it supports up to 4 Gb. So may work with 1 x4 GB sticks. But, I would say it wont work with 2 x 2 GB sticks. Since it uses DDR 400. I dont think 2 GB sticks exist Speedy Gonzales (78)
856742 2010-02-09 22:22:00 Looks like it supports up to 4 Gb. So may work with 1 x4 GB sticks. But, I would say it wont work with 2 x 2 GB sticks. Since it uses DDR 400. I dont think 2 GB sticks exist

Good point.

www.gigabyte.com.tw
Coaster (270)
856743 2010-02-09 22:24:00 By my calculations you should have 2GB

Slot 'A0' has 512 MB
Slot 'A1' has 512 MB
Slot 'A2' has 512 MB
Slot 'A3' has 512 MB
2048 MB

yet Belarc reports
1024 Megabytes Installed Memory

So you already have it maxed out and then some:confused:

Or it's not compatible (your board supports 4GB max according to one site I looked at).
KarameaDave (15222)
856744 2010-02-09 22:26:00 Belarc is a crap program Coaster (270)
856745 2010-02-09 22:47:00 I *think* there are 2GB DDR sticks....availability of said sticks however is another matter.

You have to know that DDR sticks are now old tech and are pretty expensive. I think 4GB DDR would cost you over $150.
qazwsxokmijn (102)
856746 2010-02-09 22:54:00 Even if 2 GB DDR sticks did exist, each slot only supports up to 1 GB max. On this mobo. The other PC here has XP on it (1.25 GB ram - 1.6 ghz AMD) and did have MSSE on it. And it took forever to do anything. In the end I uninstalled it, and its a lot faster now. Takes about 12-13 secs to boot.And its faster than the other 2 PC's here. All I've got on it is trojan remover and malwarebytes. Thats it. No extra AV program, and no firewall, except XP's firewall Speedy Gonzales (78)
856747 2010-02-09 23:12:00 You can also use CPU-Z (www.cpuid.com) to find out how your RAM is currently installed, and their speed too. Might remove some confusion caused by Belarc Advisor. heni72847 (1166)
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