will more RAM make my PC run faster?

[mvp]

i have a DELL and its about 7to8 years old. it runs very slow, i cant do anything on it with out getting mad i looked at my RAM and its very low, is this the reason why the PC is running so slow? heres a pic of the PC info from ccleaner

if it is the RAM making my PC running slow, can someone recommend a new RAM card for a DELL? willing to spend 50$ to 200$

[byteguy]

PC info didn't attach.

The important info we need is operating system, processor, and current memory.

If you're running XP and have less that 1GB RAM then absolutely upgrade. Best to aim for the 2GB level if you still want to keep it for a while.

Any good computer store can call up your model number and tell you exactly what you need and if you'll need to remove your old RAM first.

Of course, it also helps to make sure you aren't loading all sorts of dumb stuff into the system tray (IMs, speed-launchers, etc). Those all take time. Us the Startup tool in CCleaner to turn a bunch of them off and see how it feels.

[jameshgross]

Well, 127 meg is just not enough memory for most versions of Windows to run well. At least 256 meg is the minimum and 512 or more is perfered.
If you dont know what type of ram to use go to the DELL.com web site lookup you model and the site will tell you what ram to use. You can aslo go to crucial.com and lookup you model.

[aedipuss]

just a guess from the lack of info about the motherboard/chipset of your computer, but, a lot of dells from that era used rambus (rdram) memory and i think you will find it hard to come by/expensive. might to time to bite the bullet and buy or build a new one.

[mvp]

PC info didn't attach.

The important info we need is operating system, processor, and current memory.

how do i find this info? so i can post it for you guys

Of course, it also helps to make sure you aren't loading all sorts of dumb stuff into the system tray (IMs, speed-launchers, etc). Those all take time. Us the Startup tool in CCleaner to turn a bunch of them off and see how it feels..

ill try that out and let you know how it goes

just a guess from the lack of info about the motherboard/chipset of your computer, but, a lot of dells from that era used rambus (rdram) memory and i think you will find it hard to come by/expensive. might to time to bite the bullet and buy or build a new one.

ill take a pic of the inside and post it

Well, 127 meg is just not enough memory for most versions of Windows to run well. At least 256 meg is the minimum and 512 or more is perfered.
If you dont know what type of ram to use go to the DELL.com web site lookup you model and the site will tell you what ram to use. You can aslo go to crucial.com and lookup you model.

my other PC that im on now has 512 and runs great

[Noahtuck]

PC info didn't attach.

The important info we need is operating system, processor, and current memory.

how do i find this info? so i can post it for you guys

The photo shows up for me...
WinXP SP2, Intel Pent. 4 - 1.80GHz, 127mb ram , dude.. you surely need MORE RAMM!!
I'd say 512mb minimum!!
http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html

Of course, it also helps to make sure you aren't loading all sorts of dumb stuff into the system tray (IMs, speed-launchers, etc). Those all take time. Us the Startup tool in CCleaner to turn a bunch of them off and see how it feels..

ill try that out and let you know how it goes

agree, but XP on 127mb of ramm, no matter what, it's gonna be SLOOOOOOOW!!!!!

just a guess from the lack of info about the motherboard/chipset of your computer, but, a lot of dells from that era used rambus (rdram) memory and i think you will find it hard to come by/expensive. might to time to bite the bullet and buy or build a new one.

ill take a pic of the inside and post it

A photo prob. will not be much help 8)
There is a free program called siw that will tell you pretty much everything you need to know, type of ramm, motherboard model# and a lot more 8)
http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html

Well, 127 meg is just not enough memory for most versions of Windows to run well. At least 256 meg is the minimum and 512 or more is perfered.
If you dont know what type of ram to use go to the DELL.com web site lookup you model and the site will tell you what ram to use. You can aslo go to crucial.com and lookup you model.

my other PC that im on now has 512 and runs great

Yep, i run 1gb of ramm minimum, but you should have at least 512mb ramm

[Faustus]

What you seem to need is RAM. I would suggest at least upgrading to 512 or even 1gb IF you PC will take that much.


You may also need a cleanup of your startup and if you click start, run, then type msconfig and take some screen shots of the startup tab I can make some suggestions.

[TimA-C]

127Mb is definitely too little RAM. Go www.crucial.com and run their system scanner (don't forget to choose the region you're in first). That will tell you exactly what you've got in your system and how much it will cost to upgrade. If you do buy extra RAM from Crucial, I'd recommend that you keep the the box it comes in. I've only ever had to return 1 stick (for a Gateway Laptop) and it was SO much easier with the original box. (I think Corsair and Kensington also have similar system scanners as well if you prefer either of them.)

Good Luck!

[jman98]

Upgrading the memory to 512 or 768 will help. No need to go beyond that as your PC is extremely unlikely to use memory beyond 768 MB.

You might try defragmenting the hard disk. That might help a little. Be sure you regularly remove spyware and do anti-virus scans.

A 7-8 year old PC will only go so fast no matter how much memory you put in it. If you need speed, you'll need to buy a newer model.

[Alan69]

if it is the RAM making my PC running slow, can someone recommend a new RAM card for a DELL? willing to spend 50$ to 200$

Ah, don't waste money on just ram for a machine that old. If your upper limit for ram is $200, buy a whole modern cpu/system for $200 using one of the Circuit City deals.

I just built a system from scratch except they HD, LCD, and case I had on hand, was only around $250 after rebates, not that big of rebates either. Not the newest CPU etc, but dual core and far ahead of what you've listed..

Even if you can get ram for cheap it still is a bad bang/buck. You could get a used or even NOS whole system for under $100, something that's basically a year or two back in specs. That'd still put it two or more ahead of what you're working on. The cheap dual and quad cores of the last year or so have pushed the bottom out of the market of older types, systems with specs well over yours are very cheap because they're not dual core. And DC does make a huge difference, the $250 or so system I mentioned would be, and is noticeably faster in every respect.

Low end laptops are $400 or less now on deals. Low end systems (not that bad really either) are $200 sometimes on deals. If you could even consider $200 for ram to get faster then it's certainly time for you to upgrade, and be miles ahead of just adding some ram..

[videobread]

Your system is just too old to put money into. 512 is fine for XP. Old RAM is cheap on ebay. Think about buying a used system. Seach ebay for an "xw4100". You can pick on up for about $250 delivered.

[stiltman]

i have a DELL and its about 7to8 years old. it runs very slow, i cant do anything on it with out getting mad i looked at my RAM and its very low, is this the reason why the PC is running so slow? heres a pic of the PC info from ccleaner

if it is the RAM making my PC running slow, can someone recommend a new RAM card for a DELL? willing to spend 50$ to 200$

I just (am still) built a new system because my old Dell 4200 is showing it's age. I maxed the RAM out at 512. I maxed the CPU out at 2.6ghz (it came with a 1.8ghz) The only thing still original is the case, PSU, Floppy.

I would just pick up any ole system that's the cheapest you can find instead of adding some SDRAM 100/133 to it.

Office Depot has this for $250:
Compaq SR5110NX Computer with AMD Athlon 64 3800+ processor. 512MB DDR2 memory, 120GB Hard Drive, Dual layer Lightscribe DVD +-RW Drive. Windows Vista Home Basic

TigerDirect has this for $200:
eMachines T3604 Refurbished Intel Desktop Computer - Intel Celeron D 356 3.33GHz, 512MB DDR2, 120GB SATA II, DVD-ROM/CD-RW, 10/100 LAN, Windows Vista Home Basic, with CA ISS 2007

[qpskfec]

I agree with not wasting $$$ on a 7-8 year old system, you can get refurbished compaq/hp systems on frys.com starting at about $250.

[nic2k4]

512Mb SDRAM should cost you about $50 and that would definetly help with XP, but as per Jman's suggestions defrag and scan for spyware (use more than one scanner, I like Adaware and Spybot) that's a good place to start and won't cost anything. To increase overall system responsiveness, get a new hard drive. A 250Gb shouldn't cost more than $60 and all the mfg have free cloning software so you can move XP to the new drive. And don't bother looking for components at Fry's CC or BB, go to a specialized PC shop.

[redwudz]

I worked on a PC for a friend a couple of days ago. It was a HP mini, running a Celeron ~700Mhz CPU, a 8GB hard drive, not a bad setup. Incredibly slow in loading the OS, XP home, though. I checked the memory. 64MB. I was surprised XP would even run. I had a stick of 256MB PC100 RAM I stuck in. About 500% improvement.

Apparently the computer came with that amount of RAM. But it probably also came with Windows 98 as it was a circa 2000 box. W98 or even W2000 can run very well with a whole lot less RAM than XP.

So in some cases, it's worth upgrading the RAM, if you can get it cheap enough, and the machine cam make good use of it. Older RAM can be expensive.

As long as you don't have great expectations, a RAM upgrade of an older computer can be worthwhile. But if you are looking to video encoding, editing or other CPU intensive activities, it's usually not worth the cost.

In my friends' case, he just needed a word processor, a basic burning program and dial up internet access. That computer is perfectly suited to his needs. But not for video. At least if you are in a hurry.

[ntscuser]

I worked on a PC for a friend a couple of days ago. It was a HP mini, running a Celeron ~700Mhz CPU, a 8GB hard drive, not a bad setup. Incredibly slow in loading the OS, XP home, though. I checked the memory. 64MB. I was surprised XP would even run. I had a stick of 256MB PC100 RAM I stuck in. About 500% improvement.

Apparently the computer came with that amount of RAM. But it probably also came with Windows 98 as it was a circa 2000 box. W98 or even W2000 can run very well with a whole lot less RAM than XP.

Don't I know it? My HP Pavilion was designed specifically for W2000 but some bright spark at HP figured I was more likely to buy it if it had an XP badge on the front and he was right So there I was trying to run Win XP and AOL 8.0 in 256M of RAM and failing dismally. To make matters worse there was a conflict between the HP motherboard and the particular NVidia video card they chose to fit. It turned out the PC was a factory rebuild but I wasn't told that at the time of purchase. In fairness to the retailer he never actually claimed it wasn't a rebuild, he just never said anything

[lordsmurf]

The machine is not "too old". It just needs some more RAM. Anything from 512MB to 1GB total would work quite nicely.

One of my computers is a P4 1.8Ghz and has 512MB RAM and works perfectly fine. It sounds like you've already got another newer computer, and this one is just a backup or an extra ... same situation I'm in. Buying a new one might be foolish.

My main computer is "only" a P4 2.8Ghz with a 400FSB, but I guarantee you it is a workhorse that puts most systems to shame, even the Core 2 Duo ones. It's not about CPU/RAM, it's about the entire package, and what's it's used for. If I need a C2D, I've got a laptop with one.

[jagabo]

I agree with aedipuss, a circa 2000 1.8 GHz P4 from Dell is likely to have RDRAM. 512MB of that will cost you $200. You'd be better off buying a new computer.

[AlanHK]

Find out what kind of RAM you need. If it's an "obsolete" type, buying online can be ridiculously expensive, but visit some PC repair shops (or used PC shops if you know of any) and you can get a bargain from used RAM. I'd go for an extra 512 MB. Takes two minutes to install and you'll get an amazing boost.

The next easy upgrade is a new video card. That costs more, but if you do video intensive things like playing modern games, that will be a bottleneck. Won't help at all if you're encoding video files though.

[budz]

IMHO buy a new computer at this point. Other components in that old dell pc will soon fail and it would become harder to find replacement parts for it. Take a look at how much rambus ram cost:
http://www.bizrate.com/ram_memoryupgrades/products__keyword--rambus.html

For those prices you might as well buy a new computer that will be much faster than what you have.

[TheFamilyMan]

I'm using a 2002 Dell Dimension 1.6G P4 for a backup, it's been a great box (and still is) IMO. Need ram for it? Try this site:
http://www.crucial.com/
They make it super easy to find the right ram, their prices are fair and the quality is very good . Good Luck!

[lordsmurf]

RDRAM on eBay is cheap. It won't cost any more or less than current RAM. This assumes his board requires RDRAM. We'd need to know motherboard information to ascertain the exact RAM configuration. Use the CPU-Z software and see what's in the system.