So, I only have two slots for ram in my stinkin' dell where they are both filled with 256 sticks. I wanna upgrade but am too poor to get the 1Gig kit, can I just go buy a 512 stick and swap it for one of the 256's I got in there? Is that all I have to do - just pop one out and swap it for the new one - or is there some type of procedure I have to follow or something?

if it's the right kind, yes.
most "1gig kits" are 2x 512MB.
I'm typing on an IBMright now with 2x512MBs. I think it costs $20.

I have just never heard of someone having 768mb of ram before and that is technically what I'd have if I swapped one of 256 for a 512

768 mb of ram is pretty common back in the day

Im running 4 gigs, but whateva.

are there any good online sites that have good discounts?

Newegg.com

HTB=n00b

one day you are talking about a commie mac, the next thing a pinko dell... geez..

I have a server running 325MB.
all that number is is when you add up all the RAM modules. I have a linux box running 614MB.

yea, what do you want me to say? I got the mac for free and got ripped off with the dell. Dell's suck balls, I wish had just upgraded my mac rather than buy a damned dell. All I wanted to do is run a decent version of photoshop, now that I got one on pc for free I want to get some ram for this rig insted.

If all my shit can handle is 2Gigs at 1G in each slot. I am realizing that buying anything other than a 1G stick at this point is a waste of $$

I'm willing to bet it can't handle more than 1GB

I honestly would have said the same based on all the problems I've ran into looking into possible upgrades. However, it is advertised and whatnot as being able to handle 2GB max. I'm just going to save my pennies and get 1GB in a week or two - any other option simply ain't worth it.

you should make sure that the larger stick is in slot 1. also try avoiding mixing and matching RAM speeds and timings. It "can" be done but isn't always the best. If you use 2 ram sticks at different speeds it defaults to the lowest speed stick....so it's pretty pointless.

DeRtOxIa said:

see, that's what I was really wondering about - which slot to put a new, larger stick and if any of that shit about clock speed mattered much. I'm just going to buy a 1Gb stick, and if it fucks up running along side my other 250mb, I'll just roll solo with the 1gb till I get a second identical one.

yeah the larger stick should always be in slot 1. The 2 sticks shouldnt have a problem with each other except that they will both run at the speed of whichever is slower. So if your current stick is say PC2100 and you go and buy a stick of PC3200 you're pretty much negating purpose of the new stick.

...oh and be careful buying your new stick. It's most likely that your current sticks are 184 pin DDR. Don't end up buying 168 or 240 pin. And don't buy DDR2

if the two sticks aren't the same size you won't be able to run in dual channel mode... thats when data is stored and utilized on both of the pair in order to increase speed

I thought only mac did dual channel? cause they can get an effective 128bit bus from 2 64bit memory channels.

pc's can run dual channel but this dell definately isn't

What kind of Dell is it? How do you know it doesn't do dual channel?

well i thought that the only dells you could get with dual channel RAM we're their gaming systems and they would have more than 512MB

One of my machines is a 5 year old Dell with 256MB of ram and it's Dual Channel.

I actually have it running a linux web server right now, allowing me to post wonderous images like this:

well thank god for dual channel ram and that wonderful pic

Damn straight.

I got a Dimension 3100 and I think it is dual channel ( not that I even know what that is - but it's what I've found in my research ) I'm getting the impression that no matter what I should be running matching pairs of memory.

Yeah i didn't even think it would be running dual channel. basically doubling your RAM would do squat for performance if you lose dual channel capability.