Topic: Upgrade RAM

[twiggy]

I have a 128MB RAM card installed at the moment. I'm thinking of upgrading to a 512MB. Where i'm stuk is there are two types there is a 184pin and a 168pin. Would it make a difference which one i bought? or would they both work? what is the difference between the two e.g performace? thanks for your help,

Mark

[Clive]

Hi Mark and  

One of our techies will be able to provide you with an answer very shortly.

[Simon]

Hi Mark, and welcome.

As Clive said, someone more technical might be able to help more, but in the meantime, have you tried crucial.com?  They do a good job of matching memory sticks to motherboards, and are usually among the most competative on price too.

[Big_Boss]

Hi Mark

I managed to find a guide here although it doesnt say anything specific about 184 and 168 pin RAM sticks.

Im pretty sure my ram is 184 pin but i have DDR so it might be different to SDRAM. Ive never really thought about how many pins the RAM has to be honest. I just go to the shop and ask for 512MB of DDR RAM

[Sandra]

Hi Twiggy welcome aboard  

168 pin is SDRAM whereas the 184 is DDR RAM

Unfortunately they are not interchangeable but some boards take both types(identifiable by the two kinds of slots next to each other,the DDR slots being longer).
Also even if you have the board that takes both they can only be used as all SDRAM or all DDR you cant mix them.

You also need to find out whether your board supports 100 or 133 mhz for the SDRAM or 2100 or 2700 (not sure what the units are) for the DDR RAM.

If you can let me know the make and model no of the motherboard I can check exactly which one you need for you  

[twiggy]

I bought the pc over a year ago now and i have never opened it up before so i couldnt say waht mother board it has in it. How do i find out what my board supports? I wasnt planing on mixing them i was going to do a stright swap would this be a good idea?

Thanks again mark

[Sandra]

Hi Mark,unless it has the slots already in for both types then you would have to use the one thats already in.

Have you got a program called Si Soft Sandra or similar?
That will tell you the make of motherboard and also what kind of ram you have installed and also what alternatives you have available.

Depending on your operating system,system information may give you this information too,XP does I am not sure about the others.

Can you give me as much information as you have that you know of about your PC and operating system please?
Do you know how to get into BIOS,if so that will tell you what the FSB speed is so we can determine whether you are on 100 or 133 mhz  

[twiggy]

Im actually at work now and not on my home computer. I will get a programme like that when i return home. I'm running windows 98. I dont no how to access the BIOS could you please tell me?

Thanks for all your help Mark

[Sandra]

You can download "Sandra" from here Mark :


http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2086-10132058.html?tag=lst-0-1

Its got a trial before you buy so hopefully it will allow you to get the information about your motherboard (sometimes trials arent fully functional)without having to buy it  

Failing that you will have to open the case up and see what the motherboard is and hopefully the model no will be clearly visible.
At least you will be able to see how many and which kind of memory slots there are,they are usually near the IDE connectors(the wide grey ribbon cables)  


edited to correct link  

[Sandra]

Ok Mark,when you start your PC press the DEL (or DELETE) as it is loading up that should bring the BIOS screen up.

Actually I have just looked on my other PC and it hasnt got the speed showing,only auto detect or manually select it from some options,so forget about the BIOS for now as its not wise to alter settings in there unless you are fairly sure of what you are doing and I dont think it will give us the information we need at the moment  

[Big_Boss]

"Sandra" should be able to give you the name of your motherboard, then all we gotta do it match the motherboard to what RAM it needs.  

[Simon]

Belarc Advisor is a free download, and should also tell you the details of your Motherboard and BIOS.  You can download it free from:

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

[Sandra]

"Sandra" should be able to give you the name of your motherboard,

Hey BB I'm not psychic you know  

[Robotochan]

Argh this topic was a confusing read never normally see my true identity mentioned so many times.

[twiggy]

Is this enough or u wont more?

Operating System
Windows 98 SE (build 4.10.2222)

Processor a
750 megahertz AMD Athlon

Drives
20.48 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
188 Megabytes Hard Drive Free Space

Image Simulation [CD-ROM drive]
SAMSUNG DVD-ROM SD-608 [CD-ROM drive]
TEAC CD-W54E [CD-ROM drive]
Generic floppy disk drive (3.5")

Generic IDE hard disk drive (20.48 GB) -- drive 0
USBAT Compact Flash [Hard drive] (31 MB) -- drive 1

Main Circuit Board b

Board: Asus K7M 1.04
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies LTD 1.02 02/01/00

Memory Modules c,d
128 Megabytes Installed Memory