RAM, best deals?Follow

Ok, im pretty much a go on getting new RAM, but im just wondering if anyone knows wheres a good place to get a good deal.

Ok that was my main question now for those little side things im still confused about. I know that I need two of the same chips in order for things to work properly(Well..ok im still a little vague about that), so does that mean that if I want to upgrade from 256 to say 512 or 1g, I'd need two 256 chips or 2 512 chips?

Another thing about me is that im a cheap bastage =), so would it be cheaper in the long run to just upgrade to 1g(if its reasonable) or go for 512 at the moment and upgrade later.

Seeing as how computer illiterate I am (well, I know software issues, but im completely dumbfounded when it comes to hardware), this might help.

Current Memory hardware:
MEM RIMM 128-MB PC800 32MX2 RO

RIMM Continuity Module (C-RIMM)

Cheers to hopefully solving my horrid in game framerates!

VampyreKnight... it sounds like you are using RDRAM (GATEWAY?), which is a module that was made specificaly for the P4 chips when they first came out. At 800MhZ its a great chip, however, it had a boat load of drawbacks, and is no longer manufactured. You may still be able to find them online, but most local stores will not stock them. This memory is parity, which means that the dim banks have to be installed in equal pairs, ie. when you buy a chip, it has to be the same size as the one that will sit next to it. Try pricewatch.com, you may be able to find a good deal. Also, be sure you have adequete cooling in your case, as one of the reasons they stopped making the chips is that they get pretty hot. Hope this helps.
Derox... good news is, you can upgrade your dell up to 1gb of memory in any combination of chips. As you only have two banks to do this with, I might recommend 2x 512MB DDR PC2700 memory, each chip will be around $80-$100 US, and can be found locally at your friendly Circuit City. But of course, you can just add single 512 chip and be fine, WoW doesn't seem to have the steep system reqs that EQ2 has.

Edited, Sat Dec 11 15:33:01 2004 by Ezuvial

Just in costco the other day 512 ddr for $79.99 (can.)

(can) as in Canadian? good god.

btw, im just boosting my mem up to 1g or 512, which means I would need 2 512s or 2 256s, which doesnt look as much as a 1g chip.

Edited, Sat Dec 11 15:45:08 2004 by VampyreKnight

I still want dependability over the better deal, it just seems like some of the more informed people, alla above, know places that might be cheaper, but are also well known for quality.

I had rd ram myself, but just last night I bought a new motherboard that will use ddr (was the same prices as buying a gig of rambus). Sucky stuff.

Crucial.com is pretty much considered one of the best places to buy ram. The site can tell you exactly what ram works best for your system, and they are not over priced nor do they have a reputation for ram that has gone bad.

I was just looking for my friend the other day. I think you can get two 512 for around 200. You might be screwed if you have RD ram. I don't think the motherboard can run ddr. I would call or look up on dell website if you can put ddr in it.

I would definitly get Crucial. I got a 512 for 50 dollars last year from Best buy after a awesome rebate. After Christmas alot of stuff goes massively on sale if you can wait that long.

Laptop memory is slightly different. You may need to open up the area the memory is at and take a look and see how many open slots you have, and also find out if you need one or two banks of memory filled at a time. I would guess under 200 for 512 memory no matter the maker or computer type.



Ram is random access memory. This is what the computer uses for the short term activities it needs to make a game run. A Hard drive is also memery, but is of course long term.




couple quick suggestions. Lower the graphic requirements of course, this may help. Another is defrag and clean the hard drive, this helps. A extreme tip is to try wiping the hard drive, reninstalling everything neccessary, and then going from there, but this takes at least 2 hours and can be a pain if you are not sure what you are doing when it comes to reinstalling all your hardware.
Make sure you are not running any programs in the background that you may not know about, open the applications and see what is running. You can fiddle around with what you can and can't have turned off while playing your games, since it won't let you turn off anything critical, and if you turn off something you need to run the game or keep a internet connection, you can just restart the computer.