Posted: 6/9/2006 3:11:34 PM EDT
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Last year I got lazy and figured I would just buy a prebuilt computer instead of doing it myself. Shuttle has a sale on small form factor PCs so I bought one. Today I still love it, it was a good choice, but I would like to upgrade the RAM. It came with this:  I've never heard of that RAM before, is it good? I would like to add one more stick of 512MB totalling 1024MB of RAM. So should I buy the exact same stick? Or should I go for another brand? I took a look at their website, this is the list of vendors that sell their RAM: USA AxionTech www.axiontech.com +1 (281) 575-0007 Cheap Guys Computers www.cheapguys.com +1 (407) 936-0237 Directron www.directron.com +1 (713) 773-9898 eTech4Sale www.etech4sale.com +1 (408) 855-8000 Etoys4Less www.etoys4less.com +1 (714) 424-9032 FM Computer Warehouse www.fmcomputerwarehouse.com +1 (407) 830-5455 IO Combo www.iocombo.com +1 (510) 445-1875 Anyone ever use any of those vendors? I found it in stock at www.etech4sale.com for $48 plus $5 shipping, which seems good to me, but I've never ordered from there so I don't know if they are a reputable vendor or not. |
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I would go for a bigger brand memory such as PNY, Kingston, etc. I learned from personal experience that bad memory can cause a lot of problems, problems you don't know is attributed to the memory until you've replaced everything else. That said, check out newegg.com too. ETA: Backup your data. Shuttle doesn't have a good reputation. I spent about 3 weeks trying to get my new Shuttle to work. Ended up ditching it. |
) kit from newegg, monarch, ad nausum... |
Matching memory is only really important if you want to run it in dual channel mode, which your motherboard may or may not support. If you do, you would have to get an exact match for the module you already have, and that isn't always possible. The benefits of dual channel probably are not worth the trouble. If you do choose to match the modules, make sure to use a utility like CPU-Z to make sure that you get the same Latency and voltages, or things won't work out well. 512 megs isn't anything to sneeze at. Keep it, since it is running well and buy a 1 gig stick of the same rating to keep it company. Small form factor PC's can really benefit from increased ram, as upgrading things like video cards and hard drives can be problematic. If you're motherboard only has 2 slots for RAM then a one gig stick is probably the largest single capacity you're board will accept, barring a possible bios update. And don't go for the really high priced RAM with fancy heat spreaders and Hax0rs LED's and crap. It's wasted money. A one gig stick of the same speed should cost you between 70 and 90 dollars, tops. -Local. |
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Ok guys, thanks for all the help. Local, so you think I should keep the current stick of memory that I have? That won't drag down the performance of the 1GB stick I am going to buy (as recommended)? Would I be better off using just the new 1GB stick by itself? As for the memory, how is this: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146969 ? Will this match and work well for me? Now you mentioned problems with Small form factor PC's and upgrades of video cards and HDD, what is that all about? I don't plan on upgrading, but I am curious as to what kind of problems SFF's might have in these situations. Thanks! |
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Any RAM I've bought has been from Crucial. They have an online menu that picks the correct ram for your machine. All you do is highlight the PC brand and model number, and it only shows the compatible Memory for your machine. They ship quick too.  www.crucial.com/ |
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What you've got is a fairly generic DDR400 stick, ie "PC3200" ram. That is actually the fastest standard speed 184 pin DDR memory type. If it is working fine there is no reason to ditch it unless you want to do some serious overclocking and need some high quality stuff meant for overclocking to non-standard speeds, it seems obvious you are not interested in that. I would just buy another name brand stick from newegg that is also DDR400 ram, either another 512mb stick or better yet a 1 gig stick and call it a day. I would buy name brand over a generic no-name but buying a brand name's "value" stick would not be a problem. I recommend newegg.com. |
| If you to test your memory to make sure that it isn't bad, get memtest86 |
The nice thing about a lot of us "real" computer users is that we got memtest86 built right into our GRUB bootloader 
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As others have suggested, you really don't need to ditch the 512mb module. It has been working fine and like I said, 512 mb is still worth having. If it where 256mb, I might consider ditching it, but only if I was limited on the number of slots I had available. The best option for performance in your situation, with out knowing any other details about your computer, is to buy a one gigabyte module and use both. Both will happily work together. More then 1.5 gigs of ram is probably not going to show any performance benefits for your system (unless you are running some seriously specialized apps). I usually have 1.5 gigs in my system, and I've yet to need more in normal tasks (the one exception being Pro/E, but even then it's livable. The only thing you should be worried about is making sure that you buy the correct clock speed of memory. Slower speeds will usually work, but there is a performance penalty, and high speeds will not work in your case. Here is the important stuff to look for: 184pinn PC3200 or DDR400 (same thing) 1024/1 gigabyte single module Heat spreaders do not work as well as advertised usually, although I am not sure about heat problems in the small form factor. My guess is that it's not a problem, as high RAM heat is most often a sign of a bad module, not an underlying heat buildup. As it happens, there is a $80 sick of Corsair brand memory that meets the requirements. I wouldn't normally suggest Corsair to those one a budget, but this is a good deal. www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145505 |
Unless the memory is totally thrashed, i've found that memory is'nt really a problem WITH MEMORY.  You know what the main problem with memory is? WINDOZE!! And this is coming from a person who hates Mac, and thinks that Linux (unix) is too complicated for the average user. All my crashes and blue screens of death can be attributed to memory leaks, and bad allocation of memory. I've found the best cure is a memory reallocation program such as System mechanic or norton system works. Instead of having to reboot just close most programs and save important data, then "defrag" the mem or just hit the reclaim button. you'll go from 3 MB free memory to 300mb. And the computer will stop being sluggish and the chance of crash are less, but the problem is these proggies are a little tricky and can purge imporatant TSR's and whatnot. So only use tham once every couple of hours. Dont set it up to reclaim everytime you reach say "20mb". I mean comeon the windows system was set up to use cache pages and what not so having "no memory" is ok, just not for a long time and after you've started and stopped 50 programs. |
Umm, No. There is a different notch for DDR vs DDR2, but the individual speeds are all the same. In my computer I have: 2x 256 kingston PC2700 CAS2 sticks 1x 512 generic PC3200 CAS 3 (@CAS 2 timings and PC2700 speed) stick Works fine. As long as you don't get memory errors, there isn't anything wrong with generic. |