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adding memory to my Dell Precision 380

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Steven Avery:
Hi Folks,

I just realized (sometimes I'm a little slow) that my Dell Precision 380 only has one Gigabyte of memory, and Eudora, Firefox and Linkman crash that out to smithareens (swap out anyone) -- before the eye blinks -- with the XP op sys. Even before Web development and database stuff that wants to be loaded and worked on.

So I want to expand the memory, some questions arise.

Even if I buy a hotter machine, and this becomes #2, I can see memory worth about $100, for better usage for the next year or two. This sys is 3 Gigahertz Pentium 4 and 160 gig disk.

Dell has an interesting auto-scan upgrade tool, but it gets bogged down thinking of Vista, and forgets to offer memory.  It offers me disk and a faster video card, yet does not think memory, even after giving a notification that more memory often helps performance ! 

Then I got one of their chat-meisters.  He says that the system will address 8Gb for applications, while another had said no.  Who is right ?   

1) Should I do it myself ?  I know it is fairly simple, and I've done it once or twice, but still .. if I can buy the memory local, installed cheapo, is that better, safer ?  Or definitely just buy on the Net and install myself.  (GeekSquad at BestBuys would charge $40 for the install, and the BestBuy memory might be a smidgen more than the net, so that is an example of too much extra.)  However what if I only pay $10-20 more, schlepping the puter to Joe Memory a mile away. 

2) Should I go for 4 Gigabyes instead of 2 ?  Supposedly the 4th gig is not addressed.  The extra cost is about $40, but that third gigabtye might come in real handy I think.  So far, I figger, go for 4, your thoughts ?  (This morphed into a question of 8 vs. 4, since the price is lower, see below.)

3) If only 4-gig is used, then I wonder .. does it really matter if I dual-channel (4 1-gigabtyes versus 2 2-gigabtyes). They talk of better performance, but probably just a smidgen and you lock yourself into a max of 4.

If I go 8 gigabtyes all channels are filled, and if it is cheap enough, I may do that, if it is confirmed that it helps over 4gig on a busy system.

4) Do you have a favorite store ?  Memorystock came up with a fine page for my puter, so right now they are in the lead if I buy on the Net.  This was pretty impressive.

http://www.memorystock.com/memory/DellPrecisionWorkstation380.html
Memory Upgrade for Dell Precision Workstation 380 Computer

However Dell was just as cheap, maybe cheaper.
Only $21 for 2-gig units ! Wow.   So there we go.  Home-install.

Ok, so far I am going non-ECC, (non-parity) since that is what I have now, Dell even recommended it sort of.  And the techies seem to indicate that memory parity is more for the server-delicate mentality.  Makes sense to me.  Also I am not too concerned about the brand name.

Your thoughts ?

Main question .. 4 gigs is probably much better than 2, right ?
Does 8 gig help at all ? 
Should I just put it in myself.  Carefully, delicately, not while eating.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

Mizraim:
I've personally gone through either Newegg or Tigerdirect for all of my hardware updates. I can't say I prefer one over the other, but I have purchased more from tigerdirect. As far as the 2GB over 4GB it's my understanding that unless you are running a x64 bit system, you can't utilize anything over 2GB. I may be misinformed about that. I believe Vista had changed that too allowing 4GB to run on a Vista 32bit version, and up to 8GB or 16GB on 64bit version.

I hope this information is still correct, and it helps you.

wreckedcarzz:
Head over to www.crucial.com and have the scan tool there get the info for you. I've bought all my RAM upgrades there (minus one that was incompatible) and they all work perfectly :)

Also, just buy it (the most you can get at the fastest speed) there and install it yourself (it isn't very difficult, just a tad hard on the fingers).

EDIT: As mizraim points out, if you are on 32 bit Windows then you can only use 3.5GB of memory. 64 bit can go to insane limits with RAM.

40hz:
Head over to www.crucial.com and have the scan tool there get the info for you. I've bought all my RAM upgrades there (minus one that was incompatible) and they all work perfectly :)
-wreckedcarzz (March 09, 2009, 06:35 PM)
--- End quote ---

+1 on crucial.com

I purchase virtually all my RAM (for personal and business use) through them. Been doing so since 1998. I have yet to have a problem with anything I've gotten from them.

Highly recommended. :Thmbsup:

Deozaan:
crucial.com says my MSI Wind U120-024US RAM slot(s) are empty. I definitely have 1GB in there now and I'm pretty sure that I can get another 1GB in there...

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