A Question for you computer peeps

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I have a Dell computer (8400 model I believe) and I am looking to upgrade the memory from 1gig to 2 gig. I have been told that if you buy a Dell you can only buy Dell products when it comes to upgrading. Can anyone verify this?If it’s true I wish I would have known before I bought the comp, I would have went with Alienware or something that I can upgrade myself.

Thanks Helms I'll look into that. Much Appreciated.

I've also heard the same and a friend ran into that problem. He bought memory and it didn't work. Bought it from them and it worked. Technically, that shouldn't be the case, but you have to make sure that the stick you are buying fits within their specs.

2GB is a lot of memory. Why the hell do you need that much?

2GB is a lot of memory. Why the hell do you need that much? It's mainly for playing Everquest II. It's very memory intensive not to mention graphics intensive. I just bought GeForce 6800XT 256MB Xtreme to upgrade my graphics. My comp runs the game good now but I want to be able to play on extreme performance LoL. I did some research on my model of computer and it says I should have four memory slots (though will verify that tonight when I open my comp up). If that's the case I'll just get two more 512, giving me my total of 2gig memory that i want and being much cheaper than having to buy two 1gig sticks.

Okay one more question about memory, want to make sure I understand this properly.I know when you install memory it should be matching. Example if you put in a 512 stick you should match it with another 512 stick. But say you have 4 slots for memory (which I do). I already have two 512 sticks inside. Now do I have to add two more 512 sticks to match the existing two 512's or can you put say two 1 gig sticks in together to match each other? Basically do you have to have all matching sticks or just matched in pairs?

I'm going to say matched pairs but you should look up the requirements for your specific motherboard.

hmmm... I think I might actuially have 4 different sticks and they all work

4 different memory sizes? Hmmm... or is it 4 different brands but same capacity or matched capacity..My motherboard at home is kind of old now (1.6 GHz) but it required that the memory be in matched pairs (i.e 1 pair 256 MB and the other pair 512MB)

I have 2x64
1x128
1x256

all working (atleast all showing under the system info)

You have 4 sticks and it all adds up to 512? You can get all that in just one stick for less than €50.

That's interesting.. Like I said.. it's really dependent on the motherboard design.

bit of an older machine. almost impossible to track down PC100 or 133 memory around here anymore.

Umm.. that only depends with a hard drive sometimes, and bits and pieces from Dell hardware, and software. RAM should be fine

Dell is very picky about their RAM. You can buy 3rd party RAM and it work just fine. But you have to match the specs EXACTLY or else it won't work. Dell likes to release RAM with odd mHz numbers that's difficult to find. You can put different size modules of RAM and it will work fine. I miss match all the time with HP, Dell, and IBM units.

Thanks that's what I wanted to hear. I have decided I am going to order two 1gig sticks so it'll give me 3gig of ram, shouldn't have to worry about ram for a LONG time lol.

I check out Crucial's prices and they were actually more expensive than Dell, which shocked me.

.

Wow...this thread is...dead.

It may be dead, but it's interesting. I've ordered memory modules from both companies that HelmsmaN cited (Crucial for a Gateway laptop, I think). The (reputable) memory sticks/modules are all made by a few companies, so brand doesn't seem to make a big difference.If you're going to buy memory, search around for price. The difference in price can be substantial, and yesterday's price leader can be today's over-charger.I just got a MacBook today, and paid $150 to have memory upgraded from 1 GB to 2. Less than 1 GB is a lost cause if you're running XP and a bunch of applications...and Firefox eats memory like it's going out of style. More memory usually means more speed and less disk activity.On a tangent, I removed Norton Internet Stuff from the Windows laptop (which I'm using at the moment), and things sped up a lot. Norton was killing to poor computer. I'm now running the free AVG, which seems to be much more efficient than Norton Antivirus. If I keep liking AVG, I'll pay for the non-free version.In retrospect, it's amazing how many things Norton interfered with...and it made booting take forever.For what it's worth, I'm running the Windows XP firewall. I can't think of any feature it's lacking that I would care about.

FUCK NORTON, I went through that same shit and ended up with AVG, IV missed alot of shit I had to fix on my mom sthat she insists on running Norton, its slows the computer down and I dont think atleast, is as good as AVG.Iv had it for over a year now, Id be suprised if you didnt like it well enough to swap to it permenantly.