Memory recommendations

Hi,

I own a Dell Dimension 2350 running XP home ed. w/ one 256M memory stick installed. I'd like to upgrade and am looking for ideas on where to get a good deal, and how much of an upgrade will be worthwhile.

The specs from Dell's manual are:

2 mem connectors
128, 256, or 512 MB capacities
1 GB maximum memory
type - PC2100 266 MHz DDR SDRAM non-ECC

Any opinions are welcome, depending on price I'm considering a purchase soon. Will install myself if that matters.

Thanks in advance,

Marty

 

I get mine from these guys:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=TC2-DDR-256

I've experimented on my machine with 256, 512, and 3 gigs of memory. There was a noticeable increase in performance from 256 to 512, but no change after that (no noticeable difference, even when encoding large movies).

My average usage was around 470 megs, so I am now back to 512 and very happy with performance.

 

Hi Abraxas,

I got some great prices there, and will respect your advice about keeping to 512mb. However, Dell says to use non-ECC memory and Tiger's only got ECC memory. I haven't opened the box to see what the one 256 stick is that's in there now.

Do you think I might have a compatibility issue, assuming that the one in there is non-ECC and I add another which is ECC?

Also if you feel like looking at Tiger's site they have two ultra's @ 256mb, pc2100, ddr-sdrams which are $5 apart in price with no discernable difference between them.

Weird.

Marty

 

You need all ECC or non-ECC and can't mix them. Your BIOS must support ECC before you can use it, too.

I can't see the slightest difference between those 2 Ultra modules. Maybe a mistake on their part.

Why do you think the link I pointed you to has ECC memory? Maybe I'm missing it, but all the mem I bought from Tiger has been non-ECC. You could call them to be sure, of course.

It appears that the ECC memory is clearly marked as such:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_slc.asp?Id=1020

The mem that Tiger has on "special" are usually good quality. Some are made by PNY and the last 2 I bought were made by AMD even though marked as a Tiger product.

PS. Just want to add that it was not really my "advice" to stick with 512, but more a statement of my experience. It should be plenty if you have no incredibly memory-intensive apps, but whether more is useful will depend on what you use your machine for.

 

Aida32 will tell you whether you have ECC now:

http://www.aida32.hu/download/aida32ee_370.exe

Look under Motherboard, SPD. "Error Detection Method" should say "None" for non-ECC memory.

 

I double checked with a tech -- third time I called today . It is ECC, he said it would say non-ECC if it had no error detection.

Thanks for that pgm link... I do indeed have non-ECC installed.

What a drag. Now that I see how cheap 1/4 Gb would've been if I could use it I hate to pay so much more for non-ECC. Hmmpff.

Marty

 

it's a learning experience

Abraxas, I went back and triple checked the site. The one type for $20 specified 64 bit so now I understand that that's non-ECC, whereas the other just didn't say and the tech said it was 72 bit ECC.

Beats me where the problem really is but I just ordered the 64 bit one. Thanks for the help.

 

You're welcome and good luck.

Tiger has always been good to me for returns, so you'll be set if you have problems.