Memory upgrade gotchas?

Hey folks,

Kind of a newbie question for you all, but I have to ask. I am planning to upgrade my Dell demension 8200 2.2GHz system memory from 512MB to 1.5Gb. I am going to stay with the existing pair of 256MB banks and will add a pair of 512 RDR(s).

I have done a forum search and didn't find what I needed, also I have gone to crucial.com to identify what memory config my system can handle.

The two questions I have are:

(1) Should I place the pair of 512s in the first two slots and the 256s in the 3rd and 4th slots? Is there any real benefit to this?

(2) Is there anything else I need to be aware of or need to know when upgrading memory? BIOS upgrades? Configuration changes? Or will the system recogize the addition memory upon boot-up?

Thanks in advance,

SDRob

 

It isn't going to matter much, as your computer 'sees' your memory sticks as all one area.

 

Good question. Unfortunately, I don't know much about your board or your memory but it used to be (5+ yrs ago) that memory position made a big difference on some motherboards and as a general rule, larger sticks should populate the first slot(s). I can't answer that as it relates to RDRam but to be on the safe side, I'd put the big ones in the first and if you are currently populating 1 & 3, thats where they would go. If you are populating 1 & 2, thats where they would go. Since you have to work with pairs, you have to install in the correct banks.