How can I find out the type of ram I need?

FinalRights

Junior Member
Feb 19, 2007
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I have a motherboard sitting here but am unsure as to what type or *how many pins* I need.

Ideas? Thanks
 

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,938
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Do you know any specs for it? Socket type/model name/number?
You could google for images of different DIMM slots and see if it matches up.
 

kilcan

Member
Feb 16, 2007
70
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What motherboard is it? You can look it up on newegg.com and under the specifications tab, it tells you what type of RAM it uses.
 

engiNURD

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2004
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There should be a model # on the board somewhere, or at least the brand. You can count the pins! lol...
 

ForumMaster

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2005
7,792
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do you know what CPU is supposed to go in there? is it a motherboard from the last 3-4 years?

look at the slot:

if there are three rows of pins with two seperations like so then the mobo uses SD-RAM. AKA 168Pin ram. PC100-133 should be good.

if there is only one seperation like so then it is DDR which is 184 pin ram with PC2100-3200.

ddr2 looks like this:
ddr2 would be for the Pentium D, Core Duo or Core 2 Duo or the AM2 platform.
 

Coldkilla

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2004
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I'm a personal friend of FinalRights. I checked his motherboard out. It was a PC2100 512MB.

Thanks all.
 

Eos

Diamond Member
Jun 14, 2000
3,463
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I kept the sticker that came with my RAM for just this reason. It's pasted to the front of my case where the floppy drive would normally be.
 

FinalRights

Junior Member
Feb 19, 2007
17
0
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Here's all of my specs. This was just supposed to be a side computer for a while until I fixed the main but my parents took the main so I'm trying to fix this one up. It's all junk... yes I know. Haha, but it won't be for long.
System Specs:
OS: XP Professional
Processor: AMD 2200+
DX: 9.0c
Ram: 512mb
Video: Nvidia 5200 256mb
Sound: Vinyl Ac97
 

catalysts17az

Member
Sep 16, 2004
142
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you forgot another question, how much ram can your motherboard hold? If it was bought and not made by you then a crucial or www.kingston.com will be able to help solve this problem. Once you find out how ram your mobo can hold the next thing you should do (and you have) is to look at the sticker on your ram stick. but sometimes the sticker does not give any information, i have helped alot of my friends update there computers and this problems is more common than you think. from there it can be a guessing game or you can check the bios for the speed its running at OR (and i highly recommend this program) use CPUZ to see the speed of the ram and from there match it with what you need.