RAM for an old System?

[trainspotting]

Hello. I have fallen out of the mainstream of CPU/Mobo/Memory. I have some questions which will show how out of it I have become. I am still running an Athlon XP based processor on an ASUS A7N8X mobo. I am limping along with Vista and 500 MB of RAM. What size, speed and other specifics do I need to get this combination operating at its capacity? What is the going rate these days for this memory (anybody point me to a deal in the for sale/trade forum?) today? I hate to call it an "upgrade path" given this systems age; What CPU/Mobo combo would be considered appropriate for a general use (no gaming) box? How about a setup that will be used for fairly extensive photo editing? I appreciate any help that I can get!

 

[Soulkeeper]

I'm assuming you are on an extreme budget.
Even so you can get a cpu/mobo/ram combo that would be many times faster than that for 200 bucks or less. Upgrading the ram would help you, but I doubt it would offer enough performance to make you happy(you'd likely feel slow a few weeks after the "wow" of the upgrade died down).

Consider looking into athlon X4 640 (new + budget matx mb + 4GB ram), or a used c2d system possibly.

newegg.com prices:
athlon X4 640 $99
athlon X2 250 $59
GIGABYTE GA-880GM-D2H $79.99 (there are cheaper options, but this is good)
G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 $44.99 (nice low voltage memory)

some places might have cheaper prices also.

 

[strep3241]

I would recommend putting Windows XP on there and get rid of Vista.

As for the type of memory, is this a prebuilt or custom built?

According to my search, that mobo supports 3gb of DDR ram. Just go to Newegg and search for DDR ram and pick out whatever you want. I would get at least 1gb.

 

[trainspotting]

It was a custom built. XP would run better than Vista? That I can do. DDR...what speed? See I told you I was behind the times!

 

[Soulkeeper]

Dual-Channel DDR400 Support

Here is a link to your motherboard's website, you can download the manual there which will explain everything better than we can.

Chapter 2 covers the memory type and installation ...
Check amazon for ddr400, you're likely to get a good deal there, but i'd highly suggest just building a new computer at this point.
You'd end up spending around $90 to max out the memory on that system.

You say you have 512MB ?
is that 1 stick, or 2 sticks ?
if it's only one, you can pickup 1(or 2) more ddr400 512MB stick for about $25 a peice. This would result in your memory bandwidth doubling and your memory capacity doubling or tripling.

 

[strep3241]

XP would run way better than Vista on that machine.

 

[Vincent]

If you want to upgrade your current computer I would look in the FS/FT forum for some DDR400 DIMMs.

It might be more worthwhile to just save a few hundred dollars for a new computer.

Microcenter has some nice deals on new CPU/motherboard combos:

http://www.microcenter.com/specials/...ndlePROMO.html