Computer geek advice needed.

So I have this Dell Dimension 2350 (running XP), and I currently have 258mb ram. I don't know much about 'puters, but I know 1024mb will help my pc run faster.

I've researched, and I'm pretty sure I have two slots that will accept 512mb each. And I think I need DDR 184 pin DIMM. Whatever that means.

So newegg.com lists these different items. One is $17.99, and the other is $76.99. Best Buy has this which is no cheaper than $49.99.

If I buy the $18 pieces from Newegg, will they work? I always advocate buying locally whenever possible, but in this case, I really want to buy online. And I'm buying from Newegg, not some internet kid selling from his mom's basement.

Thanks for the advice.

edit: Fixing links

The cheapos from newegg will work. The more expensive ones from Newegg, don't bother.

The ones you're referring to for $75 are made for server use.

Yep, the cheapies are fine.

I would add to stick to a name brand (like Kingston or Crucial) The chips may be made and assembled in many of the same factories, but the QC may be better and the support afterwards is the main difference.

Finally, read these:

http://www.crucial.com/support/help.aspx?tabid=sc1

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3038_7-5021181-1.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/18024/upgrade_guide.html

Hope this helps,

For what its' worth, if you can jump up to two 1 gig sticks (for two gigs total), do so. You can't really have too much RAM.

Tim Baxter wrote: For what its' worth, if you can jump up to two 1 gig sticks (for two gigs total), do so. You can't really have too much RAM.

Yep....shove as much as the board will support.

can't go wrong.

kinda like horsepower and torque....never enough

The best way to find out is to look up specs on your motherboard. The appears to be it: http://www.techexcess.net/7w080-dell-dimension-2350-motherboard.aspx

This board appears to have been built for PC2100 RAM, which means that you won't be able to make use of anything greater than 266MHz. If you buy faster RAM, it will still work, but it will be slowed down to the speed of your front side bus.

I am a fan of Corsair for RAM. I would order two sticks of this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145024 Only a few bucks more than what you were looking at, for a much better brand. Also, they have a $10 rebate, so you could get $20 back on two sticks.

http://crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension%202350%20Series

yep... 512mb max per slot. :(

If we really want to talk Geek....

I've always used Patriot, OCZ, or Crucial Ballistix memory.

Back when i was overclocking, i managed to get a set of PC3200 DDR Crucial Ballistix sticks to hold a true 280mhz fsb. It was RIDICULOUS. I guess what was more ridiculous was that my socket A rig managed to tolerate that FSB without combusting, as well.

That would be nice, but the chipset used in the 2350 is limited apparently to 512mb per slot.

I'd say: Put the 2350 on CL and buy a slightly newer version, like a 2400 and you can get 2gb for it. You only need to sell the box minus the hard-drive (gotta saves ya data, right?)

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dimension-2350/4505-3118_7-20717757.html

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dimension-2400-pentium/4505-3118_7-30430313.html

Basically the same boxes, the 2400 has a slightly newer chipset so you can add more memory, but still no video expansion capabilities = Dell weaksauce e-machine POS.

Looking at it now, I'd find a proper Optiplex system on Dell's refurb site and get away from some of that non-upgrade sillyness.

Yep, especially since Intel's historically been a bit better at thermal management than AMD. At a tradeshow where Intel and AMD were set to show off their 2GHz processors; Intel's 2ghz CPU ran with only a CPU fan/heatsink. AMD's needed a liquid cooling solution. Eventually AMD's CPU failed and they withdrew from the tradeshow. Obviously AMD got it sorted out, but they have seemed consistently a few dollars short of Intel.

Still that is an impressive speed to crank out of that socket A.

BTW, the memory chips soldered to the boards are many times shared amongst the various companies. So don't get too hung up on the brand name, they really only provide some input into what comes from their sub-contractors and generally you're paying for the quality control and their support after the purchase.

fiat22turbo wrote: Yep, especially since Intel's historically been a bit better at thermal management than AMD. At a tradeshow where Intel and AMD were set to show off their 2GHz processors; Intel's 2ghz CPU ran with only a CPU fan/heatsink. AMD's needed a liquid cooling solution. Eventually AMD's CPU failed and they withdrew from the tradeshow. Obviously AMD got it sorted out, but they have seemed consistently a few dollars short of Intel. Still that is an impressive speed to crank out of that socket A. BTW, the memory chips soldered to the boards are many times shared amongst the various companies. So don't get too hung up on the brand name, they really only provide some input into what comes from their sub-contractors and generally you're paying for the quality control and their support after the purchase.

I broke Aquamark3, and all 3dmark records for the class it was lumped in, so i admit it was a bit of a freak.

I do agree that historically AMDs run hotter, but they also tend to tolerate that heat better. Of course, take that with a grain of salt, because the last AMD i've had was an Opteron 170 socket 939. Which obviously, was quite some time ago. I will build another computer for gaming purposes around AMD again in the near future. I'm just more comfy with them. I DO remember my lowly Socket A running MUCH cooler than the Intel "Pres-hots" of the time, though.

Probably because it was 2500-M out of a laptop. 3ghz out of a Socket A, idling at ambient temps is a beautiful thing to behold.

My old T-Bred B core cpus used to run UNGODLY hot, but never complained about it.

Also of note for speeding up the computer:

• Make sure there is a fair amount of free space on the Hard disk
• Defrag the hard disk
• If you have installed / removed a lot of programs, look into some sort of registry cleaner
• Best advise for getting a Windows computer running better (no, not remove power cord, move computer, plug cord into Mac), wipe the drive and re-install the system.

You probably don't want to do the last two, but it can make a big difference (a definite trend with Windows computers, Macs do seem to do better with that )

Newegg is a wonderful thing, I built my entire PC with parts from them.

And you should see pretty significant gains going from 256 megs to a full gig. I recently went from 2 gigs to 4 on my home rig, now it's limited by the 32-bit OS I'm running, particularly since the graphic card's 512mb memory counts to the 4-gig total allowable. Next system will be a 64-bit, but by then it should be fairly common.

Wow. Good advice from most. Way too over-my-head from others. I figure for $39 shipped, I can get 1024MB, and a computer that will meet my needs for another year or two.

I'll do the newegg thing this afternoon. Thanks.

Kramer wrote: Wow. Good advice from most. Way too over-my-head from others. I figure for $39 shipped, I can get 1024MB, and a computer that will meet my needs for another year or two. I'll do the newegg thing this afternoon. Thanks.

In the future, look for a computer with a slot for a real graphics card. Aside from the obvious benefit of being able to play awesome games, it really does speed the machine up significantly to place the burden of video processing and memory on a dedicated card, rather than leaning on your CPU and/or RAM.

I also love the option of being able to run multi-screen displays. That was awesome for writing papers in college. I could display my reading material in one screen and my text editor in the other. No flipping back and forth between windows.