Any thoughts on memory upgrade?

Its almost trainz modeling season time for me.:clap: Within another month I will be back working on two routes. I plan on doing a series of upgrades to my computer before I start some serious work. I got Geforce 7950GT 512Mb video card and I want to boost my memory. The question is how much memory can or should I boost it too?

Here is my present system 2Ghz Athon 64 +3200, 1.5Gb memory, XP service pack 2, mother board ASUSTeK Computer Inc. A8V Deluxe Rev 1.xx., 6800LE to be replaced.

I am not very technical and could use some help. I do have a computer person who will do the upgrades for me.

My specific questions are: How much memory can my mother board hold and what kind?

Any thoughts??

http://www.crucial.com have a very useful free utility that will list the memory modules currently installed in your computer and what your upgrade options are.

When buying memory, check, check and check again that it is fully compatible.

FWIW I found that increasing the memory from 1GB to 3GB made very little difference to performance in Trainz or any other program. Upgrading the video board had vastly more effect. Your mileage may vary of course. The general wisdom is that you need at least 1GB more memory if you're running Vista than the equivalent hardware would need with Windows XP.

HTH, John

The A8V Deluxe is a socket 939 motherboard that uses DDR Ram. The A8V will support up to 4Gb of DDR 400. XP can only use 3Gb of Ram however, so keep that in mind.

My suggestion would be to get some good quality DDR400. Crucial, Corsair, or maybe even Geil would be some recommendations. Kingston make some good DDR 400 as well. You should be able to pick some up secondhand, so look around and price it up before you choose one. About 2Gb would do nicely.

Chris

psycho_aussie said:

The A8V Deluxe is a socket 939 motherboard that uses DDR Ram. The A8V will support up to 4Gb of DDR 400. XP can only use 3Gb of Ram however, so keep that in mind.

My suggestion would be to get some good quality DDR400. Crucial, Corsair, or maybe even Geil would be some recommendations. Kingston make some good DDR 400 as well. You should be able to pick some up secondhand, so look around and price it up before you choose one. About 2Gb would do nicely.

Chris

Click to expand...

Thank you!:wave: I am assuming that my mother board has 4 memory slots without opening the case. According to Belarc Advisor I have:

1536 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 512 MB (serial number SerNum0)
Slot 'DIMM1' has 512 MB

The question is do I have 2 x 256Mb or 1 x 512Mb in the other slots? I guess I need 2 x 1024Mb DDR memory chips regardless to get 3 Gb. Does DDR come in 1024 Mb chips?

Run the Crucial utility, it will tell you these things. It's safe, simple and painless, with absolutely no commitment to purchase from them.

John