Upgrade RAM or Video Card?

1GB RAM
2MB L2 cache
ATI Radeon x300 SE 128mb
20" UlatraSharp LCD wide format monitor

….

faster? I ‘think’ my system can hold up to 4gb of ram but I would only upgrade at this point to a
total of 2gb (purchasing ONE stick of 1gb memory)

You r desire to improve performance is a good thing. I am not an EXPERT on the programs per se, but know that system RAM is very importnat. Video RAM and the speed of the video card is important too – more so on games in particular.

The system RAM upgrade would be my choice – it can be employed throughout your system. Sadly, most modern computers with 1G of RAM installed can NOT be upgraded to 2 G of RAM by purchasing a single 1 G memory stick. Instead, most require you to remove one of the current memory stick and replace it with another. If your machine has 4 sockets for RAM instead of 2, it can be another matter entirely. Many machine have only two sockets for system RAM – Dell should be able to tell you just what your machine CAN hold. Sadly, most machines with 1G of System RAM have 2 -512M sticks, and when you replace a 512M with a 1G stick, you only get 1.5G total.

Suggestion then? Buy as much system RAM as you can afford and are able to insert that will work with your Operating System. If I were you, I would ask Dell – even though their support is in India much of the time – and follow their guidance.

Alternatively, post your Dell model number.

I also like cached high speed (10K rpm and higher) hard drives and controllers, but that is another matter entirely.

"The Big "O"" wrote in message

1GB RAM
2MB L2 cache
ATI Radeon x300 SE 128mb
20" UlatraSharp LCD wide format monitor

…

faster? I ‘think’ my system can hold up to 4gb of ram but I would only upgrade at this point to a
total of 2gb (purchasing ONE stick of 1gb memory)

You r desire to improve performance is a good thing. I am not an EXPERT

on

the programs per se, but know that system RAM is very importnat. Video

RAM

and the speed of the video card is important too – more so on games in particular.

The system RAM upgrade would be my choice – it can be employed throughout your system. Sadly, most modern computers with 1G of RAM installed can

NOT

be upgraded to 2 G of RAM by purchasing a single 1 G memory stick.

Instead,

most require you to remove one of the current memory stick and replace it with another. If your machine has 4 sockets for RAM instead of 2, it can

be

another matter entirely. Many machine have only two sockets for system RAM – Dell should be able to tell you just what your machine CAN hold. Sadly, most machines with 1G of System RAM have 2 -512M sticks, and when

you

replace a 512M with a 1G stick, you only get 1.5G total.
Suggestion then? Buy as much system RAM as you can afford and are able to insert that will work with your Operating System. If I were you, I would ask Dell – even though their support is in India much of the time – and follow their guidance.

Alternatively, post your Dell model number.

I also like cached high speed (10K rpm and higher) hard drives and controllers, but that is another matter entirely.

If you go to www.crucial.com there is an online scanner that scans your machine, tells you how much ram you have, how many slots are available, and how much more you can add.

Joe

"Joe Pak" wrote in message

"The Big "O"" wrote in message

1GB RAM
2MB L2 cache
ATI Radeon x300 SE 128mb
20" UlatraSharp LCD wide format monitor

…

faster? I ‘think’ my system can hold up to 4gb of ram but I would only upgrade at this point to a
total of 2gb (purchasing ONE stick of 1gb memory)

You r desire to improve performance is a good thing. I am not an EXPERT

on

the programs per se, but know that system RAM is very importnat. Video

RAM

and the speed of the video card is important too – more so on games in particular.

The system RAM upgrade would be my choice – it can be employed throughout your system. Sadly, most modern computers with 1G of RAM installed can

NOT

be upgraded to 2 G of RAM by purchasing a single 1 G memory stick.

Instead,

most require you to remove one of the current memory stick and replace it with another. If your machine has 4 sockets for RAM instead of 2, it can

be

another matter entirely. Many machine have only two sockets for system RAM – Dell should be able to tell you just what your machine CAN hold. Sadly, most machines with 1G of System RAM have 2 -512M sticks, and when

you

replace a 512M with a 1G stick, you only get 1.5G total.
Suggestion then? Buy as much system RAM as you can afford and are able to
insert that will work with your Operating System. If I were you, I would ask Dell – even though their support is in India much of the time – and follow their guidance.

Alternatively, post your Dell model number.

I also like cached high speed (10K rpm and higher) hard drives and controllers, but that is another matter entirely.

If you go to www.crucial.com there is an online scanner that scans your machine, tells you how much ram you have, how many slots are available, and
how much more you can add.

Joe

Hi.

The above suggestion is excellent. You will get very accurate info on how many sticks of what size can be added.

For Photoshop and graphics programs the more RAM the better.

The other thing which can help speed, is installing a second HDD. This should be as fast, or faster, than the main one, and should be left empty and specified as the First Scratch Disc for Photoshop.

Graphics cards are not really important, until very recently I was running Photoshop without any problem on a 32mb Card.

Roy G

OK, system memory it is. I have a Dell Dimension 8400, purchased in May of 05. Thanks for your help 🙂
Monica
"The Big "O"" wrote in message

1GB RAM
2MB L2 cache
ATI Radeon x300 SE 128mb
20" UlatraSharp LCD wide format monitor

…

faster? I ‘think’ my system can hold up to 4gb of ram but I would only upgrade at this point to a
total of 2gb (purchasing ONE stick of 1gb memory)

You r desire to improve performance is a good thing. I am not an EXPERT on the programs per se, but know that system RAM is very importnat. Video RAM and the speed of the video card is important too – more so on games in particular.

The system RAM upgrade would be my choice – it can be employed throughout your system. Sadly, most modern computers with 1G of RAM installed can NOT be upgraded to 2 G of RAM by purchasing a single 1 G memory stick. Instead, most require you to remove one of the current memory stick and replace it with another. If your machine has 4 sockets for RAM instead of 2, it can be another matter entirely. Many machine have only two sockets for system RAM – Dell should be able to tell you just what your machine CAN hold. Sadly, most machines with 1G of System RAM have 2 -512M sticks, and when you replace a 512M with a 1G stick, you only get 1.5G total.
Suggestion then? Buy as much system RAM as you can afford and are able to insert that will work with your Operating System. If I were you, I would ask Dell – even though their support is in India much of the time – and follow their guidance.

Alternatively, post your Dell model number.

I also like cached high speed (10K rpm and higher) hard drives and controllers, but that is another matter entirely.

—
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Roy, I have a second harddrive but it’s not empty. It’s my backup drive that has 124gb FREE out of 149gb. It’s a 7200rpm with 8mb cache. C drive is no faster than this backup drive. Would you still recommend using the b/u drive as my scratch disk?
Monica
"Roy G" wrote in message

"Joe Pak" wrote in message

The above suggestion is excellent. You will get very accurate info on how many sticks of what size can be added.

For Photoshop and graphics programs the more RAM the better.
The other thing which can help speed, is installing a second HDD. This should be as fast, or faster, than the main one, and should be left empty and specified as the First Scratch Disc for Photoshop.

Graphics cards are not really important, until very recently I was running Photoshop without any problem on a 32mb Card.

Roy G

—
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Monica" wrote in message

Roy, I have a second harddrive but it’s not empty. It’s my backup drive that has 124gb FREE out of 149gb. It’s a 7200rpm with 8mb cache. C drive is no faster than this backup drive. Would you still recommend using the b/u drive as my scratch disk?
Monica
"Roy G" wrote in message

"Joe Pak" wrote in message

The above suggestion is excellent. You will get very accurate info on how many sticks of what size can be added.

For Photoshop and graphics programs the more RAM the better.
The other thing which can help speed, is installing a second HDD. This should be as fast, or faster, than the main one, and should be left empty and specified as the First Scratch Disc for Photoshop.

Graphics cards are not really important, until very recently I was running Photoshop without any problem on a 32mb Card.

Roy G

Hi.

Yes,

I would select your Back Up Drive as your
First Scratch Disc. Just make sure you Defragment it fairly often.

Make you Boot Drive your Second Scratch Disc.

Did you try the Crucial Site yet?

Roy G

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 09:43:04 -0500, "Monica"
wrote:

OK, system memory it is. I have a Dell Dimension 8400, purchased in May of 05. Thanks for your help 🙂
Monica
"The Big "O"" wrote in message

1GB RAM
2MB L2 cache
ATI Radeon x300 SE 128mb
20" UlatraSharp LCD wide format monitor

…

faster? I ‘think’ my system can hold up to 4gb of ram but I would only upgrade at this point to a
total of 2gb (purchasing ONE stick of 1gb memory)

You r desire to improve performance is a good thing. I am not an EXPERT on the programs per se, but know that system RAM is very importnat. Video RAM and the speed of the video card is important too – more so on games in particular.

The system RAM upgrade would be my choice – it can be employed throughout your system. Sadly, most modern computers with 1G of RAM installed can NOT be upgraded to 2 G of RAM by purchasing a single 1 G memory stick. Instead, most require you to remove one of the current memory stick and replace it with another. If your machine has 4 sockets for RAM instead of 2, it can be another matter entirely. Many machine have only two sockets for system RAM – Dell should be able to tell you just what your machine CAN hold. Sadly, most machines with 1G of System RAM have 2 -512M sticks, and when you replace a 512M with a 1G stick, you only get 1.5G total.
Suggestion then? Buy as much system RAM as you can afford and are able to insert that will work with your Operating System. If I were you, I would ask Dell – even though their support is in India much of the time – and follow their guidance.

Alternatively, post your Dell model number.

I also like cached high speed (10K rpm and higher) hard drives and controllers, but that is another matter entirely.

Your best action would be to upgrade your RAM (the most RAM any version of Windows will support is 4GB. Older version of Windows – pre Win2K- support less.).

Warning! Technical Content ahead.
When your physical memory becomes full, like it will when you have multiple LARGE files opened, and Windows needs to put more information in RAM it will move bits from memory into the swap file on your hard drive. When it needs to do something to those bits it has to bring them back from the disk into RAM. Moving bits to and from the hard drive is a slooow process. PE can’t change the hue of an image when Windows is busy moving the bits of that image off the disk into memory and moving the bits of a different image onto disk. RAM available to PE is limited as Windows and other programs assign themselves memory for bits that can’t be swapped to disk.
So more RAM = less disk activity = faster image operations.

A second disk would be most helpful to speed up image processing if you moved your swap file from the system disk to that second disk. Putting your images on a second disk would be helpful because PE and Windows wouldn’t be competing to read & write to the same disk at the same when Windows was doing some OS tasking. You wouldn’t notice that advantage very often
..

Yes, I had been on the Crucial site earlier but decided to let it scan my system (vs calling India for tech support!).
Bummer…I had hoped for a 1GB stick but have 2 512s and 2 empty slots. Are memory prices insane right now or
is this normal? I know it fluctuates but I haven’t priced this type of memory before. I’m guessing I can’t keep the 2 512s and buy one stick of 1gb for a total of 2, right? If so I’ll have to buy 2 1gb sticks <sigh> Would be nice if I could buy 2gb (1gbx2) for a total of 3, keeping the 2 sticks of 512. Wishful thinking? 😮 "Roy G" wrote in message

"Monica" wrote in message

Roy, I have a second harddrive but it’s not empty. It’s my backup drive that has 124gb FREE out of 149gb. It’s a 7200rpm with 8mb cache. C drive is no faster than this backup drive. Would you still recommend using the b/u drive as my scratch disk?
Monica
"Roy G" wrote in message

"Joe Pak" wrote in message

The above suggestion is excellent. You will get very accurate info on how many sticks of what size can be added.

For Photoshop and graphics programs the more RAM the better.
The other thing which can help speed, is installing a second HDD. This should be as fast, or faster, than the main one, and should be left empty and specified as the First Scratch Disc for Photoshop.

Graphics cards are not really important, until very recently I was running Photoshop without any problem on a 32mb Card.

Roy G

Hi.

Yes,

I would select your Back Up Drive as your
First Scratch Disc. Just make sure you Defragment it fairly often.
Make you Boot Drive your Second Scratch Disc.

Did you try the Crucial Site yet?

Roy G

—
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Welll, sounds to me like I CAN fill those other two slots with 1gb each, for a total of 3gb of system ram.
According to the Crucial site…..>>>Although the memory can be installed one module at a time, the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules.<<<
I’ll have a pair of 512 and a pair of 1gb sticks. My 512s are Non-parity DDR2 PC2-5100. Do I need to spend the extra $20 for DDR2-533 or would DDR2-400 do as well?
Thanks,
Monica

"Monica" wrote in message

Yes, I had been on the Crucial site earlier but decided to let it scan my system (vs calling India for tech support!).
Bummer…I had hoped for a 1GB stick but have 2 512s and 2 empty slots. Are
memory prices insane right now or
is this normal? I know it fluctuates but I haven’t priced this type of memory before. I’m guessing I can’t keep the 2 512s and buy one stick of 1gb for a total of 2, right? If so I’ll have to buy 2 1gb
sticks <sigh> Would be nice if I could buy 2gb (1gbx2) for a total of 3, keeping the 2 sticks of 512. Wishful thinking? 😮 "Roy G" wrote in message

"Monica" wrote in message

Roy, I have a second harddrive but it’s not empty. It’s my backup drive that has 124gb FREE out of 149gb. It’s a 7200rpm with 8mb cache. C drive is no faster than this backup drive. Would you still recommend using the b/u drive as my scratch disk?
Monica
"Roy G" wrote in message

"Joe Pak" wrote in message

The above suggestion is excellent. You will get very accurate info on how many sticks of what size can be added.

For Photoshop and graphics programs the more RAM the better.
The other thing which can help speed, is installing a second HDD. This should be as fast, or faster, than the main one, and should be left empty and specified as the First Scratch Disc for Photoshop.

Graphics cards are not really important, until very recently I was running Photoshop without any problem on a 32mb Card.

Roy G

Hi.

Yes,

I would select your Back Up Drive as your
First Scratch Disc. Just make sure you Defragment it fairly often.
Make you Boot Drive your Second Scratch Disc.

Did you try the Crucial Site yet?

Roy G

—
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

—
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Monica" wrote in message

Welll, sounds to me like I CAN fill those other two slots with 1gb each, for a total of 3gb of system ram.
According to the Crucial site…..>>>Although the memory can be installed one module at a time, the best performance comes from using matched pairs of modules.<<<
I’ll have a pair of 512 and a pair of 1gb sticks. My 512s are Non-parity DDR2 PC2-5100. Do I need to spend the extra $20 for DDR2-533 or would DDR2-400 do as well?
Thanks,
Monica

"Monica" wrote in message

Yes, I had been on the Crucial site earlier but decided to let it scan my system (vs calling India for tech support!).
Bummer…I had hoped for a 1GB stick but have 2 512s and 2 empty slots. Are
memory prices insane right now or
is this normal? I know it fluctuates but I haven’t priced this type of memory before. I’m guessing I can’t keep the 2 512s and buy one stick of 1gb for a total of 2, right? If so I’ll have to buy 2 1gb
sticks <sigh> Would be nice if I could buy 2gb (1gbx2) for a total of 3, keeping the 2 sticks of 512. Wishful thinking? 😮

Hi.

Yes, it is a bit of a dilemma. It always is.

You can just add the 1 x 1 Gig stick into one of the empty slots. Giving a total of 2 Gig

It would be better, and faster, if you added 2 x 1Gig and ended up with total of 3 Gig. Which is balanced, and is actually what I have.

I don’t know enough about the various kinds of DDR2 RAM to be able to advise on whether you should go for the 400s or 533s. When I used that scan of my system, I only got a choice between 512Mb and 1 Gig sticks. There were no options about speeds, but I would be inclined to go for the faster ones.

RAM prices do swing around quite a bit, and suppliers Prices go up and down depending on when you look. Over the years I have found that early summer seems to be the cheapest time to buy.

Once you know the specifications of the RAM you need, you can shop around looking for better prices, but you do need to be sure you are not going to be ripped off.

You are happy enough about inserting it yourself?

Just remember to switch off at the wall, but keep the power cable plugged in, so that the case remains connected to ground. Then touch a bare metal part of the case, so that you clear any static from yourself or your clothes, before pushing the chips in.

Roy G

"Monica"

I’ll have a pair of 512 and a pair of 1gb sticks. My 512s are Non-parity DDR2 PC2-5100. Do I need to spend the extra $20 for DDR2-533 or would DDR2-400 do as well?

If it were my machine, I’d buy the DDR2-533 just in case. Two 1 GB sticks would work just fine, as suggested by others.

Roy, I have a second harddrive but it’s not empty. It’s my backup drive
that has 124gb FREE out of 149gb. It’s a 7200rpm with 8mb cache. C drive is no faster than this backup drive. Would you still recommend using the b/u drive as my scratch disk?

Yes, set a drive OTHER than your work drive as your scratch disk. A 7200 rpm drive with 8mb cache should be fine.

You could test the difference for yourself, before and after you change the scratch disk, if you like.