Upgrading Memory in my kid's Dell Dimension 4600

[Cebby]

I've got a PC for my kids that is a bit light on memory. (256mb RAM to be exact) It's a few years old.

My understanding was that memory was dirt cheap now, but on Dell's site, they want $50/1gb chip (must do in pairs)

I'm sure I don't need "Dell" memory, but am not sure what to buy. Can anyone guide me? (I used to know all this stuff, but have been away from desktops long enough that I'm back to n00b status on them)

[Cebby]

NM - found the Crucial Technology Site.

It's got some great tools to help you determine what you can put in your machine, max memory, etc.

[mYnAmEiSmUdD]

Nice find!

I have an old inspiron 3700 that is pretty much a friggen tank. Good to know i do not have to call dell to get information on it...

Thank you for the link!

[slosurfer]

Sweet! I've got a Dimension 4500 that I've got to see about getting more memory on.

[mYnAmEiSmUdD]

Heads up: That site has misinformation. Buyer beware...

Bought 2 sticks of pc133x256 mb. Laptop would not boot. Reinstalled old ram (pc100) and it fired up. I should have dug deeper to verify their information.

For future reference, find out what kind of North Bridge Chipset your motherboard has, go to the manufacturer's site (if available) and use that as a basis for any RAM upgrade.

Below is a link to the specs on my laptops chipset. 100 mhz system bus is maximum.

http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/440bx/index.htm

[CJM]

Depends on the model, if its RDram forget about it as its an insane cost... And always must be in matched pairs.

If its regular SD or DDR ram put anything you want in there, you can put stuff thats faster all it does in downclock. As for your problem mud, its probably the laptop bios holding you back. Cause you can go into it and make things work, but a laptop is always made by x company and they lock you out.

If what your saying is right how come my older 845 chipset is set to 333mhz but I have 400mhz in it? It automatatically downclocked it.

[mYnAmEiSmUdD]

Excuse me. Boot was not the correct term. The laptop wont even turn on, let alone get past a POST.

I didnt have the patience to fiddle with it. I didnt want someone doing the stupid thing i did. (trusting a website on a whim without cross reference) Hell i should know better.

[CJM]

Excuse me. Boot was not the correct term. The laptop wont even turn on, let alone get past a POST.

I didnt have the patience to fiddle with it. I didnt want someone doing the stupid thing i did. (trusting a website on a whim without cross reference) Hell i should know better.

Well if it wouldnt boot thats a big issue lol..

I never had the problem but laptops can be picky!

[tulsa_sr5]

even on the dell site there's a 'Tech Specs' tab that has all the info you need. It's an older style ram so it's more $ but not too bad. I like newegg for stuff like that,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...20x%20512MB%29

and CJM, RDRAM is freaking NUTS! My buddy almost ordered a gig from dell (luckily it was out of stock) several hundred bucks.

actually, had to go dig up the link just to verify,
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=A1166101

1 gig for $860

[CJM]

tulsa that stuff is insane, way back when I ordered a dell and had no idea thats what they used. Went to upgrade and found out it cost 300 bucks so I didnt bother. This of course was WAY back when and I my brother who took the thing bought 512 for that price.

What a waste that stuff is and always will be..

Course now I have an entire system with a LG775 prescott cored 3.4ghz thats worthless b/c the chip is busted. Let a lesson be learned, lightning hit the phone and cables lines and instead of rebuilding the pc like I should have with the insurance money I only fixed what I had to and now its a worthless bunch of junk. Try finding one of them cpus cheap!!!