RAM Upgrade Advice

Yeah.

I’m just trying to wrap my head around one thing—what are the actual odds that this RAM ends up being a complete dud? Can anyone here take a look at my setup and give me an honest assessment? Please, I really need some eyes on this.
I’m honestly terrified of just throwing my money down the drain by ordering this online without knowing for sure if it'll even work. I really don't want to get burned here, so please, help a guy out.

It should work—honestly, nobody can tell you with 100% certainty unless they’re sitting right there with the exact same motherboard and that specific RAM kit in front of them.

Hey everyone... I’m definitely not some hardware guru, so I figured it would be much safer to pick your brains first rather than risking a bad purchase and wasting my money...

Right now, I'm running on 2 GB of RAM (a 1GB stick plus another 1GB), but it's just not cutting it anymore, so I'm looking to add another 2 GB to the mix. Is it actually better to grab two separate 1GB sticks, or should I just go for one single 2GB module? I was wondering if there's any real performance difference, or if that 2GB stick might somehow struggle to play nice with the 1GB ones I already have installed...
I'd really appreciate it if you could point me toward the right choice... my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H.

Thanks so much!

Honestly, it doesn't really matter. If you grab two more 1GB sticks, you'll get dual channel mode, which might be a tiny bit faster, but you probably won't even notice the difference. Just pick up whatever DDR2 you can find. What are you running right now? It’s better if they're from the same manufacturer, but it's not a dealbreaker.

fadedorca66 said:I suspect your motherboard doesn't actually support dual channel memory. So, while you could technically grab another 1GB, the issue is that the new 1GB stick and your current 512MB one maybe won't play nice together. Honestly, your best bet is probably just getting two 1GB modules so you don't have to worry about it. That should run you about $133

Hey man, I had a question since I think you know your stuff...

I'm running an AMD Athlon 1700 XP processor, and right now I have two slots for SDDDR RAM, but next to those, there are also two more slots. I tried to see if some old SD RAM from a different computer would fit

Is that even possible? I'm honestly not sure if I should try putting two 512MB sticks in the first two slots and then these two 128MB SD RAM sticks in the others. I'm wondering if a motherboard like that even exists, and more importantly, is it safe? I don't want to fry everything by trying to mix DDR1 and SD sticks. Please, let me know...

You can't run both at the same time—it’s one or the other. You're looking at either DDR or SDRAM, nothing in between.

Is it just me, or has DDR3 RAM become significantly more expensive compared to how things were six months or even a year ago? I haven't been keeping a super close eye on the market lately, but it definitely feels like prices have climbed. I recently stumbled upon some articles discussing certain "issues" regarding RAM modules, so I'm wondering if that's driving the cost up or if I'm just completely losing my mind here 🤷

Yeah, they've jumped by about 100% compared to last year, mostly because of those floods hitting the factories...

wiredgull80 said:Is it just me, or has DDR3 RAM gotten more expensive compared to six months or a year ago? I haven't been tracking it closely lately, but prices seem higher. I recently read something about "issues" regarding RAM modules, so I'm wondering if that's the cause or if I'm just totally off base. 🤷

I'm actually looking at it right now—back in late 2012, 1x8GB $100 at Best Buy or even high-end retailers like Micro Center was roughly the same as it was during the IT Future era.
CORSAIR DDR3 (8GB, 1600MHz, Unbuffered) CL11
$35.00
but now it's $70-$$200
Back when we were suggesting builds, nobody even gave RAM a second thought; 8GB was just the default. Nowadays, you actually have to weigh your options if you want anything decent.

The only thing that’s actually become cheaper since then is the HDD—for example, a 1TB drive is almost $33 cheap, and of course, graphics cards have dropped significantly. Everything else is pretty much where it was. It's interesting because back then, drives were pricey due to similar nonsense in Asia (floods and stuff).

Also, right before the new ATI GPUs launched recently, prices had dropped massively—for instance, the cheapest HD7770 was around $223, while the 7790 was over $110, but after that, prices jumped back up by $50-$$33. I'm guessing they'll drop back down to those levels again for Christmas.

I'm just gonna sit tight and wait for those GTX 700 series prices to finally dip. If I play my cards right, I might be able to snag an NVIDIA GTX 760 TF OC once they get cheap enough. 😁

Prices have already dropped by about $133 since the summer, and I'm sure we'll see even more minor dips before the year is out.

But honestly, an NVIDIA GTX 760 just isn't worth picking up while there are still these available at that price point; the difference just isn't worth the extra cash.

In just a few months, we're finally going to see the NVIDIA Maxwell series hit the shelves. There’s going to be a massive amount of hype among the hardcore gaming geeks, which is great news for us because it means prices on the 700 series should finally start dropping.

Hey there.

I’ve got a question and I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction...

I'm looking to pick up some more RAM. My rig is running on DDR3, so I'm wondering if there's anything else I need to sweat, like motherboard compatibility or any other weird quirks that might stop new sticks from working properly.

Right now, I'm sitting at 2GB of RAM, and I pulled up CPU-Z which shows my DRAM frequency at 399.0 MHz. Is that actually correct?

I didn't want to go digging through this entire thread from the very beginning because honestly, I'd just end up more confused than when I started. I figured it's better to let someone who actually knows their stuff explain it to me rather than me trying to act like I know what I'm doing.

Check CPU-Z to see which motherboard you're actually running and let us know.

If it's sitting at 399MHz, that's probably DDR2, not DDR3.

Manufacturer: Intel
model: DG41BI AAE82430-100
chipset: Intel G41 Rev: A3
bridge: Intel 82801
LPCIO Fintek F71858DG

I figured I’d just dump all this info here since I wasn't exactly sure what else you guys needed to see. ^^

True, you're running DDR3. If there’s an open slot, you might as well grab another 2 or 4GB. Any random stick would probably work, I guess, but if you can find the same brand just to be safe, why not? You can always double-check the brand using CPU-Z

My new RAM finally showed up: http://diskont24.com/product.php?pro...cat=379&page=1

But when I tried to actually seat it in the machine, the damn thing started beeping at me like crazy
So naturally, I went ahead and ordered a different stick

Is this some kind of compatibility nightmare or am I looking at a power delivery issue for the memory?

See, my old stick runs at 1.5V, but this new one is rated for 1.65V

And before anyone starts, please don't come at me telling me I screwed everything up and that this new RAM is basically paperweight now 🙂

Look, you should probably jump into the BIOS and try setting the memory clock down to 400 MHz—since you're running a lower clock speed, it shouldn't be demanding quite so much voltage, so there's a chance it might actually stabilize. Your motherboard supports 1066 MHz, but you went out and grabbed 1600 MHz, plus your voltage settings are totally off. Honestly, just try to swap it out for a different stick. If that doesn't do the trick, you could always try this one—it'll run fine at 1.5V: http://diskont24.com/product.php?pro...cat=379&page=1

Hey, could you please recommend some 4GB sticks that actually worked on my motherboard?