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Upgrading Query

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  • 18-01-2009 12:23pm
    #1
    Noviceman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 176 ✭✭


    Hi,

    A friend of mine has asked me for some advice and I wanted it to run it by you guys. He has an old Dell PC with running Windows 2000, don't know exact spec, but it has 125 MB RAM and I think something like 1.39 GHz processor speed. I told him I could get 1 GB RAM for approx 30 euro, so he told me get 2 GB RAM and put it in.

    My query is will this suffice? Will it really speed up the PC, or will the processor speed keep the machine slow? It crawls at the moment, all he wants is to be able to surf the net and some word processing, very minor stuff. Would it be worth his while getting a new PC with a new OS, I mean will windows 2000 be supported for much longer or be a viable platform.

    Any thoughts\ideas much appreciated. He's talking 60 euro to upgrade RAM as opposed to few hundred for new PC.

    One final question, I've never replaced RAM before, is it just a case of taking out existing card and putting in two new cards, does PC do rest of work?


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    #2
    ethernet
    Registered Users Posts: 3,568 ✭✭✭ethernet


    Wait a minute! Make sure that motherboard can actually take 2 GB of RAM. To be honest, I can't see Win2k utilising that much RAM. Threw 512 MB into a similar spec machine a few months ago and it's chucking along fine. It might be a better idea to do a clean install as well as throwing in more RAM.

    Installing the RAM is very easy. Just give yourself plenty light and make sure thing line up (the little indentation in the stick of RAM) before pushing into place. PC should pick it up just fine. Right click on My Computer and choose Properties and you should see how much you put in.


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    #3
    Noviceman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 176 ✭✭Noviceman


    I suggested to him to put in 1 GB as I thought the same as you, that 2GB would just be a waste, how would I find out what motherboard could handle? I mean there's two slots, so presumably I could put 1 GB cards in each slot


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    #4
    ethernet
    Registered Users Posts: 3,568 ✭✭✭ethernet


    Try using a site like crucial.com. Enter the machine brand and model and it'll tell you all you need.


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    #5
    TerrorFirmer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 29,930 ✭✭✭✭TerrorFirmer


    2GB ram would be ridiculous for that setup really. 512mb would be fine, a massive improvement and more then enough for browsing the web and using MS Word. The CPU sounds perfectly fine also for those tasks. Make sure to also install AVG and Spybot if he doesn't already have them or the equivalent programs, to make sure the machine is running optimal. You might also look at getting a cheap copy of XP along with the ram, but that's not a priority. I doubt the motherboard supports 2gb of ram in any case, but you can find out by using a program like CPU-Z to get the motherboard model number and throw it into google.


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