Extra RAM and a few other bits

The Black Oil

Recently, I've been helping out in a school trying to get some PCs sorted to work on interactive boards. It's been a fair amount of work which I don't mind, but we've run into some snags along the way. Some machines are donated, though wiped (with just XP) and they're a little on the slow side. I suspect the main problem is RAM as some of the machines are only on 512MB. The PC in classrooms with interactive board only need basic stuff: XP, WMP, VLC, Office 2007, IE, anti-virus, a DVD drive and the interactive board software...so they don't need educational games, etc.

We also need extra VGA cables, a few more DVD drives and video/audio splitters for being able to have a monitor and the board on at the same time (or not), i.e., to support dual view. We got DVD drives from this crowd before and they're fine, but aside from going online, decent batches of RAM are hard to come by. Part of the problem is we've 5 or 6 different generations of machines (all XP) and the RAM requirements vary a little. I don't have the list in front of me, but I can post it tomorrow. I think it's mostly DDR. One or two of the machines seem a little ropey and I've had to replace the CMOS batteries in two HP ones and they don't always recognise the USB port that supports the interactive board. Sometimes a restart helps and there's an update from Promethean who make the board software. Not sure if the USB glitches are a sign of further trouble. The PCs are slimline HPs & Compaqs, RM and Dell. I think the Dells are the only one that don't quite specify what sort of RAM it is, just Kingston 123456 or something, no type, but there's probably a way of matching it to the motherboard.

If I recall correctly, we need some PC133, other types include PC3200 DDR, PC2700 DDR and other variations of that I can't remember just now. I know some might say 266Mhz/400Mhz and if the motherboard can't support that it will drop down to whatever it can run...I think. If it's DDR, do you need the exact type - could you run PC2700 in a machine that currently has PC3200 or would it throw a hissyfit?

Where is the best place to buy RAM? I've used Crucial in the past for my own home computer (Macs) and that's worked out fine. I'm a little hesitant to order again due to there being a variety of types needed in this case. I don't want to end up with a stack of stuff that only works in half of the machines. The likes of Amazon have RAM, but I don't know if they'll send it here. The principal has some contacts, but they can be quite pricey. Ideally we'd be looking for 512 MB - 1GB sticks to make it worthwhile. We can get some 256MB sticks from the recycling crowd linked above, but higher capacity would be preferable.