Economics of Additional RAM

Hi! I am pondering the advisability (from an economic perspective) of adding RAM to my computer, a Dell Dimension 8200 with Pentium 4 CPU running at 1.8 Gigahertz with 256 MB of RAM (running windows XP, SP3 operating system).

eBay shows 1Gig of RAM costing in the neighborhood of $50. Would that increase the (visible) processing speed of my computer enough to justify the expense; or would it be better to buy new and migrate my data? Also, in reviewing posts about RAM, I read there is a trading place on Major Geeks where it might be feasible to get the memory at a better price.

Rest assured that any response(s) that can help me make a better decision will be much appreciated. Thanks, and best regards. :wave

 

Hey zam, well, upgrading your RAM wont increase your processor speed at all, you would have to upgrade your CPU to increase that, but at only 256MB-RAM
You would definitely notice a difference when running more than one application or anything that is memory intensive, as you will be using whats know as a page file most of the time, which is your hard-drive being used as RAM, and the read-speed from RAM is many-many-many times faster than from the HDD.

So short answer: YES get more ram.

Forget ebay though, try looking for a couple of your local smaller computer shops online they usually all have websites and are better priced and typically quite helpfull.

Just as a guide point:
I could get a generic 1GB-RAM for about £15
[not too sure what that would be in dollars but i dot think it is any where near $50]

 

Ya, running XP on 256MB pretty well sucks, been there done that. As far as economics go, yes DDR RAM is expensive compared to DDR2, heck I have a machine which could use an extra GB!

What do you use your system for? I was quite satisfied with the speed until I got into multitasking. BTW, a RAM upgrade is always good especially considering what you currently have.

 

If your P4 is a socket 478, I have a good 2.8GHz (HT) CPU that is available if wanted.