Memory

Hello. I have a new Compaq Presario SR2010NX with AMD Sempron Processor 3400+. 512 MB of PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM memory. I run a lot of large photo processing programs, and it seems to slow my computer way down. I talked with Office Depot, and they said get 1Gx2/CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-6400 R, which I did. My brother just told me that my PC may not be able to handle that much memory. What's your opinion? I have no idea what I am doing. :cry

 

What kind of photo processing software are we talking about? Do you mean editing software as in photoshop, etc. or something else?

as far as the RAM goes; so long as you're sure to get a speed that is supported by your mother board you should be fine with up to 4 GB of ram.

 

Yes, I have photoshop and a few other little ones. Photoshop 5 says that it requires 512 mb of ram . . . but does it use it all at once? Since that is all I have, and my PC seems to run photoshop and photoelements 3 slowly, I thought more ram would help. Thank you so much for responding! So you think it will be okay to add the 2 gigs of ram? But I should take out the 512 first, right?

 

it'll be fine to add the 2gb of ram, and yeah you'll probably have to remove the other 512mb unless your motherboard has enough slots to leave it in. Photoshop and elements are both resource hogs, the additional ram should go a long way toward improving you pc's performance.

If your pc is using onboard video then it's devoting some of your system RAM to process video data so your 512mb may have been more like 384mb. You may consider picking up a low end video card to free up that extra bit if ram that's being diverted, but with 2 gigs of ram at your disposal what your onboard card would need is just a drop in the bucket so an additional card isn't absolutely necessary.

Were you trying to run photoshop and elements at the same time? I only ask because even running a web browser while one of them is open can cause signifigant system lag when you've only got 512mb of ram, but like i said the 2gb of should clear that up, too.

 

No, I have not tried running photoshop and elements at the same time but plan to, and Photoshop works slowly enough on it's own, when I use the different formats, eg . . . editing, viewing groups, organizing, etc. I figure with them both running, the PC will take forever to move. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOU INPUT, and I feel much more comfortable about adding 2 gigs now. I don't think I have enough slots to install the 2 without taking out the 512, so I will take it out, if necessary. If I do have enough slots, would it hurt to keep the 512 in PLUS install the other 2 gigs? Thank you again!

 

If you keep the 512 in, you will slow the PC6400 1 GB modules to the speed of the 512MB. I say keep it as a spare if that's the way you're going. One question that I can't answer is if a PC6400 RAM would be overkill or not for your mobo/CPU combo. There are online stores where you plug in your mobo and the give you a list of approved RAM or your system name and model. Here's Kingston's.

 

Since this is a new computer it does have Windows Vista installed? Only checking just in case you got a "Clearance of old Win XP computers" kind of deal -- in which case I think XP won't be able to make use of 4 gigs of RAM. Otherwise, as long as your motherboard specs can handle the RAM you use you should be fine. Even if you have enough slots to use the old 512 meg module that can foul up things up. Again, check your computer/motherboard specs (or look at the Compaq website for info about mixing different types of RAM). 4 gigs should will likely be plenty and adding in your old stick is not likely to add any speed and more likely to slow everything down if it doesn't actually keep the new RAM from working properly at all.

 

Somewhere in the preferences you will find a way of controlling the number of undo levels. Reducing them will speed the program up, obviously at the expense of udoability.

Studio T

 

Thank you!

 

thank you . . . I will try that