My PIII, RAM upgrade!?

Hello fellow geeks,

I have an old P3 that runs pretty decently and is quite stable, I take good care of it and make sure its clean and properly set. I have not purchased a new PC in over 6 years (due to a tight budget and a 5 months old kid that eats up the budget ) ... I was wondering if I could upgrade the memory a little bit so my computer gets sharper.

I've heard that the service pack 2 on WIN XP could be eating a lot of my ressources, I wonder if it's true? I have 2 X 128MB (pc133) memory sticks and I was thinking of upgrading to 2 X 256MB (pc133) sticks. In your humble opinion, would this help in any way.

I looked a bit on ebay for used ones and I can't decide if i'll spend the money on that or save up to eventually buy a new PC within a year or two.

I just want to hear about your opinions,
thanks a lot for your time.

cheers,
Vince

 

yep , you will see a big difference with anothers 256 megs and that's pretty cheap around $50.00. i did have only 256 before now with 512 megs.

And i see you live where my ship crash a few years agos

 

I'd say go for the RAM upgrade only if you can get it for very cheap. It will noticeably help, especially since you are running XP SP2.

Otherwise, save up a little bit. A nice computer these days is not too expensive

 

Thx a lot for the suggestions guys, I will keep on shopping for the right price.

I was also wondering:

1- Is there a problem with mixing 128MB bars with 256MB ones?

2- What exactly is the difference between double-sided and single-sided bars, can we mix them?

3- Is it preferable to buy memory sticks from the same manufacturer (not mix too much)?

thanks again,
V

 

mixing 128 and 256 is not an issue, but i'm wondering how many DIMM slots you have for RAM.

certain boards wont use single sided RAM, but i'll have to check on yours, whats the Gigabyte model #? i wouldnt think mixing them is a good idea.

staying consistent with the brand is less important that getting the same speed and memory timings, as we're talking about pc133 sdram

 

I can send you a 512pc133 stick if ya want

 

really!? I'd be more then happy to take it ... unless your just kidding me.

 

-I have 3 DIMM slots
-My gigabyte board model # is: GA-6VXE7+

Thanks again for the replies!
V

 

PM me your details.

 

Just to be clear, by that, I don't mean you would send it to me for free... you know.

 

Your mother board can support this:

Memory

1. 8MB to 1.5GB SDRAM size
2. 3 x 3.3V DIMM sockets
3. Supports 8/16/32/64/128/512 MB SDRAM DIMM module
4. Supports ECC type DIMM module (72bits)

http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-6VXE7+.htm