Every day, you rely on your computer to make your life easier. A Crucial DRAM upgrade can help your system run faster, and it’s one of the easiest, most affordable ways to improve system performance. Reap the benefits doing everything from everyday system tasks to mission-critical applications. For over 12 years, Crucial has been recognized as a leader in DRAM upgrades. Our products help people achieve greater system performance through improved productivity, reliability, and speed. As part of one of the world’s largest DRAM manufacturers—Micron Technology—our long tenure of engineering and manufacturing expertise allow us to build high-quality, system-specific memory solutions for customers. We back our products by guaranteeing system compatibility, limited lifetime warranties, and outstanding service and support. At Crucial, we’re the Memory Experts.
$ 22.75
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Memory Review gone Wild…,
Crucial is a very good company who makes reliable, trustworthy RAM memory. This particular product performed great in my older Gateway workstation (motherboard uses a Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz Hyper Threading CPU). This RAM kit (I say kit because it comes with two identical 1GB sticks of RAM) runs at 533Mhz (667MHz capable) in my motherboard vs the 512MB of 400MHz RAM (2 sticks of 256MB … also 240 pin DDR2, of course) that was installed. I removed the slower RAM so that the system didn’t auto-adjust the speed and end up setting the new RAM in sync with the older, slower RAM (yes, two different speeds = slower speed used for all).. And yes, I have 4 DIMM slots (or 2 Dual Channels, meaning 2 SETS of RAM slots for identical pairs), even though 2 slots total is the standard. I then added an additional 1GB (2 x 512MB 667MHz DDR2 kit) of Kingston (ALSO very reputable) that I found used (in a kit) for a total of 3GB, which is close to the limit. Approximately 3.5GB is the limit in Windows, unless you’re using a 64 bit version of the operating system. This says nothing for Linux (and all it’s tasty flavors), which is a great operating system, lately… So even if I HAD 4GB memory, my (Windows) operating system would only recognize three and a half. With 3GB RAM, my system is running much smoother…
If all this confuses you, then I recommend going to crucial.com from the computer you intend to upgrade and find the Crucial Memory Advisor(tm) tool. Click on “scan your computer” at the bottom of the window that contains the advisor. And remember this:
1. There are different generations of DDR (or double data rate… the new standard) memory. There’s DDR1 (simply referred to as DDR), DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5 (I believe DDR4 and 5 are used primarily for high end video cards at this time – late 2010). Find out (for SURE) what generation of DDR RAM you are using, as the different generations are not compatible with each other. The memory stick would not fit in your machine..
2. Rather a memory stick be too fast, than too slow. example: 667Mhz memory installed on a motherboard that supports 533Mhz memory will auto adjust the memory to 533Mhz, and will work fine. But 533Mhz memory sticks designed for boards that desire 800MHz sticks means your memory will have to work above and beyond what it was intended for.. So even though they’re both (let’s say) DDR2, you could run into serious problems if your memory isn’t as fast as it needs to be.
3. Make sure the pin count is correct. DDR2 is a 240-pin module. DDR is a 184-pin module. Notebooks have 200-pin modules for DDR and DDR2, however the notch on DDR modules is in a slightly different position than that on DDR2 modules. Don’t buy mobile (laptop) memory, if you need memory for a desktop, and visa versa. Mobile memory example: PC2-6400 DDR2 SO-DIMM (for notebooks)
4. If “kits” and “dual-channel” confuse you, then you should probably buy kits (kits are identical pairs). If your computer NEEDs dual channel memory (a FEATURE), and doesn’t receive it, it probably won’t run. But if your computer will run memory that is not identical, then the kit will not hurt anyway. Make sense?
5. I believe most home computers use non-ECC (error correction checking). unbuffered memory, because it is much more cost effective. Servers use ECC, buffered, because it’s mission critical.
6. “What’s this PC2-5300 stuff?” … without a long explanation, just divide the last number by 8 to find out the actual speed of the RAM. Multiply the speed by 8 to find the bandwidth (in MB per second). Some shops display only bandwidth, and others only speed. Hence, PC2-5300 is DDR2 667MHz (give or take a few MHz, which is allowed). Likewise PC3-10600 would be DDR3 1333MHz (even though it comes out to 1325MHz…) Make sense?
If, after all this, you still have reservations, then I would recommend letting your local computer geek (like myself, were I in your neighborhood) have a look at your machine. A RAM memory upgrade is actually a relatively simple process, to someone who follows computer technology on a regular basis (and preferably worked with more than just one machine).
Wow. My review turned into an instruction manual…
Good luck.
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|Cheap to buy, easy to install, noticable improvement..,
I ordered this because I was having file corruption issues and during the fix the tech told me my machine was running way too slow – a virtually new Dell running Vista with 1GB RAM. Supposedly Vista only requires 512MB but the tech laughed and said it eats 1GB routinely. So I ordered up the 2GB Crucial chipset. They slid right in, the computer recognized them, and we were off to the races. Much, much better. Web pages fill 3x faster, multitasking programs snap back and forth with authority and (I swear) I lost a couple of extra pounds and some of my hair grew back in. Amazing. It still takes too long to boot Vista, but throwing another 2 gigs at Vista is like hooking up 2 more tugboats to the Titanic. It helps, but not much. Not a total fix, but much recommended.
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|Exactly What I Ordered,
I just ordered two of these sets, and both came as advertised. Each package contained two memory cards at 1gb each. And together, they work exactly as you would expect 4gb of memory to work.
I felt I had to leave this review so that people aren’t put off by the previous reviewer who claims to have ordered this product and received only one card.
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