Losing my memory

I don't know why, but I've been upgrading a lot of desktops recently with additional memory. In fact I've almost run out and that is after ordering replacement parts. As soon as I get them, I sell them.

It's difficult to know what to stock. That means what to carry around with me. Speeds and capacities vary so much and often you need to add pairs of exactly similar manufacturer and specification to make sure that dual channel performance is maintained. I don't want to buy large quantities of memory parts 'just in case', especially as I leave them in my car boot overnight. However PC3200 DDR2 512Mb is useful to have enough of, and PC4200 512Mb can be used as a substitute for most Windows XP systems that are upgrading from 512Mb total capacity to 1Gb. You can then take out the original pair of 256Mb strips and use them to upgrade the next one.

I had problems with a DELL Dimension 5000 the other day which needed to be increased from 512Mb to 1Gb only I didn't have any PC3200 or PC4200 memory at all. I tried replacing what was in there with PC5300, both a pair of 512Mb and a single 1Gb. The pair didn't want to work at all, it just beeped and the single strip booted but subsequently crashed when the Windows desktop screen was almost finished displaying. Eventually I managed to recover two PC3200 256Mb strips from a DELL Dimension 5100 that I had in the workshop and that worked perfectly. Job done!

When I looked on the Crucial website (where I buy most of my memory) it said that upto PC6400 was OK in the Dimension 5100. Sure enough, two PC6400 1Gb strips were installed and worked fine. Just what I needed anyway for the Windows Vista upgrade. Strange that two systems with a similar specification and chipset should behave so differently. Probably different motherboards.