What brand of RAM for a Dell upgrade?

[PizzatheHut06]

My parents are complaining of a slow computer, and have a Dell Dimension with 256 MB of PC2700. I looked on the Dell website, and they want to charge WAAAAY too much for another stick of 256 MB that could be purchased from newegg or zipzoomfly. My question is what brand of RAM would work with whatever is in there now? I checked on Dell's website, and they list the RAM as their own brand, but I didn't know they manufactured any. To make a short story long, what brand would be good to use with the upgrade and would work with what is in there now? Kingston, Corsair, Crucial? Thanks for the help.

 

[Blackmoore]

If you go to www.Crucial.com you can look up your Dell PC, and it should scan your system, and pick out the ram thats compatible with your system. But once you find out whats in there and what you can add, you can think about going with a different supplier. I think ram is ram is ram, I don't think their is such thing as proprietary ram. I also really don't think your parents are going to notice if you don't buy the most expensive ram out. I mean they don't need Corsair XMS. The Kingston Value Ram I have in my system is working perfectly and I picked up 512Mb for $70 I think.

 

[Nubius]

The Kingston Value Ram I have in my system is working perfectly and I picked up 512Mb for $70 I think.

yup that's how much I paid for mine. Like he said the XMS and HyperX is only for OC'ing enthusiasts mainly...we're talking nanoseconds faster on the XMS series and such so nothing noticeable really. Have you formatted recently and cleaned out all the garbage, spyware all that good stuff. defrag even?

 

[PizzatheHut06]

Nope. I downloaded spy sweeper for them, but everytime I go home I see the last time it was scanned was when I was there, hahaha. I plan on doing that, but I think they need more RAM because my sister leaves AIM, Kazaa, and whatever else running on her profile all the time, which with 256 MB of RAM and Windows XP is not a good thing.

 

[lazerman]

Sounds like you will need more then another stick of 256. OCZ imo makes the best quality ram, but I have never had any problems with my Crucial ram either. I have heard bad things about Kingston Value Ram so stay away from that.

 

[lazerman]

Also, if you were to get OCZ performance ram (roughly $100 for 512mb) you wouldn't need your stick of whatever's in there right now. That stuff would be kick ass in a dell system. I just need to know what speed of memory it is. Download aida32 from here- http://majorgeeks.com/downloadget.php?id=181&file=11&evp=e292483f0de3e518ff57fb57cf6eb944

When thats down downloading find the aida32.exe in the archive and run it, you should be able to find everything about your computer with that.

 

[PizzatheHut06]

I won't be able to check on the computer using cpu-z or something like that until this weekend, but my mom looked and the RAM is PC2700, 256 MB, upgradable to 1 GB. I think I'm going to get another stick of 256 MB of Corsair Value Select. I've had good luck with my Corsair, so I think it should be ok. What do you guys think?

 

[lazerman]

That will work too.

 

[ShoobieRat]

If you own a D3LL, go to D3LL's website. They have a wonderful little RAM selector thingy for telling what RAM will work with the model of PC you bought.

 

[SNiPeRViRuS]

um... he just said that dells site has only ram of their own brand