Upgrade memory advice please

[diamond]

Hi, I have a dell xps 720 , and will be going to windows 7 64bit Operating system some time soon . I also need to upgrade my ram . Would I be able to use 3 x 2gb sticks in my 4 slots ? Or should I fill the 4 slots up ?

I have read it may cause instability . Any ideas ?

[burningforce]

It may run with 3xDDR2 2GB dimms, but it will be restricted to single channel and run at the lowest rated memory module.

your motherboard allows you to install a total of 8GB of memory which would occupy all 4 dimm slots on the motherboard. so you can go 2x2GB of either DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz or DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz.

also make sure the memory you are buying are great overclocking ram so if you ever decide to overclock. the reason being, when you overclock the cpu, the memory will overclock as well because they are connected on the motherboard. So you can not overclock a cpu without overclocking the memory. I think it is different now with the newer cpus like the i7, but for your computer, the memory remains connected to the cpu.

Keep in mind that this is a prebuilt computer that is built to factory standards to allow all the hardware it has to be error free for the consumer. So if you slap some high rated DDR2 dimms in there or even dimms at the rated 800MHz, it may not boot or work properly in windows(i.e. bluescreen, crashes,etc)

Sorry for the long answer lol

I would just fill the 4 slots if you have the dough. Also keep in mind you should not mix and match different speeds and vendors for memory. Each set of memory modules can be different like latency settings or speeds. So if you are going to buy 4 2GB memory modules, make sure they are the same matching sets from the same vendor.

[diamond]

Thanks for reply Regarding the memory what difference does it make if I use new DDR2-800 memory instead of the DDR2-667 ? I checked the Dell website and it stated both are compatible for the xps 720.

The pc came with DDR2-667 ( 3x 1GB ). I would rather fill the 4 slots up to 8 GB so just need to know which of the above two memory stick types to get.

[burningforce]

well it "may" be faster to use ddr-800 then the current memory you have now. Most likely the memory that came with the computer was used for compadibility rather then speed in mind. So you may see a small or a good increase in performance using quality gaming memory.

And I am not sure if my motherboard and memory and just picky with each other, but I am having a hell of a time running with 8GB total memory in the 4 slots on the motherboard.

I am usually adjusting the timings of the memory every other day to different values to windows stable. Still I can not get them working properly together

according to gigabyte motherboard forums, they say the gskill memory is defective, I go to the gskill memory forums and they say the motherboard is defective lol. So I was getting bounced around from these two vendors.

So I would do some research on your motherboard/motherboard chipset and go to good tech sites/forums and see what memory users have got running on that board before you pull the trigger on a purchase

here are some good tech sites I frequent"

Hardware reviews, Overclocking, Tech News and Enthusiast Community Homepage - Overclockers Club

[H]ard|OCP - HardOCP Computer Hardware Reviews and News

Overclockers: The Performance Computing Community

Tom's Hardware: Hardware News, Tests and Reviews

JonnyGURU.com - Seasonic X-750 750W Review - a godsend for finding decent performing power supplies

X-bit labs: PC Hardware News, Reviews and Benchmarks

and here is a nice free tool to see what hardware you have on your computer

Speccy - System Information - Free Download *NOTE* these free tools are free and virus free, but there is an option to install yahoo/google toolbars for your browser(s). This is a OPTIONAL INSTALL. I personally hate these things seeing as how they can mess up your browser and or O'S install and can be difficult to uninstall everything, so just a warning ahead of time.

[diamond]

Thanks for reply . I heard a few things about trying to run the 8gb in the 4 slots , thats why I thought I best ask , as I dont regard myself very PC minded.

I shall take a look over the next few days then report back Anymore advice please post here

[jasikapetro]

I would suggest you start considering a new build though. The LGA775 socket (the one that Core 2 CPUs use) is a dead socket. You're also certainly using older RAM (DDR2). You're likely to get a year or two more out of the build with a new GPU, but a new build is definitely in the near future for you.