Probably best to see what the specs are for the stick you have to make sure throughput is not compromised and bottlenecking between the two. But I'm fuzzy on that so I'll defer. [Reply]
Originally Posted by eDave:
Probably best to see what the specs are for the stick you have to make sure throughput is not compromised and bottlenecking between the two. But I'm fuzzy on that so I'll defer.
So I should remove the stick currently in the computer to look at all the specs?
I'll wait for tomorrow and anyone else's input here. [Reply]
16GB max, 2 slots. You don't need 16 so hopefully you just have one stick of 4 installed so we can just add one more for around $20.
Most likely it will have 2 identical sticks of RAM installed. So, you'll likely have to remove both if you want to add anything else. I would not recommend mixing different types of RAM. i3 motherboards typically use paired RAM(2 identical sticks), to take advantage of dual-channel capabilities(better performance). I'm guessing it has 2 sticks of 2GB installed. Normally you can use a single stick, but performance is actually better with a pair, since it can take advantage of dual-channel.
In this case, considering the price and the performance benefit of going from 8GB to 16GB, I would recommend going with 16GB.
Originally Posted by lewdog:
I have an older desktop I use a lot and when I updated it to Windows 10, it functions like it's in super slow mode a lot of the time, while other times it's fine in short periods.
I assume it doesn't have enough memory to run Windows 10?
Originally Posted by Fish:
Most likely it will have 2 identical sticks of RAM installed. So, you'll likely have to remove both if you want to add anything else. I would not recommend mixing different types of RAM. i3 motherboards typically use paired RAM(2 identical sticks), to take advantage of dual-channel capabilities(better performance). I'm guessing it has 2 sticks of 2GB installed. Normally you can use a single stick, but performance is actually better with a pair, since it can take advantage of dual-channel.
In this case, considering the price and the performance benefit of going from 8GB to 16GB, I would recommend going with 16GB.
There’s only 1 stick of RAM in it currently but has 2 slots available. So I should buy a pair and put 2 new ones in, instead of mixing the one old one and one new one? What size would you recommend? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
Most likely it will have 2 identical sticks of RAM installed. So, you'll likely have to remove both if you want to add anything else. I would not recommend mixing different types of RAM. i3 motherboards typically use paired RAM(2 identical sticks), to take advantage of dual-channel capabilities(better performance). I'm guessing it has 2 sticks of 2GB installed. Normally you can use a single stick, but performance is actually better with a pair, since it can take advantage of dual-channel.
In this case, considering the price and the performance benefit of going from 8GB to 16GB, I would recommend going with 16GB.
Originally Posted by lewdog:
That’s good enough for me.
Ordering!
Thank you all for the help.
16GB is a significant performance upgrade over what you have. Add an SSD like Gloy suggested and you might think it's a whole new computer. The i3 still has a few years left in it for basic computing. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
16GB is a significant performance upgrade over what you have. Add an SSD like Gloy suggested and you might think it's a whole new computer. The i3 still has a few years left in it for basic computing.