RAM for Dell Mobo's? Is "Dell" RAM special in anyway?

J_D

J_D

New Member
Hi all

My bro wants to upgrade is Dell Desktop which is:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_5150?c=us&cs=28&l=en&s=dfb

In short the dell motherboard has 2 banks of 2 memory slots, currently 2 512MB sticks are installed in dual channel leaving 2 free, the maximum RAM capacity is 4GB for this particular Dell, I've advised my bro to buy 2 1GB sticks to bring his comp to a total of 3Gb as any higher wont bear any improvement and anyway a 32Bit computer can't address the whole 4GB's due to other address locations else were in the system

Anyway here's the problem, do we have to buy from dell for the memory to work. I've heard all sorts, e.g. that the socket size on a dell motherboard is slightly different to prevent you from installing generic ram of the correct type.

Dell's upgrade site points to this http://accessories.euro.dell.com/sn...n&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&sku=A1476351&mfgpid=1226076

which doesn't seem to tell me much about what type it is.
Crucial Point me to a pair of 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-4200 memory and are about £13 cheaper, But would that work.

and also what is the difference between
DDR2 PC2-4200 RAM
and
DDR2 PC-4200 RAM?
My normal computer parts supplier has the later listed, and was wondering if there is a difference between the PC2 and PC

Cheers
 
The computer manufacturers use their own numbering scheme with RAM to protect the price they sell it for. If Crucial is pointing you to a specific model, I would tend to trust their recommendation as they are the premier manufacturer.
 
which doesn't seem to tell me much about what type it is.
Crucial Point me to a pair of 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-4200
Click to expand...
That is the correct type of memory. PC2-4200 is 533MHz RAM. Dell is trying to sell you 667MHz DDR2 (aka PC2-5200 or PC2-5300) which would work as well.
 
Excellent thank you, Well crucial are much better value than dell so I think we shall be going with them.

However out of interest some stores list the RAM as PC-4200 instead of PC2-4200, all other specs are the same. Is there any difference or is it just a querk on the preference on the sellers part?
 
It should be just be the way the merchant lists the RAM. I usually just call it PC-4200 as well. As long as you buy RAM that's 240pin DDR2 it's fine. :)
 
Does Dell overprice their RAM modules? You may want to look around at other merchants for DDR2 240-pin RAM and compare prices.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top