Upgrading Gateway 500XL

rydin4life

New Member
I have a Gateway 500XL that is a few years old running XP. I put a extra 320 gig hd in it and have 512mb ram but I have an increasingly large amount of music and photos and thought about upgrading the ram. I started out with 256 when I bought it, added a 2nd 256 stick and now thought about replacing the one 256 stick with a 1gig stick for a total of 1.25 gigs. Any problems with this? iTunes and my MP3 Albums folder can take a little while to load so I figured this would help. I'll be getting a new computer in the next 1-2 years, but I figure a $20 ram investment would be a nice choice until I get there.
 
Most likely your systems limit is 1GB...you will need to check but I highly doubt the 500xl can take more.

You will wanna look at another 512mb @ 266 or possibly 333 ddr for a 512+512 total..
 
I only have two slots, and when I bought the second 256, I believe it was pc2700, but I'm not sure..that or 3200.

Yep..pc-2700 or 3200...

Assuming you can do 1GB, which I'm sure will be your max. I'd do 512mb + 512mb...Your not really gonna see a crazy diff, especailly if you just do 512+256 total..

pc-2700 or 3200 will work and both are gonna be dirt cheap..
 
I looked arund and found some saying 1gb and other 2gb...but most saying 1gig max. If I grab a 512 stick and replace one of the 256, is that a good move, or should I replace both 256's? Or is either one a waste of money in your opinion?
 
I looked arund and found some saying 1gb and other 2gb...but most saying 1gig max. If I grab a 512 stick and replace one of the 256, is that a good move, or should I replace both 256's? Or is either one a waste of money in your opinion?

Honestly, at the end of the day...I would not upgrade at all..

I would wait and put my money into a new build. Even if you build a basic pc with ddr2. you will be worlds ahead,

But,,if you wanna I would say swap out both chips.
 
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