Buying RAM today, information needed.

So I am finally going to get some more RAM for this computer. The plan is to ditch the two 256MB sticks I already have an upgrade to two 1GB sticks. But before I do this, I have some questions I hope to have clarified by those, in the know.

This is my newest computer, obviously, and things have changed since last time I upgraded parts, and also, this machine uses notebook/labtop parts, so I am further in the dark on the issue.

The machine is the, the Shutle M1000 Windows Media Center. I got it with a 1.7ghz Intel Pentium M as I planned to upgrade it later on the cheap, and it came with just 512MB RAM, which frankly, is not enough for WMCE.

http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2568&p=2

Here is the chipset it uses...

http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/915pm/

And for memory I was thinking of getting one of these two below...

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Kingston-Technologies-1GB-DDR-SODIMM-Notebook-Memory-KVR333SO1GR-/sem/rpsm/oid/143693/catOid/-12995/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Kingston-Technologies-1GB-DDR2-SDRAM-Notebook-Memory-KVR533D2SO-1GR-/sem/rpsm/oid/131002/catOid/-12995/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

The price difference between the two is nearly $100.00 so is it worth it? Are we talking a difference of 5 FPS here or 10FPS? Will Windows load 15 or 30 seconds faster? I hear DDR-2 has higher latency than DDR-1, so which is better for SL, tranfer speed or latency? And finally, WILL IT WORK, these sticks, that is in my PC. I think it will, if I read the information right...

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Oh and if anyone cares to drop some info on me as to what processor I can upgrade to, if Intel still makes processors for this chipset, etc etc, that would be great.

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Thanks a bunch to those who help.

You cant use the 2nd link on your computer, it would have to be the 1st, DDR2 is for a completley different motherboard. As for a FPS increase, until you reach over 512 MB of ram being used, you arent not going to notice much of a difference in FPS, SL alone can use up around 800 megs in a crowded room but for the most part a FPS change will be small until you do so. A new processor will make the biggest difference since SL is very depent upon it.

Buy cheaper ram, since you will be using it for SL and that uses mostly just cpu anyway.

2 gig ram for SL helps a ton no more harddrive grind ~.~

cheaper high preformance ram = crucial.com

As for a processor, that all depends on your price range,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819111172

would be an upgrade

and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819111173

would be a more expensive upgrade, both will work with your motherboard.

This whole computer besides the video card is pretty much a laptop, in my opnion I would ditch this and get a full PC you would get more bang for your buck.

As for a processor, that all depends on your price range,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819111172

would be an upgrade

and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819111173

would be a more expensive upgrade, both will work with your motherboard.

This whole computer besides the video card is pretty much a laptop, in my opnion I would ditch this and get a full PC you would get more bang for your buck.
Just looking at the review of this PC the AMD 3000+ ( a $130 processor) clobbers yours, a cheap socket 939 system would be a better solution.

Confusingly, according to the Intel website, this motherboard supports DDR-2. Well the chipset does anyway, maybe that's not enough?



This is helpful, thanks. Can't do Dual core though eh? Even if they use the same socket, too bad.



This is not helpful, I'd prefer not to ditch a brand new computer, just like that. There is a reason I went with a PC with notebook parts, and desktop addon slots. I'll get a full tower, later, in addition to this machine, right now I want to focus on this computer.

As for the core duo, you would probably have to call up Shuttle for that and ask, there’s a good chance it is not compatible, but for most computers a simple bios update will work, your motherboard is not like a PC though. It cant hurt to ask and I dont wanna recommend you to get something that may not work. Please post back what response they give you. Antoher interesting thing, crucial.com says 184 pin ram is compatiable for this computer, I would ask Shuttle about that too, maybe somone fat fingered something.

Hmm, here are the specs from the PDF Manual on the shuttle website. The printed manual sadly has no such information.



And here are the specs from the website.



When this system was first being offered, those numbers changed alot, they seem to be pretty firm now. They're tech support isn't open for a couple hours yet for me to call in and ask.

Is there a way I can check the chipset via some software? I know about the Intel software to check the CPU (For what its worth the Intel software says I have a Intel Pentium M 740), but the motherboard?

The plot thickens, and the confusion now doubled lol. You can go to www.cpuid.com and download a program called CPU-Z its a very usefull tool and will give you just about any important hardware info you want.

http://www.zatzai.com/XPC-001.jpg

http://www.zatzai.com/XPC-002.jpg

http://www.zatzai.com/XPC-003.jpg

http://www.zatzai.com/XPC-004.jpg

http://www.zatzai.com/XPC-005.jpg

...

PC Wizard 2006 provided similar information.

You have DDR, not DDR2. So that's a certainty.

It sppears that you have two different sticks of RAM in there. One isn't at full speed for your system, so your memory bandwidth is being held back.

You want: 333MHz (PC2700) DDR

So that first stick you linked would work fine with your system.

Also, shop around, and check out Newegg. Kingston, Corsair, and Mushkin are all good manufacturers of RAM so I can reccomend any of them. As for high-end vs Value, it really isn't an issue unless you're overclocking, honestly. The value lines of RAM from these manufacturers all carry lifetime warranties, and still carry the quality that is expected from these manufacturers.

I believe you are referring to the SPD Timings Table, all that states is what the default settings for the ram is in what mode, in this case if it were to run in PC2100 or PC2700. This computer comes stock with 2 identical sticks of 256MB.

Hmm, ok well I am getting the DDR-1 sticks (Big cost difference, and low latency is good), I checked, and Circuit City's prices are fairly competetive, what with lack of shipping. And if I have a problem I can just walk into the store for a return, they've never given me any trouble in the past, unlike say, Fry's Electronics.

Now I just have to figure out what kind of processor I can eventually upgrade to... Hopefully something in the 2.5ghz range.

Let us know how it works out and what changes you see ZATZAi, I hope we were some help to you. At the moment the fastest one for your motherboard is the Intel Pentium M 780, it runs at 2.266 GHZ and costs $639 They might make something faster in the future unless Intel drops single cores and moves fully to dual. Best wishes on your upgrade and I hope your SL expierence gets better!

Indeed, I will let you guys know what sort of difference I see. Maybe take some quantifiable benchmarks from before and after so we can see how much of a difference the RAM upgrade really is.

They can't be identical since the SPD chips report different timings for each. When confronted with two different SPD responses, the system will run with the lowest common denominator. If you look at the stats of the system itself, it shows that it uses DDR333 (PC2700), so the 2100 stick is slowing the 2700 down.

Doesn't matter now since he's getting two sticks of 333, which is perfect for the system.

Honestly, I don't understand the whole SPD thing, software I know, but hardware, is not my specialty, only know enough to get by. I went back and checked the info on the page you're all talking about. Specifically, I checked to see if "slot 1" and "slot 2" were identical, which they were.

Not sure what that really means. I guess it means I have 2700 Ram, not 2100? Is that right, so this stuff I order is... faster than what I have now? Or the same?

I can always return it for some reason if there is something markedly better.

Odd, then I guess I read that page wrong.. What a silly way to represent that, why no timings for 1600?

Anyways, 2100 and 2700 are actually the maximum bandwidth ratings for memory. Thing is, it's direclty related to how fast the RAM is working, so I dont' know why they went to those ratings. Either way, in your system, 2700 is the maximum speed supported by your motherboard. So having 2700 RAM means that you are working the most efficiently, compared to putting in slower RAM. Don't worry. If you ordered PC2700 (DDR 333) you're golden.

Ah, well, thats what I ordered. So ok then.

Its up to the chip manufacture to decide what speeds go at what clocks, all CPU-Z does it show them. the SPD page represented Slot #1 as seen in the white drop down box, not showing all of the slots in the computer. I used CPU-Z since it was a beta and at first that confused me also, no worries. You also don’t need to buy PC2700, PC3200 would have also worked also but just run in PC2700 speeds, they are backwards compatible and it could be used for future upgrades.

Its up to the chip manufacture to decide what speeds go at what clocks, all CPU-Z does it show them. the SPD page represented Slot #1 as seen in the white drop down box, not showing all of the slots in the computer. I used CPU-Z since it was a beta and at first that confused me too, no worries. You also don’t need to buy PC2700, PC3200 would have worked also but just run in PC2700 speeds, they are backwards compatible and it could be used for future upgrades.

Just an update. I saw about a 5 FPS increase in speed (But it holds steady now). But the real difference is that SL, nay, the whole computer runs much smoother. I run SL at 1365x768, and it was always painful to switch out of fill screen mode, and running SL in window mode with other stuff running was not the brightest idea. Now however, I can run several progams, either in the background, or alongside SL in window mode, and see very little performance hit.

So everything is running smoother, and is more responsive. So, I'm happy...