Hello, I'm going to purchase and install a memory upgrade inside my PC. I am using a HP pavilion a220n, with an 2600 AMD Athlon processor(2.08GHz). I currently have memory of 512MB. I have 2 slots, both containing 256MB PC2700 DDR-SDRAM. I am confused on what kind of memory to buy. I bought this PC 2 years ago, & it wasn't that expensive. With this processor, will a memory upgrade even be worth it? Does it have to be PC2700 or can that number be different? And if my PC has 2 slots, can I increase it 4? Thank you, I really appreciate the help.
If all your slots are full and there are only 2 of them, that is what you are stuck with. you can't add more slots you will need a new motherboard. If this is the case then you wil have to remove the old 2x256 and replace it with 2x512. Most boards I have seen though usually come with 3 memory slots (or 4 for dual channel) You dont need to use pc2700 but that dosen't mean that all types of memory will fit. Check your motherboard manual and it will list all compatible types you can use - of course it will have to be ddr ram don't be fooled by the DDR-SDRAM bit of the name, you can't mix SD and DDR togeather. While it is better to have all the same speed (pc2700 is 333mhz) you can - as long as your board supports it mix speeds togeather, only they will all run at the speed of the lower rated memory. So for example if you mix 400mhz pc3200 (which is usually cheaper than pc2700) with pc2700 then the pc3200 will only be running at 333mhz instead of the full 400. This method has always worked for me but there is always a chance your motherboard will not allow this so have a good read through the manual (downloadit if you never got the motherboard manual with the pc) As for wheather the upgrade will be worth it - what do you plan on doing with the pc, and what made you decide you needed a memory upgrade? For gaming purposes a memory upgrade alone will not bring a large benefit, but if you are just experiencing a generaly slow pc when opening windows, running programs, switching between tasks and that sort of stuff then some extra ram could bring a nice performance increase.
