Brewology

Well I just picked up a cheap computer computer (low price but amazing) from dell, its not new but three years old which is still new for me, all the things inside are already upgraded but it only has 512mb ram, so I did a ram test from http://www.crucial.com and it told me how much ram I have how much I should have and how much I can have and it only said I could have 512mb ram but it said it was possible to install more ram and I was wondering if I bought a 1gig ram from say FutureShop would the ram work? Or would all that extra ram just be dead (the computer not being able to see it?

Thanks everybody!

As long as the numbers or w/e match the computer and it is compatible it should work.

I have two slots available, one being the already installed 512mb PC133 SDRAM, and the other free so I went to tigerdirect and found this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=829 its the exact same as the one I have installed right now so if I install that it will work? because I know they are cheap but still I don't want to go wast $60. Should I phone dell?

Yea if it is the same one it should work as far as i know.

I would just check the direction book for your mobo, mostly usually have tables at the back for possible RAM scenarios. If you don't have the instruction book for it then look it up on google.

But that website seems reliable, it was correct with all the information given for my computer (Said it can hold a max of 4gb of RAM, which is right). But if I had to guess I would say it should, if one slot supports 512mb then the other should. That and dude, you could buy a stick of pc133 512mb off ebay for probably like $25 :p I'm just saying since pc133 is not exactly "new" RAM speed. But if you want to know FOR SURE, then I say check the book for your mobo.

Well I had my brother check out my computer and he says everything is maxed right out (not overclocked but maxed out) like the motherboard can't have anymore upgrades unless I replace the motherboard which means I have to replace everything. So I'm not sure if the ram would be recognized. Should I just phone dell?

Well what kind of motherboard do you have? You could always use pc wizard to figure out the name of your mobo if you don't know. I mean yea you can try and phone dell, not sure how far you will get but you can try. I quit calling companies like that a long time ago when I first got my computer a while ago (like got my first computer, decided to take it apart and yea) I saw that I had 2 blue RAM slots and 2 black ones and the assistant on the phone couldn't tell me why they were different colors. It seems those support stations are tested more for old ladies forgetting to turn on the computer instead anything about how a computer actually works. But maybe dell is different, I mean I did call eMachines support after all.

Its a intel d815eea so with that info what can I do just keep looking on google?

Heres the instruction booklet that I found: http://support.intel.com/support/mother ... 013053.htm
According to that the max is 512mb, and minimum is 32mb. Sorry :/ If you would like to, you can still call dell or intel. I would say you could try updating the BIOS, but I'm not sure if that would fix the RAM problem.