please help: RAM and Video card for my dell dimension 8200 (1 Viewer)

[chris rick]

I need help finding cheap, dependable RAM for this computer. It is PC800 ram supposedly (2.5 ghz with 256 Ram currently) which seems to be very hard to find, and alas, very expensive. Also about a video card--I saw a Gforce 256 meg card at Sams club, and I was wondering fit that would work. I am really confused about these things as there seems to be a to know about RAM and AGP for video cards, etc?! Anyone with a lot of knowledge of this that can shed some light? I really would love to get ram for my computer and possibly a good cheap video card. Thanks!

 

[Mike Fassler]

any agp card will work for you if you have an agp slot, make sure your power supply is up to the task thou. yeah pc800 RDRAM is always gonna be more expensive, thats why its not widely used anymore.


http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7398&CatId=146

^ get that!

what is this pc used for gaming or what? reason im asking is cause if you dont game, you dont need a badass vidcard.

you should be able to get a radeon 9600 or a Geforce 5950 or similar video card for a very reasonable price nowadays. if you need more help findin stuff let me know, I research component prices all the time, as I do build computer systems on the side.

 

[chris rick]

Ok cool with the ram thanks! How do I know if I can have an AGP vid card or not? Thanks!

 

[Greg Thomas]

The Dell 8200 has 4x AGP. You should be fine.
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...cs.htm#1103470

 

[chris rick]

cool now one final question...if I buy two 256 sticks of ram...does this get added to my current 256? In other words, if I buy 512 more ram (since they have to be installed in pairs), does the old ram figure into the equation (512 new plus 256 old?)...I ask because I was looking on the site and it seems to suggest that the old ram MUST remain in the system even with the new installed.

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

It has 4 slots. If you have two 128MB RIMMS in there now, you pull out the two CRIMMS, and put in two 256MB RIMMS, you'd have 768MB total.

 

[Mike Fassler]

yeah the old ram will figure into the equation, but you need to look if you have one stick and a crimm or 2 sticks in there. then as Gabriel said pull the crimms from the other 2 sockets and put yer new rimms in there.