Simple if you know!

[Chattonmill]

On my PC I have two memeory slots(I think) beside these there are two more slots, although a different colour. What would they be for?
Thanks

 

[kwakdonut]

Do they look the same (length, number of slots etc?) - Most modern desktops have four memory slots although older ones may only have two. The colour coding may be because you install memory in pairs or 'banks' so this will let you know where to fit them.

My Dell has fours marked '1' '3' '2' '4' so same type memory is installed in every other slot. ie 2x1Gb would go in '1' and '2' 2x512Mb would go in '3' & '4'

 

[Chattonmill]

Ahh I will have a look, the colours are side by side too, does that mean I could take the memory form an old high spec pc and plonk it in?
Also I have a built in video card on this PC, would the old one effectively over ride this one as the old one is a shigher spec?

 

[grober]

If you input your computer/motherboard model here it should tell you how many memory slots it has and what memory components you can use. Kingston Technology Company - Where To Go To Find Memory

As far as the video card is concerned it depends on what type of bus architecture its designed for older cards use AGP newer ones PCI express. Often its the bus speed that throttles your video card performance rather than the board itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_cards

 

[kwakdonut]

Ahh I will have a look, the colours are side by side too, does that mean I could take the memory form an old high spec pc and plonk it in? Not necessarily!
Also I have a built in video card on this PC, would the old one effectively over ride this one as the old one is a higher spec? Same answer!

Not that much of a geek I'm afraid - Grober's answer is a good start too...

 

[Nibbo]

Go to crucial's web site and scan your PC.
It will tell you how many slots you have and what is in each one.
It will also recommend upgrades if they are available.

 

[Chattonmill]

Have just been into the house and found the manual
Moral of the story is RTFM
They are two sets of memory slots, the manual says that installing more memory wont do any good if you are running the 32 bit version of Vista, Max useful is 3 gb any more will not give any benefit. As the PC came with 4gb installed I will see no difference.
So it is a grapics integrated motherboard, which I assume will mean that it is not that great graphics wise. Would I really notice a difference with the higher spec graphics card unless i wanted to do gaming

 

[dchester]

Have just been into the house and found the manual
Moral of the story is RTFM
They are two sets of memory slots, the manual says that installing more memory wont do any good if you are running the 32 bit version of Vista, Max useful is 3 gb any more will not give any benefit. As the PC came with 4gb installed I will see no difference.
So it is a grapics integrated motherboard, which I assume will mean that it is not that great graphics wise. Would I really notice a difference with the higher spec graphics card unless i wanted to do gaming

Do you know which graphics chip it is on the motherboard, and which higher spec one are you looking at?

D.

 

[Chattonmill]

The Graphics chip comes up as ATI Radeon Express 1250 on the PC, the Replacement would be a 512mb ATI Radeon X1950 GT x16.
Thanks

 

[dchester]

The Graphics chip comes up as ATI Radeon Express 1250 on the PC, the Replacement would be a 512mb ATI Radeon X1950 GT x16.
Thanks

Well one benefit of the add on card is that it's not going to leech system memory, which I think your on board one does.

D.

 

[Chattonmill]

So do I just slot in the new one and siable the built in one?
Thanks for this by the way!

 

[dchester]

So do I just slot in the new one and siable the built in one?
Thanks for this by the way!

I'd imagine so, it's been a long time since I had a box with onboard graphics, but I think there'll be an option in the bios to disable it.

David

 

[Chattonmill]

You can just disable it in the control panel, I right clicked on it and it had disable in bold.

 

[dchester]

You can just disable it in the control panel, I right clicked on it and it had disable in bold.

Should work then, it may happen automagically, I know that some bioses auto disable the onboard if it detects an add on card.

David

 

[Chattonmill]

I will experiment tonight and see.
Thanks again for listening to my incompetance!

 

[dchester]

I will experiment tonight and see.
Thanks again for listening to my incompetance!

No worries, glad to be able to help.

D.

 

[dchester]

Just to say, though, make sure the other card appears in device manager before disabling the onboard one in there

Otherwise this could get a tad painful

D.

 

[Dryce]

On my PC I have two memeory slots(I think) beside these there are two more slots, although a different colour. What would they be for?

Usually it's to identify the banks of memory for interleaved access.

If you install pairs then the colours will be used to code the slots so you install the DIMMs in the slots as a pair.

Installing such that the pair of DIMMs is placed in the wrong sockets (one from each pair) means memory performance will be lower.

 

[Dryce]

Would I really notice a difference with the higher spec graphics card unless i wanted to do gaming

Probably not. Older lesser graphics setups can't run the Vista aero interface. Modern integrated ones can.

A separate graphics card for office type apps usually just means more power consumption, more heat, more cost, possibly more noise, and a possibly larger system physical form factor, and something else to go wrong.

 

[Chattonmill]

I put the other graphics card in last night and it immediately recognised it, didnt work mind you because I dont have the power lead for it, but the screen told me that that was why it wasnt working. Funny as I didnt have the power connected when it was in the last machine!
The PC immediately wanted to use the card rather than the integrated, so there is my answer!
I will see whether it will run vista when the power lead arrives!