Adding additional RAM

[Autumn]

I have a Medion MD 8828 computer with Vista OS and 2 Gig of RAM.

As I use Lightroom and Photoshop, I sometimes think I could do with getting additional RAM, because I have had the odd remark saying I have not enough memory to complete the task. (I am not sure whether that is hard disk space or RAM that the remark is referring to).

I looked on the Medion Forum and others have added additional RAM, but one chap says that whilst adding an extra 1 Gig to 1 Gig thus making 2 Gigs, makes a colossal difference, adding 2 Gigs to 2 Gigs making 4 Gigs in total does not.

Has anyone any thoughts on this? ie Should it help me to have 4 Gigs?



I rang Medion and they informed me that I needed:

2 x 1 Gb DDR2, 667 Megahertz, 64 bit, dual channel.

I have found this:

http://www.cclonline.com/basket/mycurrentbasket.asp

Before I order can anyone confirm whether this is the same product that Medion have suggested please?

[coupekid]

Re: Adding additional RAM

I have a Medion MD 8828 computer with Vista OS and 2 Gig of RAM.

As I use Lightroom and Photoshop, I sometimes think I could do with getting additional RAM, because I have had the odd remark saying I have not enough memory to complete the task. (I am not sure whether that is hard disk space or RAM that the remark is referring to).

I looked on the Medion Forum and others have added additional RAM, but one chap says that whilst adding an extra 1 Gig to 1 Gig thus making 2 Gigs, makes a colossal difference, adding 2 Gigs to 2 Gigs making 4 Gigs in total does not.

Has anyone any thoughts on this? ie Should it help me to have 4 Gigs?



I rang Medion and they informed me that I needed:

2 x 1 Gb DDR2, 667 Megahertz, 64 bit, dual channel.

I have found this:

http://www.cclonline.com/basket/mycurrentbasket.asp

Before I order can anyone confirm whether this is the same product that Medion have suggested please?

Hi Audrey,

I am suprised you are struggling with 2gigs. I have 2 gigs, and have no issues at all.

To upgrade your PC, you are probably looking at around 40quid, so it isnt a massive outlay, in fact, despite not really needing it, I have considered an upgrade to what you are suggesting anyway.

I am no expert in this area, but I wonder whether upgrading your graphics card may make more of a difference?

If you right mouse click 'Computer' (left clicking the window icon on the bottom left, then 'computer' is on the right hand side) select properties. Then you can see your rating on the Windows Experience Index. If you then click the hyperling, youll see where you PC is falling down performance wise, and can make a better informed decision on whether you need an upgrade. My memory operations is currently at 5.5 (out of 6) with 2gigs of ram. However, what lets my PC down is gaming graphics performance at 4.2.

Anyway, if your going down the RAM route, I would recomend popping over over to Crucial, www.crucial.com/uk their website has a neat little download that scans your system, and makes recomendaions as to what to buy, plus they are pretty good value for money, an extra 2 gigs of ram (in two 1 gig peices) will cost me 34quid.

Hope that helps!

Ben

[Goatsmilkuk]

http://www.crucial.com/uk/ to find what I needed, then looked on 7day for the same one. It arrived in less than a week and is really easy to install, just earth yourself first on a metal radiator or similar.


HTH

Stu

[rogleale]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Hi Audrey.
The ram suggested by Medion is 64 bit - is your Vista 64 or 32 bit?
With Vista you can easily waste money by putting the wrong or too much memory. Your mobo may accept more ram but Vista will almost certainly not recognise it, certainly not as much as 4GB.
Another point worth remembering is that DDR can be a bit flakey, and the only way to be certain that 4GB will be usable on an OS that can use it, is to have ram cards that have been tested together as being compatible.
I know that loads of people will be saying "I added ram and it works just fine" but they have been either very lucky, or bought matched cards. If you do go ahead and buy 2 gb make sure that you get a matched pair. From reputable suppliers they will be packed as a pair.
I think that the problem you have been having is due to a shortage of scratch disk space - ie virtual memory - not a ram shortage.

Roger

[Autumn]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Thanks for the info.

I am attaching information about my computer.

Crucial could not show me exactly what I needed without me personally contacting them even though I did a scan.

Am I right in thinking that the RAM on this link is what Medion say I need if I go down the route of replacing RAM?

http://www.cclonline.com/basket/mycurrentbasket.asp

[Autumn]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Hi Audrey.
The ram suggested by Medion is 64 bit - is your Vista 64 or 32 bit?

It says 32 bit (but the Medion Techie did say 64 bit).

With Vista you can easily waste money by putting the wrong or too much memory. Your mobo may accept more ram but Vista will almost certainly not recognise it, certainly not as much as 4GB.
Another point worth remembering is that DDR can be a bit flakey, and the only way to be certain that 4GB will be usable on an OS that can use it, is to have ram cards that have been tested together as being compatible.
I know that loads of people will be saying "I added ram and it works just fine" but they have been either very lucky, or bought matched cards. If you do go ahead and buy 2 gb make sure that you get a matched pair. From reputable suppliers they will be packed as a pair.

It looks as those on the above link are matched, but I don't know that they will match those already in. (Or doesn't that matter?)

I think that the problem you have been having is due to a shortage of scratch disk space - ie virtual memory - not a ram shortage.

Roger

So how do I handle scratch space? Do you mean within CS3?

[rogleale]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Your Medion techie is almost certainly wrong Audrey which is average for the course. I don't know of a computer for the general public sold with a 64 bit OS, and the maker's site says it has a 32 bit Vista Home Premium as OS. This will simply not work with 64 bit memory!
If you click Start > Control Panel > System all will be revealed.
If you can supply the mobo details ie maker, model, we can dig deeper into the "is it worth it" question.

As for the scratch disk question, I can't really advise because I know nothing of your machine's setup and it can become quite involved. The full Adobe advice can be found HERE but can be summarised as being best to set the scratch disk up in its own partition, and most importantly not on the same partition as the OS. If you have any questions after reading it, using the XP notes, I will try to answer them.

Roger

[rogleale]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Me again!
I downloaded the manual for your mobo, which is a MS-7502 Micro ATX
Uses DDR2 800/667 32 bit SDRam and up to 8GB of it in 4 DIMM slots.
As I said before Vista 32bit will not see 4GB so it really is not worth adding RAM unless you just want to try it.
Graphics cards really doesn't have much influence on how Photoshop or LR behave, the more exotic figures quoted for them refer mainly to games or video.

Roger

[Autumn]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Me again!
I downloaded the manual for your mobo, which is a MS-7502 Micro ATX
Uses DDR2 800/667 32 bit SDRam and up to 8GB of it in 4 DIMM slots.
As I said before Vista 32bit will not see 4GB so it really is not worth adding RAM unless you just want to try it.
Graphics cards really doesn't have much influence on how Photoshop or LR behave, the more exotic figures quoted for them refer mainly to games or video.

Roger

Thanks so much Roger.

I had actually finished replying in detail (took me ages) to your last post when I realised I hadn't got the maker of my mobo - I went to try to find it and lost all my post!

Generally I am getting a bit happier with my computer. I was probably having problems before I saw someone advising that my LR prefs shd be set to 8 bit instead of 16 bit which made large tiff files. I tend to leave Programs open ATST ie LR and CS3, plus the web and Windows Mail, which can't help my memory!

My scratch disc is set to C: the same as my OS as it has 361 GBs free, whilst my D: drive (External Hard Drive) has only 73 GBs free and my E: Recovery drive has 10 GBs free.

Only the C: was checked, but I have now checked C:, D:, E:, in the order of amount of GBs free.

Do you think that will be OK

I am talking about Preference in CS3!

If you click on my Screengrab about 4 posts above this post you can see my Computer information.

Thanks for your help.

[rogleale]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Hi Audrey,
You can free quite a lot of RAM when you have those multiple progs open. If you keep CS3 running, when you have finished the photo work in it but before going to another prog, click Edit > Purge > All. That should release most of the RAM that CS was hoarding. In fact if you get the memory warning whilst your are in CS3, which I suspect is the case, purging some, or all, should solve the problem.

As for the scratch disk, if you felt up to it I would recommend that you set up a small partition, say 5 gb, in the available space of the 'C' partition just for scratch. I am not sure how the Medion makes use of its recovery partition, but if you don't fancy setting up another partition I would set 'E' as the first scratch in order to avoid conflicts with the OS paging, 'C' as the second, and forget 'D' as it is an external.
Do you have a partitioning software available?

Roger

[coupekid]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Me again!
I downloaded the manual for your mobo, which is a MS-7502 Micro ATX
Uses DDR2 800/667 32 bit SDRam and up to 8GB of it in 4 DIMM slots.
As I said before Vista 32bit will not see 4GB so it really is not worth adding RAM unless you just want to try it.
Graphics cards really doesn't have much influence on how Photoshop or LR behave, the more exotic figures quoted for them refer mainly to games or video.

Roger

Hi Roger,

The problem was with reporting RAM on Vista, not neccesarily utilising. Vista would only report up to 3gb.

However, with the release of Service Pack 1, if Audrey installs more RAM, Vista (providing SP1 has been installed) should see it fine.

Thanks for the info on the graphics cards though, as this was something I wasnt sure about.

[rogleale]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Hi Coupekid
You are quite right, I had forgotten SPI because it doesn't change the amount of ram available to Vista 32 bit, just enables it to see all the 4 gb if the BIOS is capable. Vista will still not be able to use all the 4 gb for applications because the OS guards some, (I think about 800 mb for virtual memory) and will report what is available.
The big problem though, is whether added DDR2 will match what is already installed or not, that is the catch 22 for buyers, because sometimes it won't and is wasted money.

[Autumn]

Re: Adding additional RAM

Hi Audrey,


As for the scratch disk, if you felt up to it I would recommend that you set up a small partition, say 5 gb, in the available space of the 'C' partition just for scratch. I am not sure how the Medion makes use of its recovery partition, but if you don't fancy setting up another partition I would set 'E' as the first scratch in order to avoid conflicts with the OS paging, 'C' as the second, and forget 'D' as it is an external.
Do you have a partitioning software available?

Roger

I have never set up a partition, would it mess things up?

I don't really know how to and I don't have any partitioning software.

I don't mind setting E as my first scratch as I know it would be easier, but if it would be better to make a partition on C, I will have a go if it's not too difficult and you could talk me through it.

[rogleale]

Re: Adding additional RAM

It's really simple in Vista Audrey, no partitioning programme necessary, I just asked in case you had one.
If you want to try it I always recommend backing up all the important stuff in the partition that you are changing - the others should be OK.

Start > Click RUN
Type into the Run box diskmgmt.msc (It may take a few seconds to react)
In the diagram which appears Right click on the 'C' partition.
Select 'Shrink Volume'
In the next dialogue select the size you fancy - 5 gb should be ample. - click OK
A new partition will show up as 'Unallocated'
Right click this new volume and assign a drive letter - I would suggest 'S' as being easy to remember and unlikely to change if externals added.
Format the new volume as NTFS - and you're ready to tell CS3 where to scratch!

Good luck,

Roger

[Autumn]

Re: Adding additional RAM

It's really simple in Vista Audrey, no partitioning programme necessary, I just asked in case you had one.
If you want to try it I always recommend backing up all the important stuff in the partition that you are changing - the others should be OK.

Start > Click RUN
Type into the Run box diskmgmt.msc (It may take a few seconds to react)
In the diagram which appears Right click on the 'C' partition.
Select 'Shrink Volume'
In the next dialogue select the size you fancy - 5 gb should be ample. - click OK
A new partition will show up as 'Unallocated'
Right click this new volume and assign a drive letter - I would suggest 'S' as being easy to remember and unlikely to change if externals added.
Format the new volume as NTFS - and you're ready to tell CS3 where to scratch!

Good luck,

Roger

I got as far as Right clicking the new volume but there was no option to assign a drive letter. I was trying to do a screen grab with the right click options but they vanished everytime clicked MWSnap!

I'll have another go later tonight, but I am going out now.

Thanks for your help.

I do recognise this frame as I made my CD/DV drive into "Z" drive for some reason that I can't remember now and that has worked. I must have followed some on line instructions.