Windows – How to know which RAM I can/should buy for the PC

memorywindows 7

I have a relatively old PC (5 years or more) which has only 1GB of RAM. I'm running on Windows 7 and unfortunately it doesn't like being so senile…

I have a Gigabyte mother board but I have no idea which (I lost the invoice) . I also don't know what type of memory slots it has nor the type of the current memory I have (basically the same piece of information …).

I tried using Everest to analyze my specs but it failed. Is there any other manner of doing that?

I'm running on 64bits (AMD Athalon, so I'm thinking of upgrading to 4GB. But I don't know if:

  1. The mother board supports it
  2. If I can buy a 3GB module, or replace the current 1GB with a new 4GB

Any ideas?

Best Answer

If you open the Device Manager (Windows 7 & 8 it's from Control Panel > Device Manager).

Then open the "System Devices" item and it should list all sorts of stuff to do with your motherboard. Mine (for example) has several starting with "Intel(R) 82801" and "Intel(R) G33/G31/P35/P31". These should give you a good start on finding your motherboard model.

As to what memory sticks to buy - go for 2 matched sticks 2 x 2GB as this will allow your motherboard to access it in dual channel mode as this will be quicker.

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