Looking to upgrade my OLD RAM

shadowedge

Honorable
Jul 24, 2012
34
0
10,540
Hi,

My computer has been really slowing down with Firefox lately, especially with multiple tabs open or with the new Tumblr archive format. Firefox can use over 1GB of memory and over 25% of my CPU speed according to the task manager.

Here are my current specs:

Windows 7 64bit.
6GB DDR2 PC2-5300 333mhz RAM according to CPU-Z
Core 2 Quad Q9300 CPU at 2.5 GHZ.
Motherboard is Gateway G33M05G1 Chipset is P35/G33/G31
GPU ATI Radeon HD 5770

1. Would upgrading my RAM help with these slowdowns? I am hoping to upgrade to between 8-16GB of RAM and have it be DDR3.

2. What speed would you recommend and how much will it help? I open a lot of tabs and play a lot of PC games like Skyrim, Aliens vs Predator, Starcraft 3, etc. If so how much will DDR3 RAM improve my speed?

3. Also do I need a new Motherboard? If so can I still use my CPU?

My budget for the RAM is $150.

Thanks!
 
G

Guest

Guest
your motherboard support DDR2 memory.
http://www.ascendtech.us/gateway-g33m05g1-8eks-g33-4006259r-board_i_mbgat4006259rdm.aspx
Four DIMM slots support up to 8 GB of dual channel DDR2 800/667/533 MHz memory

honestly DDR2 is expensive and obsolete, hence the high price. since you have more than 4 gigs of RAM now, you might be better off saving for a complete upgrade while you look at how many extensions you have running in FF to try and cut down on its resources usage.
 

deadlockedworld

Distinguished



Hey there,

1. No. Ram is not the issue. 6gb is plenty.
2. not relevant given the answer to #1
3. A new motherboard isn't worth the cost unless you are doing the processor too. Motherboard, Ram and Processor would all need to be done together (other parts are recyclable). Would run you at least $300. I personally would save for this option.

If you are playing PC games in 1080p, a more powerful graphics card would help with the games. If not, its totally not worth upgrading that.

I think you are stuck with cleaning up the PC until you can afford an upgrade. If you haven't done one in a few years, consider saving all your files on an external hard drive and doing a complete system reinstall from your system disk - that frequently helps a bit with the "crud." Another less invasive option would be using something like ccleaner to disable unneeded startup programs, and have less processes running in the background while you do other work.