Please Help me choose memory upgrade from 3GB to 6GB in a HP Pavillion a6302f [ Edited ]

[ratonjd]

Hello,

I have an a6302f HP Desktop and I would like to increase the memory from 3GB to 6GB. I have Windows 7 32 bit and I want to be able to use 64 bit.

This are some specs:

Processor
    AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 5000+
• 2.60GHz, 512KB + 512KB L2 Cache, 2000MT/s System Bus

Motherboard M2N68-LA (Narra2)

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01080282

Currently it has 4 modules installed:

2 GB ( 1GB x2) PC 5300

1GB ( 512MB x 2) PC 5300

Total 3GB.

Since this motherboard also supports DDR2 PC 6400 I was wondering if it would be a good idea to buy  a 4GB kit ( 2GB x2) PC6400 and a 2GB kit ( 1GBx2) for a total of 6GB PC 6400.

Or it would be most cost wise to just buy a 4GB kit ( 2GB x2) of PC 5300 and just take advantage of the 2GB ( 1GBx2) PC5300 that's already installed in the computer?

What would you do in my case? is it really worth it to invest all 6GB PC6400 or just buy the 4GB PC5300?

Also if I change all the modules to 6400 do I need to make big changes to the BIOS?

Thanks!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

It depends on how much money you want to throw at it. 

You already know you need to install a 64 bit OS to use more than 4 GB of memory but you can install up to 8 GB at any time.

It just won't be all usable until you get the 64 bit OS installed.

I would definitely max out the memory and speed of it as well.

Get 4 x 2 GB of PC2-6400 memory while it is cheap. It will get more expensive the longer you wait.

You don't have to do it all at once but that is what my goal would be so you can run at the fastest FSB speed your processor and memory will allow, which according to the specs is 800 MHz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231203

$100 and you're done.

Install the memory and hope none of it is defective.

No changes in the BIOS need to be made.

Paul

[ratonjd]

Hi Paul,

Well, at the moment I think 6GB is more than enough for me.

Also I want to save money, so I was thinking I could use the 2GB already installed and just buy 2 x 2GB PC5300,  so my main concern is if it's worth it to replace all 6GB PC6400 , is the performance change that noticeable? or should I just go for the 6GB PC 5300?

Any suggestions?

Thanks! a lot!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I couldn't give you any information other than subjective.

I have never allowed memory in my PC's that wasn't the fastest the board/processor would allow.

If I had PC2-5300 memory in my PC's, and they could run memory at 800 MHz, I changed it all out when I added more. I don't believe in doing things half measure.

Since this was always done with adding more memory, I had nothing to compare the old speed memory with because I would hope that going from 2 GB to 4 GB for example and PC2-5300 to PC2-6400 would improve performance.  But what part did what, I have no idea. Surely both increases in capacity and speed made a positive difference.

Mathmatically the memory is 133 MHz faster, I hate math, so you can figure out the % increase that equates to.

Certainly no matter what you do, add PC2-6400 memory (2 x 2 GB), because you have nothing to lose by doing that. It cost the same or less than PC2-5300, and will just downclock to the slower speed since it is backward compatible with your existing memory.

Paul