Shuttle RAM

[rigadon]

Hello

I am considering buying some RAM for my PC, but I don't really know where to start!? Looking back at when I bought the PC I see it is one of these:

AMD Shuttle Bundle SK43G/2600/512

That is:

Shuttle SK43G, AMD Athlon XP 2600+, 512Mb Kingmax PC3500 DDR SDRAM

As I understand it the motherboard will support upto 2Gb of memory - there are two DIMM slots so I'll need 2 x 1Gb DIMMs. Looking on the Kingston site I see they have a couple of compatible 1GB DIMMs:

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/modelsinfo.asp?SysID=17209&mfr=Shuttle&model=XPC+SK43G&root=us&LinkBack=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kingston.com&Sys=17209-Shuttle-XPC+SK43G&distributor=0&submit1=Search

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/partsinfo.asp?root=us&LinkBack=http://www.kingston.com&ktcpartno=KVR266X64C25/1G

http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/configurator_new/partsinfo.asp?root=us&LinkBack=http://www.kingston.com&ktcpartno=KVR333X64C25/1G

Does anyone know which of these is more appropriate - the 333MHz or 266Mhz? Can I use the 333MHz RAM with this CPU/motherboard? Will that be as good or better than the existing Kingmax RAM?

Alternatively, I could stick with the existing Kingmax RAM and buy a single 1Gb DIMM (if they do them), would that work okay?

Finally, I could go with something completely different to the above, does anyone have any advice on what brand I should use?

Sorry, I'm a bit of a novice

Thanks
Jay

 

[merlinbadman]

If this is your machine:

"Shuttle SK43G, AMD Athlon XP 2600+, 512Mb Kingmax PC3500 DDR SDRAM"

PC3500 ram = 433Mhz

266Mhz RAM is the fastest RAM your machine can make full use of, although 266Mhz (PC2100), 333Mhz (PC2700), 400Mhz (PC3200), 433Mhz (PC3500) will all fit.

Ebuyer has a good selection of all those ram types, you just need to choose a 2x1Gb kit for a good price. 2GB DDR will be £40-£50.

 

[rigadon]

Awesome! Thanks for your help Merlinbadman. I am actually having trouble finding a 2x1Gb DDR kit with a low enough speed!? But I'll keep looking.

Out of interest, what do the numbers mean? I understand the MHz bit, but where is the PCXXXX derived from?

 

[rigadon]

Bingo

http://www.dabs4work.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=2H0G&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=KVR266X64C25+1G&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

http://www.dabs4work.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=2H0H&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=KVR333X64C25+1G&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

So either of these should do? Neither is a 2x1Gb kit, but they are only £20 each so I can just buy them separately.

Merlinbadman - thanks again for your help!

 

[merlinbadman]

No probs.

Out of those two I would go for the second one. The first one looks kind of funny to me, would probally work fine just looks odd with the orientation of the memory chips.

The PCxxxx is a measurement of how much MB/s of data the RAM can handle:

ie DDR 333 = 2700 Mb/s.

 

[rigadon]

Thanks again Merlinbadman, I'll go for the second one as you suggest.