Navigating the Memory Upgrade Jungle

Mushkin Advisor, Continued

OK, so Mushkin Advisor knows what to put into our custom system better than we do, and we're not privy to that knowledge. But Mushkin also offers manual selection, so maybe we'll be able to order memory for that Dimension 4600 after all!

First we select the system manufacturer, Dell.

Next we select the Dell model from a very long list, which includes Aptivas, Pavilions, and Presarios. (We never knew Dell made any of those!)

Now we see a list of compatible modules.

The last step Mushkin Advisor follows before actually selling us the modules is to check that those modules are compatible with the system they're being ordered from. Befuddled again!

Mushkin laid the brickwork for an easy-to-use system that works for the majority of home-based personal computer users. The only shortcomings were in not addressing the dual-channel capability of our test system, and the fact that the Advisor tool has to be accessed from the system being upgraded. We checked a wide variety of systems from PC133 and RDRAM to DDR and DDR2, and Mushkin offered a complete selection.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.