Angus Kidman03 December 2006, 9:25 AM
If you're contemplating shifting to Vista, you'll really need to chock up your RAM as much as possible. Here's how to do it for as little as $129 a gigabyte.
 DIMM all the lights: Shopping around for memory is essential to avoid ripoffs. |
It's widely recognised that Vista is, in blunt terms, a memory pig. The absolute recommended minimum to run the almost-here OS in its most basic mode is 512MB, while for the Premium Vista experience, that number doubles to 1GB -- and if you want to really perform, it might make sense to double it again.
To be fair, Vista isn't the only reason why you might want a memory upgrade. Ageing memory combined with a fairly recent processor is not going to give you the best performance equation regardless of your current OS.
But if you are looking to upgrade, just how much will you have to spend? We shopped around for a basic 1GB RAM upgrade for PC owners -- in DIMM format for desktops, and SODIMM format for notebooks -- and were somewhat surprised by the results. (In the current climate, if you're going to rip your PC open, you might as well aim high in memory terms., hence our 1G limit)
Although memory is in theory a highly standardised commodity, current pricing does vary considerably. There's a definite trade-off in terms of performance for a start. You can pick up a gigabyte of memory for as little as $129 (or $147.40 for notebooks, though notebook users might be well advised to be a tad more picky about choosing memory that's certified for their specific model).
When shopping for memory, you'll want at least DDR667 (PC2-5300, or even better, PC2-6400) to maximise performance on Core Duo and subsequent platforms.
Online shopping provides the best bargains on RAM, and most online stores have Australia-wide shipping for about $10 - $15. Don't forget to check stores in your own city first - a few dollars extra on the base price might be worth it if you can save $15 shipping.
Overseas prices can be almost as cheap, and may prove a better deal even with shipping charges thrown in, particularly if you have a particular type of memory in mind. A random example: DV Warehouse will sell you 1GB of PC2-5300 memory for $US121, plus a $US40 FedEx Charge -- still around $200 at converted rates.
Finally, if you do decide to get a new PC, remember to throw in as much memory as possible. Dell, for instance, will chuck an extra 2GB of top-spec memory onto its high-end systems for just under $400 -- a price that's still quite hard to beat by shopping around, and you'll have someone to complain to if it doesn't work out of the box.