Memory Upgrade - Dimension 8300

Hi, wuxi:

What you are experiencing is the law of diminishing returns. Your 8300 is not going to see any improvement with 2GB instead of 1GB of RAM, I'm afraid. It would have been worth saving those pennies toward a new system.

I wish I had better news for you.

Hi Osprey4

Thanks for the quick comment - looking at your activities you are obviously a busy lad!

Sadly, I took the advice of the Australian  PC User magazine which has just run an article in the February edition on upgrding the PC which said that increasing memory is the "easiest, most cost-effective and benefial upgrade you can perform"!!!!!  Apart from that they suggest there is lots of potential for improvement by "over-clocking" the CPU.   However, as a beginner I am reluctant to try that!   Any ideas?

I've just ordered a new XPS desk-top so when I have that running, I will be able to play around with the Dimension.

Thanks again.

Yes, it's easy, but the author of that article cannot make the statement as to the cost-effectiveness of any upgrade without know an individual user's current system. So that statement was disingenuous, to say the least.

Dell systems are not considered "over-clockable", so I think you're pretty much stuck with what you've currently got on the 8300. Of course, once you get the new system, you always have the option to sell the 8300 as parts and recover your investment. Good luck with the new XPS!!

Another very useful comment.   But how do I sell the 8300 as parts?   Apart from the 1 Gb memory stick which I have just bought from Dell for A$100, the 8300 is six years old.

The problem is not that additional memory is not useful, but how do you test its usefulness.  If the benchmark and the environment it is running in require less than one gigabyte then adding additional memory will have no effect.  Suppose however you are running application that requires more than the available memory, maybe one and one half gigabytes, then the extra memory would be useful and show as such.  Example I was running Photoshop on some enormous graphics, after adding eight gigabytes of memory, the performance increased markedly.  Consider a variation of Zeon’s paradox.  If going from one gigabyte to two gigabytes has not effect, then going from 512 megabytes to one gigabyte will have no effecteither.  If you continue to repeat the process, then as long as you have one byte of memory, you need no more.

Consider also, we don’t run in a static environment, usually we have multiple windows opened and each application running needs memory.

PS The eight additional gigabytes may have been overkill four would have been enough.

Many thanks for the comments - I shall have to try running several application at the same time to see if the performance is better.

I'm very impressed that you were able to add an extra 8Gb as my Dimension 8300 only allows a maximum of 4 Gb (i.e. four memory slots)   The XPS 630 I have just ordered comes with 4 Gb installed but doesn't seem to allow for memory upgrade.   Can you put more than 1 Gb in a slot?  

According to Crucial Memory the maximum for a XPD 630 is eight gigabytes of memory four slots x 2 gigabytes per slot.  You will need a 64 bit OS to support more than four gigabytes.  I have a Dell PWS 7400 maximum memory 64 gigabytes without riser cards and 128 gigabytes with.  Actually, I recommend using a 64 bit OS with four gigabytes of ram, assuming your processor is 64 bit capable. 

You work very late.   I'm even more impressed though I can't grasp the thought of having (or paying for) 128 Gb of memory!   When I placed my order for the XPS 830 they didn't offer the option of having more memory - and I thought that 4 Gb would have to be more than enough.  It's Australia Day here tomorrow so I shall give more thought to the problem when the celebrations are over- I'm a member of the local branch of the Australia-American Association so we'll be having a joint party.   We even help the local Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Hi all

Apologies for jumping in but I have a related question. I volunteered to upgrade the memory for two PCs belonging to relatives and I need to understand about possible configurations.

The first is an Dimension 8300 with 512MB (2x256). Inside I can see two pairs of slots and one slot in each pair is occupied. Both sticks are Infineon 256DDR-CL3 PC 3200U-30330-AU. When I tried to work my way through Dell's configurator it offered me 400MHz DDR, either 512MB or 1GB. The 512MB were recommended to be matching pairs but the 1GB were required to be paired. What I couldn't get was any info on what the maximum memory is for the 8300 (running XP-SP3 by the way) or how any replacement/additional sticks should be physically configured - i.e. which sticks could/should go in each slot of each pair? I think a total of 1GB should be adequate for their needs but I would like help with getting the optimum configuration. So my questions are -

* Can an 8300 running XP-SP3 utilitise over 1GB? Even if I don't think they need it, I'd still like to know what's possible.
* Are the 4 slots (one pair vertical, one pair angled) identical or is there a hierarchy?
* Can we mix-and-match? I.e. keep the 2 x 256MB and add additional memory?
* Even though Dell didn't offer it, could I get just get 2 more 256MB?
* If we keep the existing 2 x 256MB and bought a single new 512MB, should the new one go on its own in one pair with both 256MB in the other pair or doesn't it matter? Similarly, if we bought 2 x 512MB or even 2 x 1GB, how should I do it?

Any help/advice greatfully received - including just pointing me to another thread.

The other system is a Dimension 3000 (only 2 x 128 - yuck!) but I'll look for a 3000 memory thread.

Thank you.

Hi

My own Dimension 8300 running on XP-SP3 had two 512 Mb memory sticks (400 Mhz DDR), loaded into slots 1 and 3 - I got a free upgrade from 1 x 512 to 2 x 512 when I bought the PC.   When I told Dell that I wanted to upgrade the memory thay said that I didn't have to install two 1 Gb sticks to keep them in parallel, so I just installed an extra 1 Gb memory stick into slot 2 so I now have 2 Gb. After installation, right-click My Computer, then click Properties/General to confirm that the memory is installed correctly

Incidentally, according to the Owner's Manual the computer will  support a total of 4 Gb.   The Dell memory sticks are relatively expensive, I think   I don't think there is any advantage in using 2 x 512 Mb, rather than 1 Gb, though I didn't check the prices.

No visible signs of improvement in performance and when I checked with the benchmark software provided by the Australian PC User magazine I discovered that my performance had apparently dropped slightly!  (You can see details in my earlier post)

Good luck.

I am currently running 4x1G of G.skill memory in my Dimension 8300.  The memory was purchased at Newegg.com and was recommended for the 8300.  The PC runs like a champ!

Jim

Many thanks Jim   My problem is probably that I only added 1 Gb, so I now have 2 Gb but only have room for one more GB.  I'll see if I can get another later.    However, I've just taken delivery of a new XPS 630 so I'm trying to figure out how to partition the hard-drive (it comes with a 40 Gb Recovery partition)   Any advice?

John

John,

I would start with a fresh post with an appropriate subject line.  That will get you information from all the experts available in the forum.

Good luck,

Jim

wrkfho.

Welcome to Dell, Please change your user name, It should not include you email address.

You can not install  just any brand of memory in a Dell. Many members use Cruical memory, because it is guaranteed. http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Dimension%208300%20Series

This is a link to your manual. 

Your computer uses Non ECC memory.

You need to remove your original memory sticks and try the new ones. I hope they work.  You should make sure they are placed in the correct slots.