Computer savvie people, please help me understand something

[Mrs.viv07]

We just bought a new computer about 6 months ago and although i have no problems with it i want to add more memory to it.
the C drive says it has 52.2 GB free space.
Can you recommend a website or place where i can purchase more and roughly what i should be expecting to pay.
We have an

eMachines
AMD Athlon 64 processor
3500+
2.21GHz 896 MB of RAM


windows XP
media center edition
version 2002
service pack 2

any help or advice will be greatly welcomed!
TIA

 

[diznygirl]

My computer savvy DH says this - "the C drive says it has 52.2 GB free space" --- has nothing to do with memory.

He thinks this is simple - I'm right there with you with the confusion!

The C drive is hard drive storage space. The memory you use to run applications is RAM - which is what I'm guessing you want to increase? You can buy RAM chips to add to your computer - it's pretty inexpensive.


Clear as mud, right? LOL!

 

[The_Horned_King]

We just bought a new computer about 6 months ago and although i have no problems with it i want to add more memory to it.
the C drive says it has 52.2 GB free space.
Can you recommend a website or place where i can purchase more and roughly what i should be expecting to pay.
We have an

eMachines
AMD Athlon 64 processor
3500+
2.21GHz 896 MB of RAM


windows XP
media center edition
version 2002
service pack 2

any help or advice will be greatly welcomed!
TIA

Ok lets see how easy I can put this for you....

-Your c:drive is not memory it is storage space....think of it as a closet.

-Memory would be your RAM which you said is...2.21GHz 896 MB of RAM
you can easiy place new RAM(running memory) in your computer however you need to know a few things to do this....1) Do you have a free open slot?
2)what type of ram is it? DDR, SDDR, ect. ect. 3)How much ram do you want.
- Think of running memory as the brain power your computer needs. each program you have running at any time takes a certain amoutn of brain power. Try to do do much at once without the ability and you'll fail! (can you chew bubblegum, talk, do a math problem, watch a movie, listen to music all at once?) The memore memory you have the more your computer can do an once.

Thing is RAM is not cheap..a nice 512mb stick can cost about $70, 1GB is usually well over $100 bucks.

It's easy to slip ram into a computer, but you need to know some of that other stuff first. Hope this helps you a bit.

FYI..I only have 1gb Ram in my comp and I have NO problems running any program I have and I run memory heavy graphics programs all the time along with games.

 

[Mugg Mann]

One word of caution;

One of the reasons that emachines are so inexpensive is that there is no way to upgrade the interior components. In order to add more memory, you need an empty slot specifically for additional memory inside the machine, and it's entirely possible that your emachine does not have this.

For your sake, hopefully I'm wrong!

 

[Mrs.viv07]

One word of caution;

One of the reasons that emachines are so inexpensive is that there is no way to upgrade the interior components. In order to add more memory, you need an empty slot specifically for additional memory inside the machine, and it's entirely possible that your emachine does not have this.

For your sake, hopefully I'm wrong!

i am not sure if by space you mean the slots on the inside. About 3 months ago i found out that my computer did not come equiped with fire wire? to upload my video from camcorder to the PC to edit some helpful people here suggested i go to newegg and purchase a card then install myself (best buy would do it for $30 installation $30 for the cable $30 for the card = almost $100) for about $15 i ordered the card, got some instructions on how to install myself and it worked perfectly! while in ther i noticed there were 2 slots in total which means there would be 1 more to use for whatever. my question would then be would this be the slot i use to put more ram in?

 

[diznygirl]

Ok lets see how easy I can put this for you....

-Your c:drive is not memory it is storage space....think of it as a closet.

-Memory would be your RAM which you said is...2.21GHz 896 MB of RAM
you can easiy place new RAM(running memory) in your computer however you need to know a few things to do this....1) Do you have a free open slot?
2)what type of ram is it? DDR, SDDR, ect. ect. 3)How much ram do you want.
- Think of running memory as the brain power your computer needs. each program you have running at any time takes a certain amoutn of brain power. Try to do do much at once without the ability and you'll fail! (can you chew bubblegum, talk, do a math problem, watch a movie, listen to music all at once?) The memore memory you have the more your computer can do an once.

Thing is RAM is not cheap..a nice 512mb stick can cost about $70, 1GB is usually well over $100 bucks.

It's easy to slip ram into a computer, but you need to know some of that other stuff first. Hope this helps you a bit.

FYI..I only have 1gb Ram in my comp and I have NO problems running any program I have and I run memory heavy graphics programs all the time along with games.

ACK! Where do you computer guys get this stuff?! My DH said nearly the same thing - that it's like comparing closets and the power in your house!!!

 

[Anewman]

FRYS

 

[jfulcer]

i am not sure if by space you mean the slots on the inside. About 3 months ago i found out that my computer did not come equiped with fire wire? to upload my video from camcorder to the PC to edit some helpful people here suggested i go to newegg and purchase a card then install myself (best buy would do it for $30 installation $30 for the cable $30 for the card = almost $100) for about $15 i ordered the card, got some instructions on how to install myself and it worked perfectly! while in ther i noticed there were 2 slots in total which means there would be 1 more to use for whatever. my question would then be would this be the slot i use to put more ram in?

Ok, this kinda makes me wonder about your original request. If you are doing video editing - you may in fact really want to add more Hard Drive space. I do video editing all the time and even 200 gigabytes doesn't seem to be enough.

So what is the reason you want to upgrade? If it's really 'memory' then follow the directions others have given you. If it's hard drive, then it's slightly different...

 

[schmitty]

If the slots are running vertical it is probably RAM. Is there another stick next to the two open slots? If there is look at it and it should say RAM on there somewhere.

 

[themarquis]

I agree with the others --

do you want to put more "stuff" on your computer (for example, put more games, programs, applications, or store more pictures, videos, etc.)? I.e., are you running out of space to store stuff?

Or do you just want the "stuff" you have to run better or faster?

If you want to put more "stuff", you will need another *hard drive*. You can go to your local fry's/best buy, whatever, and ask them what hard drive to buy and how to install it.

If you want the stuff to run better or faster, you need *RAM*. Your local electronics shop can also tell you what kind of RAM to buy (bring a printout of the "specs" of your computer).

I just noticed you posted a reply. I'm not sure from it what you need (RAM or another hard drive or something else?). From your response, it seems like you saw empty slots and said to yourself, what can I add onto my computer?? (maybe I am wrong). The slots that you are looking at are probably not your RAM slots. Do they look like this:

If so, they are called PCI slots. You can plug in things like firewire, a graphics card, a wireless card, and other things. I don't think you can plug in RAM or a hard drive.

In any case, you should ask yourself why you might need to plug in a new "something"? Is your computer not performing well? Do you need more space to store things? Or something else? If you let us know what you think you need or what problem your computer is having, we can probably help you better!

 

[Mrs.viv07]

whatever programs i have for now are working great, i installed corel paintshop pro to do digital scrapbooking and then also installed (about a month later ) adobe photoshop just to see which one i liked better. both programs work fine. i am not a big gamer but i do like the sims2 and all expansion packs which all also work well when running. i want more ( fill in the blank) so if in the future i decide i want to install whatever program i can do so. based on your replies i am going to assume i nedd another hard drive? not ram since the programs i have now work fine.
which raises another question, if i add more hard drive and eventually add more programs, won't i need more RAM anyway? or that is only if i want to be running 4 programs at the same time?
thanks this is all still confusing to me

 

[mmcguire]

It all depends on how much upgrading you plan to do, and how many new programs you foresee adding. You may want to visit eMachine's upgrade support site - from there you can chat live with their support personnel. They should be able to tell you what your computer model can handle.

Just FYI, I'm in IT, and have simply stopped buying PCs/notebooks with the intent of upgrading. I buy whatever will get me through two or three years, and then I buy a new one. We're pretty hard on our machines, so that's about all we can ask from them anyway.

 

[snowy76]

If you want more hard drive space, buy an external drive. You can use it specifically for your video storage and editing programs. DH is a videographer and we actually bought a computer just for this stuff - we bought an iMac (best programs out there tend to be Mac based first) and an external hard drive that plugs in.