which is best-a 128 mem stick in one slot or two 64 mem sticks in two slots.comp has one128 presently?

Question

I intend to upgrade to 256, Comp has three mem slots. Comp is a PII 333mhz. desktop still working perfectly.

Answer 1

You have not stated WHAT ram slots your Motherboard has.
Guessing by the PII 333, I would say SDRAM, the older style.
The newer style, DDR ram, is able to use 2 cards of ram at the
same time - one can read, the other can write, so that 2 cards
of identical ram will add speed to the motherboard ram system.
SDRAM will not add speed to your ramm system by using two identical cards - MORE ram will certainly help.
You really should find out what the motherboard is, and go on the website to the manufacturer ( ASUS, etc. ) and get the manual PDF file, and read what ram your computer uses, at what speed.
( All ram comes in sizes, and SPEEDs, so that you would waste money buying faster RAM speeds than your motherboard can use ).
The SDRAM and the DDR ram slots are slighlty different, and
some newer boards have both - SD is usually about 3.3 VOLTS
which is clearly, but microscopically written on the edge of the ram plastic holder, about the middle of one edge on the top, and
the PINS are marked clearly, but microscopically on the ends from 1 to 168 pins. The DDR, is usually about 2.1 volts, and again, is clearly but microscopically marked on the plastic...
Don;t buy any ram unless you first find out what ram sticks are allowed by the motherboard, and exactly what speed is allowed.
If the motherboard only sees 3 , 128 meg, PC100 ( speed ) ram
sticks and you buy , 3 , 256, PC 133 sticks, your motherboard can happily "see" 3 128 meg sticks ( and stop counting ), and
state that they are running at PC 100 speed ( that is all the motherboard can do ), and you are wasting a lot of money on
extra ram and speed that you are not using!
There are other issues with ram, in that there are hundreds of manufactuerers, and although the amount ( 128 Meg ) and
the speed ( PC100 ) may be the same, the manufactuerers
can arrange the ram chips on 1 or 2 sides of the chip, in sets of 2 BIT rows by 64, 4 bit rows by 32, 8 bits by 64, etc. etc. and the
ram card you buy may not work in " YOUR " computer, even though it meets the Size/Speed requirements....
I often take the tower into a computer store, put it on the counter, and ask the salesperson to put in the ram I am buying, and
test it on a monitor. Sometimes I have to get 3 sticks of ram to find one that actually works...
Some salespeople actually build the units, and know as a rule of thumb, the "kind" of ram that fits a certain motherboard, but the best bet is to actually try the ram in the first place... There is an
exception to every rule...

Hope this helps

robin

Answer 2

If you can afford it, get two more 128MB (for a total of 3 --- one in each slot.) You'll effectively triple your current memory to 384MB (which is still on the low side.) Most apps today will benefit from at least 512MB. Again, if you can afford it, you should be able to add one 512MB stick to the existing 128MB. Check out the following sites:

www.crucial.com
www.kahlon.com
www.kingston.com
www.pny.com

They all have good info about memory in general and specifically what your computer can use.