DDR400

Last week I went to help a friend install Linux on a neighbour's computer. Windows XP was running slow and had been poorly for some time, so upgrading the PC to Linux should make it faster, more secure and a lot fitter.

While the PC had a decent CPU, the manufacturer had skimped on RAM and with only 512 MiB Windows XP was very sluggish and even Linux wasn't that fast.

The box is over 5 years old and as technology changes, the price of parts change. When it was new DDR memory was expensive, hence the lack thereof, then prices fall as volumes increase and finally as it becomes obsolete prices sky rocket again. I managed to find some DDR400 SDRAM for it and before it's installed I thought I'd blip it.

For the geeks, there are two sticks of 256 MiB DDR PC3200 CL3 SDRAM (single sided) and two sticks of 1 GiB DDR 400 CL3 SDRAM (double sided) in the picture. Based on what I now know I'm hoping to install both the 1 GiB sticks and with 2 GiB installed (four times the original) and in a matched pair rather than singly as originally, it should be a lot faster.

Next time their grand kids turn up they are going to be presented with a much faster computer and Linux (as default). Should be interesting.