I talked in the chatroom with Cableguy and Josh about buying 1GB memory card (or whatever you call-em) for my new puter. I bought a very basic model Compaq Presario SR1703WM. I dont need much since about all I do is surf the web and email. I want to be able to download pics (no.. Not porn thank you very much) and watch video feeds/clips from my brother In Afghanistan and such.

Whats the best bang for the buck in brand names for 1GB? I have NO freakin clue as to which one to get. What stores are best? BestBuy? CompUSA? 7-11?

Within the $100 bucks range preferrebly. Thanks!

I've done pretty good buying at www.newegg.com . If you know what you're looking for and are willing to keep checking the sale ads you can get some decent deals. I'm sure there are some other good places. As far as what to buy for memory, I'll defer to those who know more than I.

bang for buck, simplified?

go to crucial.com - they have a memory selector which will help you get the most comaptible RAM for your system. If I were you, I would use their dropdown to select Compaq->Presario->SR1703WM, then get their 1GB kit or 2GB kit.

But - you should be able to download pictures now without a problem. It's important to understand you store photos to your hard drive (aka hard disk), not your memory. There's a difference there. Memory just helps you compute things faster by storing frequently accessed data and/or creating a quickly accessible (but limited) storage space. Your hard drive is a "fixed disk" which stores lots of data.

I think it's important to understand the difference between the two. A lot of people think that their "hard drive" is memory because it stores things (like a human memory does), but that's not the case.

My advice still stands though - I would get 1GB of RAM if you're running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. If you are running Windows 95/98/ME, your system can only handle 512MB of RAM, anything more than that and Windows 95/98/ME will freak out.

Last thing - you're going to want to use two sticks in your case because of the type of system you have - you'll want to replace your existing one (or two) sticks with the two you buy. If you want to dump your old ones, I recycle old parts to build systems and give to less fortunate people in my local area, will pay shipping if you want to toss the old ones. :)

crucial.com is very cool! Im gonna go with the 1GB PNY Optiva which will be compatible with my system. Speed is what Im lookin for and I think most of the prob is from still being on Dial-up which will be rectified in a few days but I know I still needed the memory. I live in an old neighborhood with old phone lines so I know that even with DSL Its not going to be super fast but it will be enough for me and what I do.

As far as old parts.. I am gonna keep what I have till the warranty is up just in case. I might have some other stuff to send ya later, gotta see whats gonna happen when everthing is installed and working. Thanks!

Dang.. what a difference! Had it done in a couple of minutes. Can't wait for the DSL to get here!