RAM upgrade on Dell Dimension 4600

On Tue, 16 Nov 2010 05:08:08 +0000, franklinpcat wrote:

I just installed two 512 GB memory cards to my Dell Dimension 4600 processor.  The computer came with two, 256 GB cards,

You mean 512MB and 256MB (not GB) I assume.

but it had gotten terribly slow.  Dell said it doesn't matter if the size of the cards varies.  However, my system does not reflect the installation of the additional memory.  Is it preferable/essential only to install additional memory cards of the same size as the existing cards?

See Daave's reply, but also note the following two points:

1. You started out with 512MB. How much RAM you need for good
performance is not a one-size-fits-all situation. You get good
performance if the amount of RAM you have keeps you from using the
page file significantly, and that depends on what apps you run. Most
people running a typical range of business applications under XP find
that somewhere around 512MB works well, others need more. Almost
anyone will see poor performance with less than 256MB. Some people,
particularly those doing things like editing large photographic
images, can see a performance boost by adding even more than
512MB--sometimes much more.

So unless you had special needs, it's likely that the 512MB you
started with was enough for you.

2. You say "it had gotten terribly slow." That implies that the
performance used to be OK, but had gotten worse. That reinforces what
I said in point 1 above. You don't need more memory simply because
time has gone by.

There are several possibilities for why it had gotten slower, but the
most likely one is that you have become infected with malware. What
anti-virus and anti-spyware programs do you run? Are they kept up to
date?