For the "What's It's Worth Department", I just purchased a cheap Lenovo desktop that came with 4 GB of RAM. I went to Crucial.com and let it scan my PC and purchased a 4GB stick of DDR3 memory for $27.88, stuck it in, and it seems to have no problems with it.  Seems to run the computer and Sonar X2 great!

My system's a little older and requires SDRAM DDR2 800, which isn't so cheap and is harder to find, particularly a match. I'll price it around and see if I'll be better off getting all 8GB new. Thanks for the comments.

mwall

My system's a little older and requires SDRAM DDR2 800, which isn't so cheap and is harder to find, particularly a match. I'll price it around and see if I'll be better off getting all 8GB new. Thanks for the comments.

I just did a quick search on Newegg for it.


The first thing to come up was Kingston RAM and it said it was "System Specific" and listed different versions for different manufacturers.


Never saw that in a RAM description before. If I were you I would find my motherboard manual and research it really good before you buy something.


Good luck.


Bub.

mwall


My system's a little older and requires SDRAM DDR2 800, which isn't so cheap and is harder to find, particularly a match. I'll price it around and see if I'll be better off getting all 8GB new. Thanks for the comments.

Is this your ram specs?  4GB (2x2 GB) DDR2 800 MHz PC2-6400 Desktop DIMM Memory Module Dual Channel Kit - MD4096KD2-800  

Price: $44.27 each kit

Amazon.com 
  
  Compatible with PC2-6400 (800 MHz), PC2-5300 (667 MHz), and PC2-4200 (533 MHz) systems 
  
  http://www.amazon.com/PNY-Optima-PC2-6400-Desktop-Channel/dp/B001ISJ964/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1361710816&sr=1-1&keywords=ddr2+sdram+800
 

Nair a'gin will I purchase a single bit of Corsair RAM.

And here, Corsair XMS has been solid here. What board you have Bub?

Yes make all your ram the same...You can run mismatched sets...but it will cause problems...and or the slower brand will be made the standard for all...in my cause notes....overclocking might work for a while...but then the bios will complain about the overclocking of em, and ask that you make the necessary change....

Not that I Over clock...but with my recent buy and try..buying different brands to make the system post...was futile...Now I have two brands working in a third replacement board...but complaining...so I took out the lessor for the greator...And no more problems booting up with messages about oc memory.!.

Hope that helps.

hockeyjx

Nair a'gin will I purchase a single bit of Corsair RAM.

And here, Corsair XMS has been solid here. What board you have Bub?

Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Revision 1.0.
The XMS RAM I used was recommended by Newegg as part of a bundle and has a 3 out of 5 Egg rating. EDIT: I'm wrong about the rating, it's 4 out of 5.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260



It's cheap now, but it wasn't 4 years ago when I bought it.


Here's the Kingston I ended up getting ... unfortunately it's discontinued.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134812

mwall


It has been surmised that I need to upgrade my memory to possibly alleviate some weird experiences I'm having with Sonar. So, I want to upgrade from 4 to 8 GB. However, the memory I installed originally is not available any more. I can find PC2 6400 RAM still, but not in the same timing as I currently have, which is 5-4-4. How important is it to have the exact same timing on the add on memory? Options I'm finding now are 4-4-4-15, 5-5-5-15, and 6-6-6-15. If it's OK to mix, which would be the best option? Thanks.

I wouldn't mix myself... I had a hard time recently even getting a brandy new gigabyte z77 board to recognize a 4x8GB pack of corsair vengeance... even with XMP config, I had to fiddle around in the BIOS to get the timings set right... PITA if you ask me, these high falootin' computers with their fancy pants RAM chips...


I have an unopened pack of OCZ PC2-6400 (Titanium Edition) 2x2GB running 4-4-4 @2.2V here... If it helps I could send it to you if you want to try before buy sorta thing... figure you might be able to just run at your current timings (or higher) and undervolt these new sticks... keep in mind, the 4-4-4 and 2.2V go hand in hand, but that doesn't mean you can't undervolt, etc., to match things up. I certainly wouldn't overvolt your old chips... Let me know, and I can drop them in the post, and if they work perfrectly for you I promise I won't ask for more than... $175 or so for the pair... :)

Thanks, Keith. $175 is more than I could get all new 8GB sticks for. But I appreciate the offer. And yes, BobV, I saw those on Amazon, and those specs would work in my system, but they don't match my current set, so I'd have to get two sets of those and just take out my old ones, which I just might end up doing. Thanks.

Mark

I was joking about the $175, of course... they're unused now and likely to go unused, so I'd be happy to mail them to you and you can pop them in and see if you can mix them with what you have now... if so, I'd recommend first installing the mix and seeing if the mobo can auto-select volt and timing for you (but even if things appear to work, check the settings anyway). If that doesn't work, set the volts at your current 2.1V (or even lower) and set the timings to something safe like 9-9-9-24... If you want to try it out before dropping coin on ebay let me know... if it does work out and you feel obligated to repay me in some way, I will accept a $20 cash donation to your local animal shelter or other charity of your choosing... :)

PM me if you want to give it a go...