[runaraven]

First thing's first - My Speccy Report:


Now, my plan is to upgrade my ram first. I went to crucial like pretty much EVERYONE recommends, and they were dead wrong. It told me I had 4 slots when I know for fact that I only have 2. It also told me each slot can only handle 1GB sticks each. This part I'm not sure about. My plan was to replace the 256mb and 1gb sticks I have with 2 identical 2gb sticks. I know that I need DDR2 240 pin sticks, but I don't know what the supposed PC2-5300 part is that crucial told me, or if that's even correct. Any help here?

I also wish to upgrade my graphics card. I've been looking at the Nvidia GTX-400 series cards, but not sure if those will work with my current configuration. I would also need one that would work well if and when I decide to upgrade to Windows 7. Graphics cards I know very little about, so any advice here would be appreciated.

If more information is needed, please let me know and I'll be happy to supply. My computer is getting to be around 4 years old, and while it would be easy to just buy a new one, I'd rather just upgrade a few parts if I can.

P.S. I do play graphics intensive games like WoW, SecondLife, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I'm not a hardcore gamer, but would like things running smoother than they do now.

Thanks in advance!

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The MS-7248R doesn't appear to be an MSI anything. It looks like it's either a board from a Gateway machine, or a board made exclusively for MaxData.

If this is the case and it's an OEM board, you would need to look the system up on Crucial by the machine's model number, not the model of the motherboard itself. Crucial is very rarely wrong.

Does your motherboard look like this one or very similar to this one?
ftp://ftp.maxdata.de/MAXDATA%20PCs/MAXDATA%20Desktop/1%20Mainboards/3%20MSI%20Mainboards/Archive/MSI%20MS-7248/Manual/Manual.pdf

[Neil Jones]

The MS-7248R doesn't appear to be an MSI anything. It looks like it's either a board from a Gateway machine, or a board made exclusively for MaxData.

If this is the case and it's an OEM board, you would need to look the system up on Crucial by the machine's model number, not the model of the motherboard itself. Crucial is very rarely wrong.

Does your motherboard look like this one or very similar to this one?
ftp://ftp.maxdata.de/MAXDATA%20PCs/MAXDATA%20Desktop/1%20Mainboards/3%20MSI%20Mainboards/Archive/MSI%20MS-7248/Manual/Manual.pdf

[runaraven]

Hi Neil,

You are correct, I have a gateway machine, specifically the DX310S model. I built it up to the spec I wanted on their website a few years ago. Unfortunately, Gateway had the best price for what I was looking for at the time. I'm not a big fan, especially since my monitor crapped out just out of warranty.

I did not look up the motherboard on crucial, I looked it up via my Computer model number as you just suggested. I wasn't even aware there was an option to look it up via your motherboard. Like I said, crucial was wrong. Both Speccy and Gateway themselves say I only have two memory slots, as do I, having already looked "under the hood", though it was a long time ago. Unless I'm seriously missing something, I don't have the 4 slots that crucial suggests I do.

I as well came up short trying to google my motherboard. Just came up with other people having the same problem of finding it to pretty much "not exist". As far as whether that photo matches what my motherboard looks like, I couldn't tell you since I'm at work now, but I would guess it's fairly similar. As I said, it's been a while since I've popped it open. I do plan to do it tonight though, so I'll let you know.

[runaraven]

I called Crucial and they confirmed their information was incorrect and they are fixing it. Still can only have 1GB per slot max though, so I can only upgrade to 2GB RAM total. I find that rather disappointing...