One Word: Awesome!
Written: Oct 22 '04 (Updated Oct 22 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Everything. Comes properly packaged and labeled, is high-quality, and works as advertised.
Cons: Can't think of any. It's "point and stick."
The Bottom Line: I don't see any reason to purchase any other brand of memory. Crucial guarantees your satisfaction, or they will pay for return shipping.
|
|
|
| kengland4's Full Review: Crucial Technology PC133 CL2 168-pin 256 MB SDRAM ... |
I'd been searching for a memory upgrade for my 4 year-old 750 Mhz Athlon machine with a Jetway 771AS board for quite a while, and had made several incorrect purchases, forcing me to return them and pay shipping in some instances. Part of the problem was that the computer's manufacturer, Axis Systems, went out of business several years ago. I'd been to countless websites trying to look up the right model, e-mail them, and I'd usually be asked so many detailed questions about my system that you'd think I was applying for Level-99 national security clearance. However, I revisited Crucial's website, and was delighted to see that the board manufacturer itself, Jetway, was listed.
Note: the exact part I'm reviewing is the CT32M64S8D7E.8LTD
Crucial stated that their memory is "guaranteed to fit and work with" this particular motherboard, and the brand has been so praised that I was extremely comfortable with the purchase. I also got free 2-day ground shipping, which arrived on time despite the worst storm of the year affecting Southern California, with many inches of rain and several people killed (thanks, UPS). I installed it later that night, and the computer booted right up, detecting the memory with no problems, and no BIOS adjustments necessary.
NOTE: Crucial recommends matching your computer system manufacturer to the board, rather than to your motherboard's manufacturer, if possible, since so many details of the build affect compatibility and usability.
I noticed that the stick was not as tall as my existing, 128MB Viking VC Value "generic" PC133 stick, which has done an admirable job, but I recall this one being billed "low profile," and it is the same width, although I had some difficulty working around some of the IDE wires which I wasn't able to disconnect, as well as a few others, so I had to "work" it in a bit. Also, to my astonishment, even though I'd disconnected all the other wires, I forgot to pull out the power cable! But I was already done by then, and I had grounded myself by touching my doorknob, the under-sink plumbing, and used a wrist strap, in that order, lol. In the manual, I noticed that Crucial recommends leaving the power plugged in to reduce the risk of electrostatic damage to the board. Yeah, but what about the risk of shock, death, and damaging other components? Anyone with feedback here, let me know.
Anyways, after booting up, I went straight to the web. Sure enough, things moved along at least 60% faster-mostly loading web pages and downloading files-I was extremely pleased. Some downloads were occurring twice as fast as usual. Boot up also seemed to proceed a bit quicker, and I wasn't getting as many errors.
Later, I ran Norton's system benchmarker and, curiously, things were a little slower, in every category except memory, compared to a benchmark of a few months ago. The configuration is different, of course. I then changed my resolution from 1152X864 to 640X480 and repeated all tests. BIG DIFFERENCE. Blew most of my earlier benchmarks away in almost every category, and my 750 machine similarly dispatched Pentium III 850's, Celeron 1100's, and, in some tests, trounced some 1400 Pentium 4's, and matched Athlon 1400s and 2000 XP+'s, though not in many. I realize that the others were probably tested without many of the background programs I have, like Goback, Norton, etc.
I left my original, 128MB stick in the first slot, and I think maybe switching positions will give me a boost, although it's recommended to do it this way if there's a problem with the vice-versa situation.
I am now happily opening multiple pages simultaneously without nearly as much lag, speeding up bill pay and general research. This was my option to anteing up to broadband again, and may've just bought me some time.
My system is dual-booted with XP and 98se, so I later went into 98se and fidgeted around. The web was still faster, as well as were games (tested Max Payne and Aliens vs Predator Gold Edition). I have heard that much more than 256MB won't help much with 98, however, but it can handle up to 1.5GB. 384MB is doing just fine, but I notice a bigger performance gain in XP overall.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
kengland4
|
|
Member: Kevin England
Location: Signal Hill, CA USA
Reviews written: 99
Trusted by: 40 members
About Me:
HAPPY B'DAY TO ME!BLACK FRIDAY!In lieu of a gift, read & rate a review--comments!
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.