[slick1two]

I have a Dell XPS 8100. it has an intel core i5 750. Currently there is 4gb of ram onboard, Using Windows 7 home premium. I want to to get some better sticks and get up to 8GB, maybe add another 8gb later to max it out. PC starting to get sluggish as more and more applications and games are getting pretty intensive on the system resources!

Checked out crucial and the ballistix range looked tempting as I did the memory scan and said they were compatible with my system. Then I checked up the benchmarks and not looking great performance wise.

Seen a lot of Corsair modules on Amazon for around about the same price. How can i work out if they will be compatible? Or if anyone can recommend something decent within around £45.

I do a lot of video editing, graphic design, some gaming, DVD burning, ripping, streaming HD video. Just need to boost my system, so I can do all of this a bit quicker.

[barky99]

I'd go with crucial ... have done so myself a few times

benchmarks will depend on other very variable hardware present as well ... won't they?

[s2k]

Thankfully Dell provide detailed info about the hardware specifications. The manual for your system can be found here:
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...n/cs/cs_en.pdf

Memory
Connectors four internally-accessible DDR3 DIMM
sockets
Capacities 1 GB, 2 GB, and 4 GB
Memory type 1066-MHz or 1333-MHz DDR3 DIMM;
non-ECC memory only
Memory configurations possible 4 GB, 6 GB, 8 GB, 12 GB, and 16 GB
(64-bit operating system)

Sounds fairly standard to me. It would be worth checking the speed of the RAM that is currently installed (Press F2 at Dell logo then highlight memory) and either buy the same speed or replace it. Reason being some boards will downgrade to the lower speed while others will refuse to boot.