Crucial / 1GB / 240-pin DIMM / DDR2 PC2-5300 / Desktop Memory

If you have an older computer and these chips are right for you (google "crucial memory advisor" to find a site for checking this), so ahead and get these. Even with the (relatively) exorbitant shipping, they're still pretty inexpensive. I've had no problem with these chips.You probably need to speed match these chips in pairs, so go ahead and get two at once. Put them in the same color slots on your motherboard and you should be good to go. I bought these chips to replace some OEM chips that had gone bad, so I recommend running a memory diagnostic to insure that the new chips are working. You can run a minimal check by turning off any "fast boot" option you might have set in your BIOS, but don't forget to turn the option back on after a couple of reboots. There are also other ways to test you memory: (At least) Windows 7 has a built-in memory diagnostic you can run. (Type "diagnostic" in the search programs and files after clicking the start button to find it.) If you're running Linux you probably already know about memtest.As an aside, when memory chips start to go bad, it's not always obvious that that's what's happening. You can run into random crashes (Blue Screen Of Death on Windows) and/or data corruption on your hard disk. It can look like a virus. When you're having system issues, it's a good idea to rule out memory problems before checking other things. Memory problems are easy to detect (if you explicitly look for them) and easy to fix.

I bought one of these when I first upgraded my HP Slimline PC last year '08. It was very expensive back then ($40+), maybe I got took by HP. Nowadays, purchasing one of these is a lot cheaper than I expected. My HP Slimline came with a factory RAM of 1.0 GB but in overall of .5 GB (due to installed programs used), the PC was a bit slow when I stored some pictures, videos & games. I decided to upgrade & purchase one of these Crucial 1GB's & installed it myself. It went well with a 1.5 GB overall & My PC ran a better performance on a DSL. Now, currently it has 2.0 GB when I purchased another 1GB here in amazon with a very low price tag. I wish someday these memory module will be available in 2GB models.

I bought two of them for my computer to get to a total of 2.5 GB RAM memory. I am very satisfied with the final outcome.I decided very quickly to use "Crucial" modules, and found two modules through two search methods provided by Crucial:1) A computer scan program (crucialscan.exe) recommended module "CT908179" from a hardware scan of my computer. It is named "Dell Specific" and costs $53.9 for 2 x 1 GB. It probably would work very well.2) A table search method recommended module "CT731048" for the same price.Since both would require me to pay a state sales tax, I decided to search AMAZON to find what I need. I found Crucial "CT12864AA667" offered by Amazon to be the exact module for my computer, (DDR2 PC2-5300 240 pin CL=5 unbuffered NON-ECC 1GB at $22 each). No sales tax and no shipping.After I inserted these modules in slots 2 & 4, my computer did not start at all. Since I read that sometimes incompatible memory modules can cause this type of problems, I took out the original modules (256MB each) and used slots 1 & 3 for the new modules. This time, my computer started nicely. I still see several messages to indicate its progress in using the new modules. Not satisfied with wasting the old memory, I inserted the old ones back in slots 2 & 4 and the computer accepted them easily. So, I now have 2.5 GB memory in my computer. I still do not know why this combination worked. Hope my experience would help someone else also.

I love Crucial, I do. I've purchased from them in the past and had no problems whatsoever. But I will now have some hesitation in recommending that people use their "automatic detection" process (a small download that attempts to read motherboard information / bios to determine exactly what RAM you have in your machine and what your system is capable of).In this instance, the software detected that I had 4 slots, only 1 full. I ordered 3 sticks of RAM to fill it up -- the RAM that Crucial recommended. The RAM arrived and when I opened the case to install it, I found 2/4 slots full. I put 2 sticks of RAM in and the system would not boot -- ultimately through trial and error I discovered that one stick of RAM would cause the machine to not boot no matter what other combination of RAM was in the machine. 2/3 sticks worked fine but one was faulty. They did pay to have it shipped back and promptly refunded my money but it was discouraging to get inaccurate results, pay for those items and one is defective. This won't keep me from purchasing Crucial again in the future -- but I'll approach with caution.

After struggling to install this memory with big hands in a tight space(under the disc drives on an HP computer). It finally recognized the memory. There really wasn't much of an increase in speed or performance that could be recognized with a WOW but more like an OK. I guess I could have saved some money and been satisfied with OK.