I have a Dell Inspiron 5000 with 128 ram running XP. From my manual I see that I can stick in new RAM, and toss the old, so, I'll do it myself. If I remember right, it is SODIMM 144 pin (whatever this means) in two slots. Now, I want it to have at least 256 RAM. The problem I have is if there is RAM that says "256 Megs SODIMM 144 pin" can I buy it? Is there a "256 Megs SODIMM 144 pin" for laptops and then another "256 Megs SODIMM 144 pin" for desktops? What about 100Mhz RAM vs 133Mhz or whatever other technical thing that I don't understand? What about the motherboard? Yes, I can buy directly from Dell, but Crucial has a $30 difference. Plus, there is ebay, retail, and other sources to buy memory. What questions do I need to ask, and what do I need to know? Thanks for your help, everyone has been helpful to me in the past at this site before. :-)

Pin 144 is ONLY for laptop memory uses. Your RAM is SDRAM, i would say you probably have a PC133 for your memory right now? It could be PC100. You have to check what type of RAM your running PC100 or PC133, couldn't PC150.

Just go to crucial.com and find your system, then it'll tell you what RAm to buy