hey i'll be honest i know very little about computers. i would like to upgrade some memory. can you help with suggestions

It's not complicated but you need to know some basics, such as identifying the type of memory already installed, the amount of memory installed, the capabilities of your motherboard. If you're not sure, take it into a local dealer for advice.

I emailed my specs (Presario 5005R, WinME) to Mushkin (contact link at mushkin.com) and they emailed me my DETAILED specs and their recommendations and I replaced the OEM RAM and upgraded to 512MB pc133 SDRAM from 128MB pc100 SDRAM and the difference in stability and performance was and is very noticeable.

I already had Cacheman installed (using only its' settings, not its' memory recovery "running in the background" "feature" which is unnecessary and uses too much memory/resources, imo); Mushkin also recommended Cacheman to me (also just using its' settings), they weren't aware I already had it installed. I did change some settings from within Cacheman to correspond with my increased RAM and also enabled conservative swapfile usage from within Cacheman's interface.

Setting up a "permanent" swapfile and using a good defragger (Norton Speed Disk is what I use) to move the swapfile to the outer edge of the hard drive is also good for performance.

Go to www.crucial.com and input your computer model and it will detail exactly which type and amount (in MBs) your system takes in total and per slot. Then you can shop around for a good deal on major brands.