Ask The Admin

So we met with the good fellows over @ crucial.com during the Digital Life Show. Check out the bottom of this article on how to enter our free memory module give-a-way. Crucial told us about their new Memory picking do-hickie applimacation to help users find the correct memory for their computer. We all know how annoying it can be to order the wrong ram only to get your computer open and see that it won't boot. Crucial wants to do away with the headaches associated with picking out memory.

We went their homepage and tried the new application out. We first just used the drop down menus to put in several different systems and got the correct recommendations every time! Crucial spices up their offering with also offering to scan your machine. You know I had to try it out and see what it recommends. It also worked wonderfully but took a little longer than the first method.

The wizard installed a active-x control and withing seconds it told me how much memory was installed, in which banks and then it went on to show me what my max ram can be and in what configurations it could be applied in. It also shows prices and a scale of bad to excellent performance.

We commend Crucial on a job WELL DONE! This will make opening your machine up o find out what kind of Ram you need and how you have it configured a thing of the past.



We had Commodore64 run over to the website and give it a shot with his Mac and here are his findings:

Ok, tried the application on my mac powerbook 1.5ghz 12-inch. i was redirected to a mac based model picker. Quickly drilled down to my mac and I must say, the prices are ultra competitive. Got 3 different sizes, but i'm pretty sure they know what they're doing. the credibility factor really kicks in here. Going to remote into my pc server to try the app with 2 feet on the ground, but the mac process was pretty painless as well. Im pretty sure this can be attributed to mac's lack of open architecture (no clones like pc, so no variances in memory, motherboards, speeds, etc.) which crucial is completely poised to capitalize on as a memory purveyor. Ok browsed to the site in FF on a pc and receive the following message: Browser Incompatibility

The online Crucial System Scanner requires Internet Explorer browser and the use of ActiveX® technology to scan your system. If you use a different Web browser, such as Opera™ or Mozilla's Firefox™, please use our 112KB downloadable System Scanner instead.

hmm, 112 kb seems very lightweight, lets give it a shot... The application ran very quickly and successfully determined a lot of memory info for my system including slots available/slots filled, and memory capacity and potential. But then the strangest thing happened:

We're sorry.
Crucial currently does not have any compatible upgrades available for your particular system. If you have questions or would like further support, please contact our support department.

I gave it a go on a newer machine and had no problem. So for newbies who are trying to identify a lot of crucial (Edit: no pun intended) (Double Edit: Hell Yeah Pun Intended!) info which will aid them in their search for memory, this tool is great. So as a standalone tool, i was enlightened by the various bits of info that are being reported by my motherboard and processor. but i still have to go find an apparently extinct type of memory chip. But id have to add that i had long forgotten what type of memory i have, and was not looking forward to opening the case and kneeling way low below my desk, so this saved me the hassle.

Overall verdict: AWESOME! The application and website are great but they work a lot better with IE than FF. The custom machine configurations sometimes confuzzle the system but you can always use the drop downs to figure it out.

From Crucial:
Crucial will provide a 2GB custom memory upgrade (up to $300) for the winner. Since nobody wants to win a prize they can't use in their own system, just send me the winner's contact info and I'll work with them to find a compatible 2GB memory upgrade. Easy as that. They'll just hop on the Crucial System Scanner tool to find out what memory is compatible with their system.

In honor of our review and their new application we will be giving away a FREE 2gb memory module for your system.

You heard us right Crucial has teamed up with AskTheAdmin to get you a FREE 2GB Memory module for your desktop or laptop (up to $300) All you have to do is:

1. Sign up for our email updates on the right hand side of the page.
   
2. Post a comment here saying which memory chip you want.
   
3. Make us laugh. Make Us Cry. Just Give it a Try!
   
   We will choose one user who has commented and joined the list! I know you guys like free stuff as much as we do so lets hear you sound off in the comments. Be creative, funny and get your self noticed!
   
   _TheGiveAwayAdmiN_