Ram type & speed

[AnupamMitra]

In one of my Desktops OS is Ubuntu 18.04.5 32 bit. RAM is 2 GB. Processor is Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz × 2 . Now I would like to upgrade my OS to Ubuntu 20.04. As I have heard that minimum RAM should be 4 GB for 20.04. Therefore, I would like to increase the RAM. How do I know the required speed of RAM commensurate with my PC for purchasing another one?

[CelticWarrior]

There are different issues to unpack here.
Firstly, you CAN'T upgrade to 20.04 if you have 32-bit hardware. 18.04 is the last LTS release with 32-bit support. After that you need to find a different Linux family of OSes, like Debian, that still support it. For how long is the question to which I have no answer.

4GB of RAM is considered the bare minimum nowadays to a comfortable experience. This isn't related with the 20.04 release specifically.

[CatKiller]

Although you've been running a 32-bit install, that processor is apparently 64-bit. So you'll be able to do a fresh install of a 64-bit OS since, as CelticWarrior says, 32-bit can't be upgraded.

You'll need to look in your motherboard's manual to know which RAM you can use. From the vintage it might be DDR2 or DDR3. You'll also be able to see from there what your maximum RAM configuration is. The older types of RAM may be hard to find and expensive; there's a sweet spot of when to buy RAM. When a new type has just been invented, supply is low and prices are high. Then production increases and prices fall. Then production stops, and you can only get them from hoarders, so prices go right up.

[GhX6GZMB]

The E5200 is 64-bit.

[TheFu]

A Q8400 is about 3x faster CPU that will work in the same motherboard. It uses DDR3.

How can I say this nicely. Sometimes RAM upgrades are a bad idea without replacing everything else too. I probably wouldn't spend $10 to upgrade RAM on a computer that old.

I bet you can find a Q8400 + MB + 8G of RAM for $40 somewhere. I'd be happy to get $40 for my E6600 + 8G RAM and MB. One person's junk is another person's goldmine. If spending $80 is possible, then an off-lease business computer with a Core i5 could be found that is 4-8x faster with plenty of RAM. And if your case is standard, replacing the MB + CPU +RAM can often been done for $200 total to provide 10x+ more performance.

[grahammechanical]

I am thinking about the video adapter. How much of its own memory does the video card have? It is good that the machine can run Ubuntu 18.04 but Xubuntu or Lubuntu might be more suitable for the video adapter in that machine.

As already suggested at what point does upgrading the parts of a machine become equal in cost to purchasing newer and more powerful, but not the latest hardware.

Regards

[GhX6GZMB]

FYI, $40 can be quite a lot of money in India. Not to mention $80 or even $200. "Flaunting it" is not very nice.

[TheFu]

FYI, $40 can be quite a lot of money in India. Not to mention $80 or even $200. "Flaunting it" is not very nice.

$40 is quite a bit of money to me as well, but I wouldn't assume that someone else couldn't use information regardless of price. Those considerations are for the OP to decide. At least the information was provided, which is often appreciated.

[GhX6GZMB]

$40 is quite a bit of money to me as well, but I wouldn't assume that someone else couldn't use information regardless of price. Those considerations are for the OP to decide. At least the information was provided, which is often appreciated.

Fair point.

But the HW race sometimes goes too far. I'm running Lubuntu 20.04 on two 12-year old HP 6910p machines, one with 2 GB, the other with 4 GB, and both run very fast and with no problems at all.
1 GB of RAM (SO-DIMM 666/800) costs around $6 these days. To me it seems an alternative that's a lot cheaper.

[Keith_Helms]

I was looking at adding ram to a system and found the following command told me what type and speed ram is currently in it:

sudo dmidecode -t 17

For each used memory slot, you'll get a listing like this

Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x001C
    Error Information Handle: No Error
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 16384 MB
    Form Factor: SODIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: ChannelA-DIMM0
    Bank Locator: BANK 0
    Type: DDR4
    Type Detail: Synchronous
    Speed: 2667 MT/s
    Manufacturer: 8945
    Serial Number: 16161616
    Asset Tag: 9876543210
    Part Number: GKE160SO102408-2666 
    Rank: 2
    Configured Memory Speed: 2667 MT/s
    Minimum Voltage: 1.25 V
    Maximum Voltage: 1.5 V
    Configured Voltage: 1.2 V