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I've Dell optiplex 380 machine and I've 32bit Windows 7 ultimate OS on it with DDR3 2*2GB RAM on it.

I want to upgrade my machine to use 8GB RAM with 64bit windows 7 ultimate OS and want to install DDR3 2*4GB RAM. Is this possible on this machine?

I'm little bit layman in this area but by reading the specs I have got an impression that max Ram I can use on this machine is 4GB with DDR3 and 8GB with DDR2. Can anybody give me clear idea on this?

specification links of processor and mother board chipset:

Processor

Chipset

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  • see Configuration Details in kingston.com/de/memory/…
    – JohannesM
    Commented Aug 9, 2012 at 8:00
  • Negative voters - if you could give me the reason for downvote, that would help me a lot to reframe my question or give more information.
    – JayaprakashReddy
    Commented Aug 9, 2012 at 12:39
  • I think you were downvoted because you can find this easily by searching on Amazon. Try it. Here are some search engine results: duckduckgo.com/?q=max+ram+dell+optiplex+380
    – bgmCoder
    Commented Mar 12, 2014 at 19:15

2 Answers 2

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A Dell manual for the Optiplex 380 says

 Memory  

 Memory module connector  2 DIMM slots   
 Memory module capacity   1 GB, 2 GB, or 4 GB   
 Memory type              1067 MHz DDR3   
 Minimum memory           1 GB  
 Maximum memory           8 GB

So yes, you can replace the RAM with 2 x 4GB DDR3

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  • Thanks a lot for the manual and info. I did try installing 64bit OS and installed 8GB DDR3 RAM as well and it worked without any issue.
    – JayaprakashReddy
    Commented Aug 9, 2012 at 12:43
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What they are saying is that the G41 chipset can support either DDR2 or DDR3 memory and so the quantity of memory you can fit is highly dependant on which memory type your motherboard manufacturer chose to allow you to fit.

This is due to the fact that DDR2 and DDR3 signals are kind of similar though the connectors for the memory DIMMs are not completely the same hence the strange limitation. Essentially the motherboard manufacturer chose whether to go for faster DDR3 memory, or more DDR2 memory on the board.

There were even a few motherboards that supported both at one time though only one type could be used at a time.

If you have DDR3 memory slots then you are limited to 4GB.

If you have DDR2 memory slots then you are able to use 8GB.

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  • Thanks for the detailed information on the specification links given by me.
    – JayaprakashReddy
    Commented Aug 9, 2012 at 12:44

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