The quickest and cheapest way to speed up your computer (Crucial (computer memory))

Member Name: hugon

Product:	Crucial (computer memory)
Date:	17/09/01 (672 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to find type of RAM you need, Very quick delivery, Cheap prices

Disadvantages: None

I was growing tired of my computer grinding to a halt every time I had more than one or two internet explorer windows open, and with my recent addition of a firewall and virus checker to the system tray, my 64MB of RAM was being stretched to the limit, and as I knew prices weren't too much these days, I decided to splash out on another 128MB to give my computer a little treat.

I'd heard Crucial had an excellent reputation, both for price and speed or service, so after checking a few other online retailers, I found that RAM prices where pretty much of a muchness, and plumped for Crucial because they didn't charge for delivery, and my friend told me delivery was very quick, so off I went.

The best thing about the crucial website is that is so incredibly easy to find what you're looking for. Even if you're terrible with computers, and haven't a clue what you're looking for, all the hard work is done for you. All you have to do is select your brand of computer from a drop down list; this will take you to a second drop down menu, where you select your model of computer. Once that has been selected, it's basically a case of selecting how much memory you wish to purchase. The results page will tell you how many slots your motherboard has, what the maximum RAM it can hold is, little bits of information to keep you on the right track. From there it is just a case of adding the items to your basket and checking out. If you can't see your model listed, you can fill in a form, or ring a free phone number and Crucial will find out what RAM your system requires.

Should you know what type of memory you are looking for (e.g. number of pins, refresh rate), you can select it from the drop down menu on another search page, and similarly you can search by crucial part number if you know it.

Once you have got all the necessary items to your basket, it is simply a case of filling in your details, credit card details
and selecting delivery options; it's very quick and easy. If you have ordered before, you can enter your email address and password, and your shipping and personal information will be retrieved from the Crucial database. You will still have to enter your credit card details, as these are not stored on their server. If you are a new user, you will need to enter standard delivery information - name, address, billing address (if different from the shipping address), phone number and email, then credit card information.

Standard delivery is by Royal Mail special delivery, which is supposed to arrive the next day of shipment, before 12o'clock. If you require evening delivery, there will be a £4.95 charge, and if you require Saturday delivery, it will be a £12.95 charge. Once you select the delivery method, you will see the final cost, with VAT added on to the RAM charges (there is no VAT added on the results pages).

If you don't have a credit card or wish to pay by a different method (e.g. cheque), you can also do this, but I can't comment on that as I used my debit card. The site accepts Switch, Solo, MasterCard and Visa, once these are entered and verified (on a secure server, naturally), you're taken to the confirmation page, and a confirmation email is delivered to your inbox immediately.

Your order can be tracked by logging into your account, and selecting your order number. This will give you the Royal Mail tacking number, which is linked to the Royal Mail site, so you can get an estimate of the time they expect to deliver your order. My order was dispatched the morning after I ordered (Crucial also send you an email on dispatch of your order), and Mr Postman was ringing my doorbell the following morning, so total time from order to arrival was less than 48 hours, which is especially impressive considering I live in Northern Ireland and am used to waiting an extra day for my orders compared to the mainland.


The RAM came in a small cardboard box, padded between two pieces of foam and the RAM protected in an antistatic bag, along with your printed receipt for your order and a small leaflet on installing the RAM in your computer. It's a general leaflet in multiple languages, but it should give novices a helping hand should you need it.

The site is very simple, mostly white with minimal graphics making the site incredibly quick, which creates an excellent impression. Total time from entering the site to completing my order was less than three minutes, on a 56k modem, and most of the time was spent entering my details into the forms. Everything you want to know is answered on site, there is a comprehensive FAQ, as well as technical details of the RAM they sell - each product has a hyperlink beside it to explain the numbers and acronyms that the industry uses, so you know exactly what you're getting.

Navigation around the site is very intuitive; there is a graphical menu bar at the top of the screen that allows you to move between the home page, your account page, the FAQ and your shopping basket. There's also a site map should you find it difficult to find what you'e looking for, but you shouldn't come across that problem.

It's not the type of site you're going to have to visit more than a couple of times, but those couple of times are a highly pleasant experience. It's fast, secure, simple to find what you want, the prices are cheap and delivery speedy. You can't really ask for a lot more from an online retailer. They certainly get my vote.

To give you an idea of savings, my 128MB block of Ram cost about £17, that's with the standard 10% reduction on manufacturer's prices Crucial offer, with VAT added on. The same block of RAM in PC World cost £50, so you can see the advantages from ordering from this store.

If you use the URL http://www.crucial.com/uk/webpromo/, this will offer a fur
ther 5% reduction on Crucial's prices, taking the cost down to 15% below manufacturer's prices. There is a box to enter a 5-digit code, simply enter any 5-digit number to receive your discount.

Summary: