Thanks for the advice
The box is only two years old, and I have the specs and manuals, so learning which slots I have (and which kind of RAM) should be easy without opening the box.
I was finally able to get to the next objective ("find Blue Team") in the asteroid field before the game froze again... so it's going to be a while, if at all, before I feel ready to join in on multiplayer.
But I want to...