Laptop Ram-Upgrade or Not?

ANDARIAL · 7 Sep 2007 at 12:13

I have just upgraded my Dell Inspiron lappy with Vista and wondered if it was worth upgrading the ram
i currently have
1x512 mb
1x256 mb

i was thinking of getting a single 2gb stick to go with the 512 and selling the 256 stick but i have read that it will cause a performance hit as it wont be running in dual channel.?

also the ram i was looking at was ddr667,my ram atm is only533 however i think it is only running at 400 due to the intel chipset in the lappys mobo(intel 915)
any comments/suggestions please

duvet77 · 7 Sep 2007 at 12:33

I'm confused... you say you have a 512 and a 256 but in the next sentence, you talk about keeping a 512 and selling a 512... is it a typo?

Either way, having 2.5Gb is going to be better than what you've got now, whether it's dual channel or not.... not that i'm an expert.

ANDARIAL · 7 Sep 2007 at 12:36

you are right i meant i was going to sell the 256 and keep the 512mb to go with the 2gb stick

Yellowbeard · 7 Sep 2007 at 16:58

If it is a dual channel MOBO, why not get 2 x 1gb? Whatever brand of RAM you chose, check their sites and see if they have a memory tool or configurator.

ANDARIAL · 7 Sep 2007 at 18:40

had a look on the dell site and it appears to be dual channel mobo so i think i will plump for 2x1gb sticks as suggested,and sell my existing ram
thanks for the comments

ANDARIAL · 9 Sep 2007 at 08:26

still trying to decide

existing ram is 533 cas4
(think it only runs @400 due to chipset limitation?,anyone confirm this?)

ram i am looking at is 667 cas5
or 533 cas4
which would be better,the 667 is not much more ,about a fiver.

lappy is dell inspiron 1300
Would the greater latency be a significant performance loss?(Am thinking the higher speed stuff would hold its price better if i resell it later in its life)

gurusan · 9 Sep 2007 at 08:36

go for the 533 CAS4.

If you get the 667 it won't matter, it will just run at 533mhz as thats what the settings are set for in the BIOS...and since it's a Dell laptop you can't mess with them.

Mattus · 12 Sep 2007 at 01:57

Don't get a 2GB stick. A 2GB stick of SDRAM will cost you loads!

Personally I'd buy 2x1GB and sell the existing sticks.

ANDARIAL · 12 Sep 2007 at 08:42

Wellthe lappy takes ddr2 not sdram

but i think i will be getting 2x1gb sticks as you suggested .i have found that mediaplayer stutters a bit when playing while i am surfing .Not being used for gaming,mostly surfing ,music and reading manga and e-books