Memory upgrade to 1gB, worth it?

Mr. Brightside · 10 Feb 2006 at 11:23

I'm considering an upgrade on my Inspiron 6000 laptop. Currently has 512mb dual channel (stuff it shipped with). Now, I usually have around 55 processes running (no comments about trim it down please, they are necessary). However, yesterday I decided to cut it down severely to 30 - which I can manage with for a short while - and there was a very noticable increase in general system responsiveness and loading times. My question is, would upgrading to 1gB allow me to run the full 55 processes with the same responsiveness I got yesterday; was the performance probably due to increased memory available, since I don't think the processes use much cpu.

Other question is, would 1gB mean that hibernation in Windows XP take longer since there is potentially more data to write, or does it only store the ram space that is in use?

Thanks, null

Dr Who · 10 Feb 2006 at 11:27

my laptop improved immensely with 1gb over 512k.. far less paging on the slow built in drive..

Mr. Brightside · 10 Feb 2006 at 19:05

OK thanks for that sounds like I will be upgrading then... when money permits (probably never in reality - got other things to spend it on)

If anybody could answer the question on hibernation that would help. Reason I'm not sure is because there are two possibilities I can see for how hibernate works; either it dumps all 512mB of ram to hard disk even if they are not in use, or it dumps only that which is in use. Clearly the latter is more efficient and therefore faster, but I don't know which way Windows XP uses. If it was the former, then I'm not so sure I want to upgrade - that would mean hibernation would take twice as long, as would resuming from hibernation. Since I use my laptop at school for half of my lessons, being able to pack and unpack quite quickly is important.

Second and perhaps more important question is what modules to get. I currently have 2 x 256mb (2 slots) running in dual channel. Would I do better to get an additional 1gB module (since that would be similar cost to 2 x 512) giving me 1.5gB total, or should I buy 2 x 512mb because iirc you can't run unmatched modules at dual channel?

Final question is that according to CPU-Z my ram is currently running at 200mhz, but my FSB is 533mhz - would I do well to get 533mhz (ddr) rated ram - only thing is, as far as I can see there are no options on the bios to change memory dividers so that probably isn't an option.

Thanks, null

Mr. Brightside · 13 Feb 2006 at 15:02

Shameless bumpage.

smids · 13 Feb 2006 at 15:47

null said:
Shameless bumpage.

I think hibernation only copies the RAM in use. I upgraded from 512MB to 768MB and have noticed zero change in hibernation times but everything runs faster due to more RAM/less pagefiling.

Why not just use standby though? It's so much quicker and really doesn't use any noticeable power - last night I left my laptop on standby, used 7% battery in 9 hours. This is a Centrino IBM T41 1.6Ghz Banias whose battery (optimised) lasts about 5 hours.

Mr. Brightside · 13 Feb 2006 at 18:05

I think I'll give standby a go tonight and see how much it uses then. Last time I did a 'power test' with standby, I seem to remember it using a lot more than you say. Will give it a go. Mine should be similar, its a Pentium M 1.73, current battery gets about 3 hours at a push but I'm hoping to upgrade the battery in future too.

Thanks, null

Mr. Brightside · 15 Feb 2006 at 09:17

Well I have 90% battery left after 8.5 hours standby, so that's all good

. If anyone could help with advice on what modules to get as in my 2nd post that would be great. (i.e. 1gb or 1.5gb?).

Thanks, null