RAM upgrade - worth it?

[Hamster]

I've had a laptop dumped on me which is sluggish, more than likely due to lack of RAM. It's the US equivalent of a Sony Vaio PCG-GRX5P (Pentium 4-M 2GHz, 512MB RAM) and the graphics card uses 64MB of the RAM, leaving 448MB for the system. (I've cleaned up the system, minimised visual effects etc and defragged so it's running pretty much as well as it can at the moment).

It has 2 memory slots each of which contain 256MB modules and the maximum memory chip size available is 512MB. Is it worth swapping the 256MB for 512MB modules, doubling the RAM ie would there be much of a noticeable performance increase in XP to warrant the £40 it would cost?

I'd appreciate your input.

 

[Hamster]

Thanks for replying. Yes it is for general surfing/msn/office apps but it seems to run a lot slower than lower spec machines i have used in the past. The laptop doesn't respond to navigating settings and opening basic apps as well as i would have expected from its spec.

Maybe i'll look at making an image then restoring the laptop to factory setup and comparing the performance.

Also i've had a look around for second hand memory but it seems to be thin on the ground at the moment unfortunately. £40 for 2 X 512MB does seem a bit excessive. It's actually my uncle's laptop and the last thing i want to tell him is that £40 of his cash would improve his laptop when it would turn out that it will make very little difference!!

 

[Hamster]

These are quite prone to over heating also as the heatsink fins clog up, is there a good flow of warm air coming out the vents? This might cause cpu throttling making it under perform.

I've put the laptop away for the night but i'll check for that tomorrow and post back. Thanks

 

[Hamster]

i would upgrade the ram if you can get it cheap (20 quid)

If i could find 512MB sticks for £10 then i would buy 2!! The model number is PCGE-MMDDR512 and the cheapest i have found is £19.43 inc for each stick.

 

[Hamster]

depends on what you want it to do? but if cheap enough always worth it!

My uncle is coming over tomorrow so i'll let him have a play with it and decide whether he's happy with it as it is. He is rather more patient than i am so he could well be!!

Also i've tried opening the laptop to have a look at the fan but there are a few stubborn screws and i don't have a long enough screwdriver to allow me some more torque.

 

[Hamster]

Thanks guys! I'll look into RAM usage next time i get the laptop as he's taken it and we didn't get time to look at it beforehand.