8Gb in Vostro 1500

Dell says the Vostro 1500 only supports up to 2x2GB but I'm wondering if anyone has successfully slotted in a 4GB stick to increase the RAM in use. (under Windows 7 Professional, 64bit)

If this is not a runner, is there any other way to get to use more than 4GB of memory? (apart from a page file on disk) Is there anything relevant that can slot into the ExpressCard hole?

 

Download SIW and see what is maximum memory size supported by a slot. Vostro 1500 is an older model so I assume it is 2GB, but anyway, check for yourself.

Also, I do not see much of a use with 8GB RAM memory. I guess it depends on personal preference and habit.

 

What programs are you using? Nothing via ExpressCard will help memory consumption, but if you're not getting low memory errors, you probably will not notice a difference btw 4GB and 8GB.

 

I know that there are people with Inspiron 1520s and 1720s running 6GB. I do recall hearing about people having problems with 8GB, but I don't know if a fix was ever found, or if the problems were serious.

As the Vostro 1500 is identical to the 1520, I think you should be fine at least through 6GB.

At any rate, I would also make sure you really do need more than 4GB of memory before committing to buy anything. As it stands, 4GB DIMMs are hugely more expensive per GB than 2GB DIMMs.

 

I agree with Commander Wolf. As I recall it, the 1720 supports up to 8 GB in practice, and I believe the 1520 does, too (don't quote me on that, though). The XPS 1330 generally maxed out at 6 GB.

I would buy one stick at a time, though, given the price. And I'd buy the second one at a brick and mortar store with a good return policy if possible - the jump from 6 GB to 8 GB is not guaranteed.

If you still need more, ReadyBoost can theoretically add quick swap space to a system. But in practice, it's slower than the hard drive in most cases. In a year or so you may be able to buy a USB 3.0 ExpressCard, however, and connect a USB flash drive to that, and then use ReadyBoost with that to get a performance improvement. But that's all speculative, and in the future. Regular RAM is your best bet.

 

Thanks. I think I'll hold off a while. I haven't calculated when I need extra RAM, but I know going from 2 to 4 made a big difference and was curious whether it would be possible to go further.

The main use where I'd like the extra RAM is for Photoshop and occasional video manipulation.

 

Would you even see all that RAM? On many desktops, you have to enable memory remapping in the the BIOS for Windows to recognize more than 4 Gb. In practice, some of the memory space is used for device mapping, so even at 4 GB, only something like 3 to 3.5 Gb is available to Windows. I don't see memory remapping as an option in my Vostro 1500 BIOS.

 

He'll be able to see it without any funny business if he uses a 64bit flavor of Windows (or any other OS).

 

I'm pretty sure the XPS 13xx is fine at 8GB and the Vostro 15xx is still capped at 6GB (though I haven't checked if the latest BIOS adds support for 8GB).

 

I was surprised when I installed 64 bit Windows 7 on my gaming PC and only 3 of 4 gb of RAM was recognized. It wasn't until I enabled memory remapping in the BIOS that the RAM was all seen by Windows.