Can the W7J be upgraded to 2.5 GB RAM?

Using a 2GB RAM stick?

Or will the system only recognize up to 1.5GB RAM?

 

1. Have you priced a 2GB piece of memory?
2. What applications are you running the could take advantage of that much memory?
3. Do you realize adding a new piece of memory that ASUS has not certified will void your warranty?

 

1. +$1000, but in 6 months, probably $500.
2. SQL Server 2005 / Visual Studio .Net 2005 / MS Visio
3. No, thats why I'm asking.

 

Also, I'm looking to buy a notebook which I can keep for 3+ years. And when you're developing applications, RAM is king.

kthx

 

If you can find a 2GB stick of DDR2-533 memory and can afford the cost, probably. You shouldn't have any need for more than 1.5GB though.
By the time you actually use the extra 1GB, the laptop will be obsolete, the warranty expired and the cost not so expensive.
BTW, upgrading RAM in Asus laptops viods warranty? thats weird.

 

elgordo, I think 1.5 GB should suffice for the 2005 versions of MS.NET development tools. I was using 1 GB at the office to run all those things, and never really needed more.

But I don't know what you might be doing in 6 mths or a year, so I understand where you're coming from

 

ric3rboy91 : In Ensemble units yeah, it's supposed to void your warranty. Not in BOA models though, coz those are supposed to be customizable.

There are some ppl who believe that the 'Magnuson-Moss Act' will allow memory upgrades/changes without voiding warranty, but that's not my area of knowledge and I won't even comment on it

 

Thanks- I was planning on buying the minimum now then adding that stick in a couple of months. Just wanted to see if it would run or if there was some sort of "cap" applied by the system itself. I don't think a 2ghz core duo is going to be obsolete by the time the 2GB stick is affordable though.

 

Thanks Darrick- MS tools are such memory hogs, so I want to make sure they're "snappy" 2 years from now! I also need to be able to debug applications and run a database instance in a very portable setting (when I work on-site), so I want to make sure I can max out whatever I get. Its good to hear the 1.5GB works well though.

 

Yeah .. memory hog sounds quite right .. never know what a 64 bit development environment might do to us .NET developers... prob require a minimum 2 GB RAM at that time

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

Good advice to wait until the prices come down, and your warranty ends, and Vista is released.

At this point I don't think anyone can answer whether the W7J can support a single piece of 2GB memory because not even ASUS has tested it.

In theory it should work because the Intel 945 chipset supports up to 4GB, but the final test is whether the BIOS will support it, and whether it would generate too much heat.

 

I'm less concerned about the warranty/price and more about the bios support. Although heat would be a definite concern.

 

The problem is ASUS isn't going to spend the money or take the time to test whether a 2GB piece will work in the W7J. They only worry about their set configuration on their ASUS branded Ensemble models. Therefore we can't really ask them, or expect an answer from them even if we did ask them.

 

I'm sure Asus has tested this out at one time or another. But I can understand that they didn't build toward that spec. Again, I'm just wondering if it will work lol. Maybe someone's in a similar situation and has tried it, etc-