HDD Modular-bay & 3GB ram questions

Hi Asus people

1. I currently have 1 GB if RAM in my ASUS V1J. Could you tell me if I can add 2GB stick to it? Would it work fine? (1GB & 2GB)

If yes, could you tell what specifications should I buy? Would that be ok:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145172

2. Could anyone tell if HDD Modular bay is a practical thing? Does anyone use it? I don't want my old HDD go to waste so I though od buying a bay for it.

Any help is greatly, greatly appreciated!

D

 

Yes 1GB + 2GB should be fine And yes 667mhz ram is what you need.

 

Depending on how often you use your ODD, you might be much better off with the HDD in the modular bay. I know I would.

 

Personally I find myself using the HDD module far more often compared to the ODD. It's almost a 9:1 ratio.

Chances are you are not going to be using DVDs or CDs as often as additional storage. Besides, I carry the ODD with me along with the Notebook. If I do need it all I do is hotswap it, and I'm good to go...

 

Sweet! Thank you for the answers guys!

Thanks for the 3GB RAM answer! Can anyone confirm that its possible? Just to be sure

Also, where would I find harddrive replacement instructions for Asus? I dug through forum with no results on that.

 

What instructions? Take off the HDD bay door, disconnect the HDD, remove it from the caddy if there is one, put the new HDD in, reconnect, put the door back, you're done.

3GB shouldn't present problems.

 

Haha No, big plan is to buy faster 7200 HDD and put it in. And use my old slow HDD in the bay. How do I put new one in?

Thankx for confirmation.

 

Follow EBE's instructions above your post for the bottom of the V1, but omit the caddy part

 

Hah I already thought of that.

 

1. I never tried 2GB modules in the V1J, but I believe someone complained that they were only getting 3GB with 2x2GB modules, so I presume it works.

2. The HDD modular bay is a nice trinket to have, but in the year I've had it I've rarely ever used it. It's merely a tray that you screw the HDD in from the bottom and has a little SATA data/power connector on the end. Handy if you plan on ever trying to boot from a second HDD, but flat out useless if you plan on hooking it to another computer since the connector is proprietary. It would've been handy to have a mini-USB slot on the side so that you could actually use it elsewhere. I carry a 250GB WD laptop HDD in my Vantec USB/eSATA 2.5" enclosure with me and it works out MUCH better.

For the main HDD, it is mounted in a tray and it's very easy to switch it out. You open the compartment, slide the tray away from the HDD connector, pull out the tray, unscrew the HDD, screw the new one in its place and put it back properly and it should be good. I eventually caved and upgraded mine to a Seagate 200GB 7200rpm. Works nicely but it's only a bit faster. Doesn't come close to a desktop. You'll probably want to image your disk from the old one to the new one using something like Ghost or Acronis. If you don't have a desktop, that's where that modular HDD tray becomes REALLY useful. Otherwise, the SATA laptop drives use the same connectors as the desktop drives, so you could just connect them both up to the desktop SATA power and data and it'll detect and work just like a desktop drive.

Just to let you know, the V1J's SATA port is only SATA/150 (this is a 945 mobile chipset limitation), so don't bother with a SATA/300 drive if it costs that much more since it won't make a difference.

 

Yeah, the whole point of the modular bay HDD tray is to extend the internal storage space of the computer, not to replace an external USB enclosure.

 

Thank you for a detailed reply guys! Got my RAM, faster HDD, and bay kit ordered. Can't wait I'll get NTFS too... finally.