upgrading A6J

Hi, I would like to ask you... my brother has an A6Je Asus.
CPU: T5500
RAM: 1GB
HDD: 80 GB
Graphics card: X1450 ATI Mobility Radeon.

And he is thinking about putting some money into it to upgrade some parts. Would should be the best and most economical way? Im trying to avoid situation when I have 4GB of RAM but "slow CPU"....
there will be no changes to HDD, we are talking about "processing" and "gaming" speed... Is it worth the money to upgrade the computer to cca 3GB? ( I dont want more than that since then I would have to use x64 and there is no need for that now... )
would do you guys think about that? any advice is welcomed

 

Just add 1 Gb of memory - that is it (and very inexpensive)

 

I agree that more RAM is probably the best way to go.

If XP, then I suggest upgrade to 2GB.
If Vista, I suggest 3GB.

With a 5500 I think you can upgrade to a 7500 or something similar (but I am not sure about it, please check before doing it) -- but that would void warranty. Also the advantage wouldn't show in desktop use; perhaps in gaming, yes. Moreover, this is not at all an economical upgrade (retail CPUs are very expensive).

Besides this, if you don't want to upgrade the HDD... there's nothing much left.

 

is it possible to have 1GB ram in one slot and then 2GB in the second one? shouldnt it be the same for both slots? can that cause any trouble?

ps: the computer is running XP

 

Yes, it is.
One thing more...
The best way to boost performance is to maintain OS health. Microsoft OS products are well known for producing lots of crapas intermediate files (tmp for instance.
Install free registry cleaning utility (Glary or another one) and clean up your OS, make defraf, of HD. Often results are amazing

 

i dont think you can run dual channel if the memory amount is different in each slot

 

RIGHT
You (and me) can't run dual channel with non-identical sticks. We can run it as SINGLE channel.
Want to run dual channel? Buy set of 2 pre-selected memory sticks and pay more

 

wrong. any modern intel chipset, and possibly current AMD ones im not sure, can run dual channel at uneven capacities (i.e a 1 gig and 2 gig stick).

pre-selected/matched was never a requirement, in the past they just had to be the same speed/capacity. now capacity doesnt matter, speed should be matched otherwise theyll both run at the speed of the slower one.

 

thanks for all the information guys... one more thing. Should I be aware of some restrictions when buying the RAM modules (which ones go into the computer, which ones go best with the one that I already have in there.....) or can I purchase any laptop 2GB modules and just put it in?

 

This guy is right, it's called Asymetric Dual Channel. Just have two sticks in there.

 

thanks, thats good news rep to you and all other relevant answers

 

ok, i found the answer to what I was looking for.....just in case someone reads this thread and needs the same answer, here are the types of RAM moduls for this laptop http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=2187411

 

ok, my question now is, if that page above says that this computer can handle max 2GB or ram (2x1GB ), what would happen if I put in 1+2GB modules..... is that doable?

 

Yes, two unidentical RAM sticks will run in asymm dual channel. BTW dual channel has little benefit in notebooks (a few percent at most, and only in synthetic benchmarks, by what I've heard).

I agree with the suggestion of tweaking / keeping your OS clean. Check my WinXP guide for a few suggestions on what to do to achieve that (or if you have Vista, my Vista guide).

As to what to look for: check that the RAM is:
a) the proper version (DDR2 vs DDR -- probably you have DDR2)
b) the proper format (probably SODIMM, that's the case in most notebooks)
c) at least the frequency supported by your motherboard)

Other than that, any major manufacturer will work pretty much the same.

Usually it'll work fine (probably 2GB sticks weren't available for testing when the computer was first out). BUT there might be BIOS or hardware incompatibilies. No way to know for sure except if someone else did it; or if you try it out

 

ok, thanks a lot, I think I already found the one I want to buy (Corsair)... so Ill just buy it thank you, rep again

 

ok, since I have 2x512MB modules...Ill just take them out and put in these two that I want to buy...
1st slot: Kingston SODIMM 1024MB DDR II 667MHz KVR667D2S5/1G
2nd slot: Corsair SODIMM 2048MB DDR II 667MHz VS2GSDS667D2

do you think I will face any problem issues with these modules? that they are from different manufacturer or smth.... dont think it should be a problem but just checking... thanks...

 

Shouldn't be a problem. But don't you have the option of buying both sticks from same manuf?

 

I do....should I buy the same manufacturer? this wasnt some long-though pick...its just price ranked.... just to be on the save side, should I go with both kingston or corsairs? which ones would you suggest? thank you man...your helping out a lot!!!

 

If the price difference is not significant (say < 10-15 USD but it depends on how tight your funds are ) I suggest you go for same manuf. Just to be on the safe side; --- I have no explicit examples where it could go wrong with different manuf.

 

the price difference is irrelevant as the prices are really close to each other....ok Ill do these:
1.) Corsair SODIMM 2048MB DDR II 667MHz VS2GSDS667D2
2.) Corsair SODIMM 1024MB DDR II 667MHz VS1GSDS667D2

thanks!!

ps: i have another question here, if you wouldnt mind helping out... (cant give you any more rep now since I have to "spread it out" a little bit :-/ but I know I owe you ;-)

 

Since I want to buy bigger RAM modules to a laptop, that has X1450 mobility radeon for graphics card...and this has HyperMemory function. If the size of my RAM will increase, will the performace of the gpu increase too? I should be able to play more games then, right?

 

As far as the bottleneck of the game is video RAM for things like textures. If the bottleneck is GPU speed, you won't see much improvement I'm afraid.