XPS 1730 & Aftermarket RAM Upgrade

I want to upgrade my XPS 1730 to 4GB of ram but I don't want to pay $200 US a stick for it from Dell. Mushkin sells 4GB pairs on Newegg for $230ish a pop for PC6400 DDR2 800 RAM. I have seen in the XPS 1730 lounge about Kingston "approved" RAM as being the only RAM that works well. I don't know what is so special about it but would I have any issues putting this in to my 1730 (performance degradation, compatibility, etc). Secondly, is there any benefit to using 800 RAM vs 667 (other than the obvious, higher clocks etc)?

Thanks.

P.S. Yes I did a search, yes I read it and in the XPS Owners lounge you're pretty much relegated to: complaining about your screen, complaining about it taking so long to get shipped or video drivers.

 

I bought 4GB for mine after it arrived. I got my sticks from OcUK and they are crucial branded, they work fine and they are not 'approved' either.
800mhz ram will have more bandwidth than 667mhz, this in turn means your machine will be slightly faster in memory intensive stuff over 667mhz ram.

 

whats the diff between the Kingston Dell certified ram and the standard Kingston Value Ram?

 

If you haven't ordered your system yet, you can call up Dell and see what is the minimum they can quote. You need to get the right Rep though!

 

i got crucial value ram for my vostro 1500 and it works fine.

 

im thinking about ugrading from 2 gb ram to 4 on my 1730.. is it worth it?

 

I purchased G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 since it runs at 4-4-4-12 while most others run at 5-5-5-15. Works great! It also pushed my memory Windows Experience Index from 5.0 to 5.1.