Extra GIG of RAM for my 1520

Hi,


I use about 60-80% of my 2GB Ram that came with my Inspiron 1520. I want to buy another 1-GB Ram (1x) to add,

I heard it's easy - but I'm still not sure...

- What kind of RAM should I buy?
- How do I insert/add it?
- Is it OK to buy it on ebay? newegg?

I once tried adding an extra ram to my desktop like 4-5 years ago (Pentium-2)...
I turned off my desktop, inserted the card, turned it back on, the card turned black and I smelled smoke... lol

I don't want to make the same mistake again

Thanks!

 

You might try the configurator at www.crucial.com You select what brand of notebook and the model number and it will tell you what kind of ram to get.

 

you can get a gig of ram from dell.com for 50 bucks

 

check out this thread. http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=154684
i created a step by step guide. its not as easy as people say...see for yourself. Now remember, if you upgrade 1 gb more (ie 3gb) you lose dual channel ram. Also, since there are only 2 slots for ram, you would have to get 1 2gb stick of ram. for best performance you should go 4 gb (ie to keep the dual channel -- 2x2gb sticks) but any 32bit os will only see about 3.5 gbs of it, you would need 64 bit to unlock all 4gbs...

 

Don't worry about Vista taking up 60-80% of ur memory, it's just the nature of this OS. It'll do the same with 4gb, too. I think Vista uses any extra available memory to cache HD and apps u use most often.

 

you are right. Ever use a mac? it does the same with ram. In the end it makes everything faster.

 

Wait... are you sure you can fit another ram stick into the 1520? Does it support more than two stick of ram, or are you only running a single 2 gb dimm? If you have two 1 gb sticks then switching out one of them will do nothing to increase your total ram

 

there are only 2 slots, dimA and dimB for dual channel ram. You would have to buy 1 2gb stick and pull a 1gb stick to get 3 gb but then it wouldnt be dual channel.

 

whats bad about not having dual channel

 

dual channel= double the memory bandwidth

 

even on the dell website thier selling 3gb RAM on the 1420

 

That is incorrect. The system will run asynchronous Dual channel up to 2GB (1gb , 1gb of your 2gb stick). Either way, you will not notice any difference in performance.

 

actually performance will go up in somethings but down in others. daily usage it should be up because of the added ram, but gaming and anything intensive it would be worse because of a slightly lower memory speed.

 

Best explanation yet:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=2185333&postcount=4

 

Thanks everybody first of all....

Damn, if there are only two slots... I have 2x1GB - so I have to get rid of at least 1 card I already have in the machine to upgrade... that sucks

I am confused about this "dual-channel"ness - I heard having 1 2GB ram is better than 2x1GB, is it not?

Or am I missing the point?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel_architecture

 

correct in order to get to 3gb you would have to buy a 2gb stick.. since i guarantee you have 1gb in each slot currently.

 

On the contrary, it's better to have 2x1gb for dual channel operation, as 1x2gb will be single channel only.