Newly ordered E1505...

Woo hoo! Finally I pulled the trigger on this machine, I was looking at other models but decided to go with something around the 1k range

Here's my specs

T2400 1.83 Ghz Core Duo
.5 gb 533MHz DDR2 Memory (i'm going to upgrade, should i put on 1gb or just 512?and which bus speed?)
Intel wireless w/ bluetooth
256MB Ati X1400
6 cell battery
DVD R/W
80GB 5400rpm hard drive
Wgxa+ screen (matte) <---- I ultimately choose this because I really enjoy my desktop lcd and it was a matte...
FREE Netgear Router

that for $960 shipped

umm.. this is my first laptop, so the free wireless router is nice.
I am so excited.... now i just have to wait...

 

Congratulations on your purchase!
thats a pretty nice system you got there....the only complaint i have is the X1400 card.....its a bit low....but............its ok

 

yeah... oh well, i don't play too much games, but hopefully the x1400 will work seemlessly will vista and games like WoW and battlefield 2 (can the x1400 handle this?).

 

yep the x1400 can play those games flawlessly (but BF2 will require more than 512MB RAM....i would suggest atleast 1GB for BF2....1.5GB for good performance......and 2GB for Hardcore BF2 gamming!)
plus ive heard the x1400 can be OverClocked quite a bit...some users got 2000 3dmark05 scores with it !!!

so yes...its a good midrange card!

 

ok so if i upgrade the ram via newegg, what should i get? 533MHz or 677? and 512 or 1 gb? which one is a better value?
thanks for your help...

 

well....id get the 1GB 533 MHz RAM...because even though your FSB supports 667MHz RAM....your other module(the one you ordered with) is 533MHz...so even if you buy a 667 MHz RAM it will downclock to 533MHz because of the other RAM module....Remember RAM is only fast as the slowest Module

 

The RAM is tricky, there are many options. You have 512 MB of 533Mhz RAM. If you get the same stick as that (speed and size), you could run in Dual Channel mode. I would honestly consider maybe just getting 1 GB of 677 Mhz RAM. Maybe even sell the stick you have now and get two. That way you have a faster speed, and if you want, you can upgrade to 2 Gigs of the best you system can support. Check out deedeeman's post too. There is nothing wrong with having 1.5 GB of 533 Mhz RAM not running in Dual Channel. It will still be really nice. In all, I would take a look at pricing and see what you can afford or what you want to afford.

 

if i do get the 667, will that be better if later when i had the $$, and i upgraded to 2 gb of 667? because the 667 and 533 are almost the same price.

what about the brand, are the any that i should definitely avoid?

 

yes i agree with you...because dual channel dose not make much of a difference....
so........sell 512 533MHz and buy 1gb 667?

 

yes that would be a nice idea

 

YES! Fast, and 1GB will be a great improvement over 512 MB. I think 1 GB is sufficient for most things anyway. But that way, you can always update to the best setup in the future. So, sell the one in you notebook, and buy 1GB 677.

 

i am looking at newegg for ram, do brands really matter?

 

The main concern with brands on newegg is just the hassle of returning broken ram sticks. With the better brands like crucial, ocz, corsair etc you have a better chance of not getting duds. They offer lifetime replacements so the brand doesn't really matter, simply depends on whether you want to fool around with unreliable memory and the wait times involved while things are shipping. When you do buy some, try to "burn it in" with a memory test just to make sure its fully functional and that it won't die on you.


PS I understand that dual channel memory only offers about a 5% performance gain, so just keep that in mind when considering ordering ram. What I would do is order 1 512 stick, sell it and then buy 1 gig in 1 stick of memory, that way when you need to add another stick there won't be a hassle. Although if you have the money just get 2 gigs now i guess.

 

what's this "burn it in test"?

 

whats your budget?, and how much ram do you want total? you can buy one 1 gig stick of ddr 667, and use one 512 meg of ddr 533, and net 1.5 gig running at 533, and later on buy another 1 gig of 667 and take out the 512 533 and net 2 gig 667 , the 945 chipset allows mismatched pairs in dual channel

 

cool, that's what i'll do.. thanks for all the help

are there any brands i should definitely buy or avoid?

 

corsair has always worked very well for me, I've never had a problem with geil either, on the other hand I've had bad modules from crucial and ocz, I actually had to return 4 differnt ocz 1 gig pc 3200 modules before I gave up and went back to corsair, corsair value select should treat you very well