Question about the memory on my 1720

I placed an order and it is being built now but I went with the 3 GB RAM. Is there two slots? 1GB on one slot and 2GB on the other slot? So if I were to upgrade to 2GB, I would have to remove the 1GB and buy a 2GB memory? Also, I want to install another hard drive. Was anyone successful in installing a 7,200 RPM hard drive? Where and what kind did you purchase? Did the system run faster?

Thanks.

 

There are two slots for memory. One under the keyboard and one accessible from a cover on the bottom of the laptop. I would assume you would get a 1gb and a 2gb if that configuration is possible. Don't bother with 800 Mhz memory the systme will only run at 667 Mhz even if you put in 800 Mhz memory!

I bought a 7200 RPM 3Gbps Hitachi hard drive that I ended up returning. HDTUne showed about 12MBps faster speeds than the original 5200 rpm drive but in the end when I ran real world tests like timeing the boot time, resume time and app load times they were virtually identical !! In a few cases the 7200 RPM drive actually took longer!! There was no point in keeping it. If I need a bigger drive I will buy one then but I don't need one right now.

I attribute the lack of performance boost to the fact that the systems SATA bus runs at Gen 1 speeds (1.5 Gbps) and not Gen 2 (3Gbps) I could not find anything concrete from the intel or dell sites regarding what speeds the chipset can handle but I would have thought it would have run at gen 2 speeds if it could have.

Run your own tests if you like... your mileage may vary.. caviat... caviat.. caviat but that was my experience with the highest rated 200GB hitachi 7200 RPM 3Gbps drive I bought and the latest intel matrix storage manager software from intel.

Oh and... keep in mind that the second drive will decrease battery life by a good bit.

 

note that in order to connect two hard drives, you will need a special type of connector which is available only when you purchase you lappy with dual hard drives

 

Ok, thanks guys. Looks like I will just go with an external hard drive when I run out of space and only plug it in when I need it. I'll use that to store my large files.

 

You can buy all that is required to add the second drive on ebay for less than $50. You can also get it from dell. You need 2 different types of screws, the "cage" that holds the drive in and the interposer (changes drive sata/power plugs to something that can connect to laptop. There are people selling them as "kits" on ebay. I have also seen it at the dell store for around $35 with shipping.