Which RAM - 2x512MB or 1x1GB?

I am getting an xps m1210 next month. i am confusing with the ram option.

2x512MB or 1x1GB - which will have more perfomance.

Pleae help
Thanks in advace
Benna

 

Both will have the same performance.

2x512MB you'll have to buy 2 new 1GB modules to upgrade to 2GB.
1x1GB you'll have to buy 1 new 1GB module to upgrade to 2GB.

 

in ur opinion which is good - pls care abt $ also!

 

if u get 2x512 u can get dual channel support which increases the system performance by +10%. but if u want to jump to 2GB u'll need to remove the old ram on both slots and put new ones.
if u get 1x1024 u wont get dual channel support but u can easily upgrade in the future for 2GB without removing anything just adding...
but if u get 1GB and u probably want to jump to 4GB then u need to remove the old 1GB too and put new 2x2GB...

 

do you have some benchmarks here that support the 10% increase?

 

how many RAM slots the machine has?

 

you can easily google and find tons of topics and answers about dual channel vs single channel.
and i believe the system has 2 slots.
first u'll need to find out which cpu u'll need, core duo or core 2 duo
then most important is to get 7200rpm hard drive.
than u can think about dedicated or integrated graphics
and at the end is the dual or single channel ram depending what u plan to do.

 

Dell Says UP TO 4GB OF RAM! but only the woner of dell can get it - 2000$ at dell website for a 4GB RAM for XPS M1210. will get one when dell gets 100years old

 

its not a 10% increase across the board, and to be honest the only way you'll notice it is in benchmarking, if your goal is two gig, start comapring prices to see whats the best deal, dell used to charge a premium for 1x1gb, so it might not be worth it, if you go with 2x512, you can remove one and put in a 1x1gb and net 1.5 gb dual channel (intel 945 chipset supports this,most older dual channel notebook chipsets do not) then add a nother 1x1 down the road, you have a lot of options, personally I would go the cheapest route whichever that may be

 

2 gb dimms are insanely expensive everywhere, and hard to find, once vista 64 becomes part of the common ground the prices will drop to reasonable levels, 4 gigs is way overkill for the majoraty of users right now, you dont need it, it cause stability issues, and in xp, you will only be able to actually use 3 of those 4 gigs

I still remember paying 400 bucks for 8 mb way way back in the day after a major shortage due to a fire at one of the then 2 places that stamped out the chips, just imagine what 4 gigs of that would cost you....

 

The other thing to think of is not all ram is created equal. If you get 1 gb stick and wait a year or two you may have problems finding another compatible stick.

If you want to keep 1GB get the two sticks of 512mb and you might see some extra speed.

If you want to upgrade with in a year or less the a 1gb model would do, buy one now and later.

 

Get a single 512MB and upgrade it to 1.5GB. When you think the system needs it, swap out the 512MB and toss in another GB for a total of 2GB.

To answer the question that was asked, it depends on the price difference between 1 Dimm and 2 Dimm. It also depends how much you can recover selling 2 512MB sticks of ram for online. It's only $100 or so for 1GB top of the line DDR2 667 on Newegg.com. Do a little research and see what you can do.

 

It is always cheaper to buy ram at other stores. Get the minimum and search for a deal.

 

iceman always has great info!



As for memory I guess the question is...is $225 worth spending to upgrade from 1GB (512MBx2) to 2GB (1GBx2)

When searching the internet make sure to search for a "KIT" as they are two sticks of memory tested with each other that work well together. Also the memory is PC5300 (667) 200 pin SODIMM DDR2

Personally I think anything over 1GB is a bit over the top for the current time.
Sure when Vista comes out and other future pieces of software I would suggest the upgrade. Memory will be at half the cost by that point.

So go with just the minimum of 1GB (512MBx2) and save that $225 for a memory upgrade in about 1-2 years

For reference.... Crucial 2GB kit (would work for the m1210)

Cost $340

Now the 1GB kit (512MBx2) cost $160

So a $180 price difference...Dell's $225 is still a bit higher but not too far off the wagon.

I am a big fan of Crucial because I have never had issues with their memory now mind you I was looking for basic reliable memory and hands down its the best anytime I used it.

I would also suggest looking over some of these kits and single sticks

from Newegg

There were some pretty good prices...

for instance is you aren't worried about having a perfect set of memory like in the kits just get two single sticks. Without benchmarking you wouldn't be able to tell the difference (just pick the same brand for both modules) and even in benchmarking their is probably a very small margin of difference probably not even worth noting.

I like Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin, and Crucial when it comes to memory and on Newegg a 1GB stick is less then $135

I don't know much about Patriot memory but they have one with a mail in rebate going for $90 Patriot Memory

So two of those would be $180 and I am sure you could sell the two 512MB sticks on ebay and make a few bucks just on that.

But hey its your call just trying to give you a few options....bottom line go with the 1GB (512MBx2) config now and upgrade later.

 

If you plan on gaming, 2GB of RAM is invaluable. If not, 1GB is plenty. And to be honest, 2GB is really only good for games like Oblivion, F.E.A.R., BF2, etc. Those are really demanding games. But like others have said, buying RAM from Dell is ridiculous. The cheapest solution would be to get 1GB of RAM (2x512) now and upgrade to 2GB sometime later. And all laptops have 2 slots for RAM as far as I know.

 

1 gig is the minimum for xp in my opinion for a smooth running system, 2 gig is the sweet spot, if your just running basic office apps and internet, 1 gig is all you need, video encoding,photoshop, gaming,etc, 2 gig is where you want to be

 

Then what does dell say UP TO 4 GB. has anyone put up 4 GB to an xps m1210.? 4 GB = 2x2GB RAM - is it right?

 

the motherboard supports 4 gig, which will be useful with vista later on,especially with the 64 bit version

 

The only people that need 4GB are professionals. Unless you're getting paid to do work on your computer that requires massive processing power, you're wasting your money and your time. Get 2x512 and see how you like it. Then take out 1 stick and see how much of a difference it really makes. I'm confident the "average user" (not nessasarily the average member of this forum) would barely notice the difference.

 

When i want to upgrade to a 1.5 GB my other 512 Mb will be a waste!!

 

sell it then!

 

Now i am going to buy 2x512 - Budget man ------ You know i am only a student. Need to collect more money to upgrade a ram

 

there will be a huge difference, windows will easily take up over 1/2 to 3/4 that 512 just on startup depending on your apps, sometimes a lot more if your akin to install and keep everything whether its useful or not , that leaves you with very little headroom for the apps you will actually be working with, if all your doing is typing a document and a little web surfing it wont be that bad, but it can still cause a noticable slowdown, when the physical memeory gets tapped out, it turns to the hard drive, which is slow, retirement home marathon slow, the trick is to load your system with enough ram that the page file(your hard drive) seldom gets called upon, windows xp will boot and load with just 128 meg, just make sure your comfortable when you boot her up, cause it'll be awhile, and the same for every app and page you load, with ram prices as low as they are, 1 gig for around 100 bucks give or take, its a no brainer to go with one gig or more, if you push your system hard,2 gig is the way to go

4 gig is mainly for server applications and professional operations on OS's far more demanding than windows right now, but that will change when vista hits mainstream, I personally wouldnt think of running vista with less than 2 gigs of ram, and I'll hazard a guess that by this time next year, 4 gig will be commonplace in the enthusist community, it already is to a point in the desktop world where its much cheaper due to 4 or more memory slots on the board

 

First of all if you want to run windows vista you need dual-channel memory. Unless you have dual-channel memory you CANNOT run vista.

 

So i need 2x512 itself? is it? or it can 2x1Gb Also?

 

It can be any size 1, 2, or 4 GB, but it must be dual-channel.

 

most of the new laptops RAM are Dual Channel - right?

 

says who? I havent heard such, nor do I believe it, dual channel should be more efficent in vista than it is now, but it cant be a must have, as the minimum cpu spec goes back to platforms that predated dual channel in mainstream motherboards, I've noticed a lot of folks here dont understand dual channel at all, it does not double your memory speed, it simply divides your memory into two pools, that the system can acess at the same time, instead of just one large pool, theoretical gains are quite large, real world gains are minimal

 

i asked wheather 1 GB has the dual channel function. i'm not an IT Guy man...

 

That was a good explanation

Thanks IceMan, now i understood what is Dual Channel.

 

you will need two sticks for dual channel, one in channel a, one in channel b

 

Yes you can use single-channel ram and the only version of vista you can run is home basic. If you buy vista home basic then thats fine but i dont see why you would buy that when all it does better then xp is searching, and security, might as well just stick with xp pro/media center.

 

I'ill always get Home Premium or Ultimate

 

show me where you found this information, cause my little brothers old athlon 2500 xp setup with a 9800 pro and 1 gig single channel is good to go for home premium according to vista upgrade advisor

 

Look down for the laptop he's interested in.

 

thats what dell says, not microsoft, I've never seen anything that mentions dual channel as a system requirement, and i've seen and heard of folks running premium just fine on single channel systems

also note on the link provided, it says dual channel memory and premium graphics card for all systems that can have premium grpahics cards, the 1405 is gma950 only, and its compatible too, but according to the site an e1505 with gma950 wouldnt be, thats not exactly kosher

 

I think that it is a pretty reliable source considering the person we are trying to help wants to buy a dell. Also, dell never states what falls under the category of a "premium graphics card" so you cannot assume they didnt mean the 950.

 

yes you can assume, a premium graphics card means a dedicated card, the gma 950 is integrated, and there by not a premium card, I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, and from the link provided I can see why you made your statement, that said, bottom line is I dont buy it, I cant think of a single reason why it would be a requirement, it would be a good thing to have, but not a must have

when I try out my upgrade after I get it, I'll pop out 1 gig from my m1210 and run 1 gig single channel and see if it works, I'll bet the house that it does

 

Single channel memory will run just fine with Vista. Dual channel is not a requirement.

"A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
* 1 GB of system memory.
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
* 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
* DVD-ROM Drive.
* Audio output capability.
* Internet access capability."
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx

 

excellent post newbie

 

Thanks for that