4gb turbo cache module worth it for W7 Ult x64?

I have a Latitude D630 and was looking at a 4gb Mini Pci-E turbo cache module. I have a T7500 ( 2.2ghz/4mb/800 ) and 3gb ram which may be upgraded to a single 4gb module ( power/heat savings ) with a 250gb Hitachi 5.4k HD which will eventually be upgraded to a Mushkin Callisto 60gb SSD or similar 285/275 SSD.

Would the Turbo Cache module be worth it? I'd be looking at about $50 for the module, can anyone tell me what if anything to expect as far as performance/battery savings and such?

 

Save your money - Intel's 'Turbo Cache' module is effectively worthless.

 

Don't bother. You're better off spending the money on upgrading ram.

 

from Anandtech's review of a smaller TurboCache unit, the general conclusion was: only if you absolutely do not have enough money for a RAM upgrade.

 

If you're going to end up with a SSD, then there is completely and absolutely no point to a TCM. Put the 50$ towards that

I don't really understand how adding TCM reduces power consumption noticeably either. The data that's read off the HDD to fill the TCM still consumes power... as do background process monitoring etc etc.

Likewise I'm not sure spending on a single 4Gb stick will do very much at all re power/heat savings. A Watt at absolute max?

You'd get more battery life out of buying a fresh new battery rather than all these tiny changes. D630 about 2.5 / 3 years old? Your battery would be below 40% of original capacity at a guess? (use RMClock battery page to check design vs current full charge capacity, worked on my old D620)

 

Save Your money for a bigger SSD .

 

I'm also trying to reduce heat and each ddr2 sodimm pulls 1.25 - 2.25w depending on the pcd and speed and thats per dimm so thats 1 - 2 watts of less heat by going with a single 4gb module over 2 modules wich double the power consumption/heat output for the negligible gain dual-channel would have on this system.

Seems the general consensus is that TCM's are worthless and I hadn't thought the power consumption of one through considering that it does still have to pull data from the HD then it draws power yet again for the the same data making it extremely inefficient.

I'll just put the $50 towards an SSD instead.

 

Power draw for memory is definitely not that high during idle. I had barely any change in power draw when I pulled one stick out to test this. On idle, I get around 13-14W on my current notebook (specs in sig) and it dropped <0.5W (though I used RMClock to measure power consumption, and this was well within the range of error) with only one stick.