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    Info on upgrading ram?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by spaniel1287, Sep 7, 2008.

  1. spaniel1287

    spaniel1287 Newbie

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    I have a fairly older Toshiba laptop that has 512mb pc2100 ram. I found out that the mobo supports pc2700 and 2GB of ram. Would the computer run stable and better if i upped it to 2GB of the pc2700 ram? Thanks
     
    spaniel1287, Sep 7, 2008
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  2. Tom Miller

    Tom Miller Notebook Enthusiast

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    Unless the ram slots are damaged the answer is yes. Often an after-market ram vendor will be able to either tell you exactly what you need or offer you a ram tester that will tell you.

    The single biggest performance bottle-neck on a laptop is usually not enough ram. Its possible that I would keep my current laptop if it didn't top out at 576 megs.
     
    Tom Miller, Sep 7, 2008
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  3. Hep!

    Hep! sees beauty in everything

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    What do you use the laptop for? What operating system do you run?
    If you've got XP and don't do anything past the basics (web, email, etc) then it's likely not worth upgrading.
     
    Hep!, Sep 7, 2008
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  4. spaniel1287

    spaniel1287 Newbie

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    Yeah, im in college now and built my desktop bout 7 years ago and she is still running like a champ even with the games i play. But its just convienent having a laptop to take around with ya. So i got this toshiba from a local hospital for $200 and its not bad at all. Centrino 1.5GHz cpu, 512mb ram, 50GB hard drive, cd burner, and wireless internet. Just I know the ram usage gets used up pretty quickly on few programs so i figured 2GB would be a good upgrade. Would it be best to go the max out on the mobo of 2GB, or should i stay under it and go with 1.5GB?

    It just lags a bit here and there when im running more than 2 programs at once and i'm just thinking that this would help solve that and speed things up.
     
    spaniel1287, Sep 7, 2008
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  5. Hep!

    Hep! sees beauty in everything

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    If you are actually using the memory then consider getting a single 1GB SO-DIMM (which would put you at 1.25 or 1.5GB of memory, depending on your current configuration), but I don't think you'd ever utilize 2GB. Not really worth it IMO
     
    Hep!, Sep 7, 2008
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  6. spaniel1287

    spaniel1287 Newbie

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    right now i have 512pc2100, would it be worth it to go with 1.5GB of pc2100 or should i upgrade it to the pc2700, or would i not notice any difference?
     
    spaniel1287, Sep 7, 2008
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  7. Johnny T

    Johnny T Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    By going up to 1.5GB you should see a good boost in performance. The difference between 2100 and 2700 isnt massive, which ever one is cheaper.
     
    Johnny T, Sep 7, 2008
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  8. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    I upgrade my dell 8500 which uses Pc2100. It came with 512mb, and I upgraded it to 2gb of Pc3200 (automatically clocked down to Pc2100 speeds and 2-2-2-3 timings, which is really fast)
    I saw a pretty big performance increase by jumping to 2gb from 512mb.

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Sep 7, 2008
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  9. miro_gt

    miro_gt Notebook Deity

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    go for it, then remove the page file for windows .. priceless

    then you can consider getting a cheap 7200rpm HDD :)
     
    miro_gt, Sep 7, 2008
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