Lenovo Thinkpad R61i upgrade- is RAM upgrade enough?

Hi,

I have an oldish Lenovo Thinkpad R61i (7650 model), with 1GB ram, a 1.8ghz dual core Pentium, and windows 7. It runs nicely when just web browsing etc but cannot handle multi tasks, lags too long when opening windows explorer etc to be used as a main machine.

I am selling my high spec desktop (AMD phenom quad core, 4GB ram) since I do not want a desktop anymore, and therefore need a higher spec'd laptop so it can handle photo editing, lots of music and multi programs, but really really like how nice the Thinkpads are to use, and would rather avoid spending extra money unnecessarily. I basically want to know whether putting an additional 2GB ram in this laptop would make it a lot more usable for that other than just web browsing in order to save me buying a new laptop- I was thinking along the lines of a Samsung q330/430. I would really like to keep this thing but don't know whether just adding 2GB of Ram is sufficient, or whether the processor simply isn't good enough to handle my needs.

Thanks to anyone who has an opinion on this.

Cheers, Josh.

 

R61i supports 4 GB and DDR2 isn't horribly expensive these days (4 GB for ~50-60). If you have 64 bit OS it will utilize all 4 GB, 32 bit will only use ~3.25-3.5 GB.

 

The cost for the 4GB of RAM will be insignificant for this system - but so will the performance increase you desire - especially compared to your desktop.

Save your money for a nice ThinkPAD 420s. (Wait for a sale and make sure you use any available coupons - giving them a call won't hurt either).

Good luck.

 

With a nice 4GB of RAM, it'll be plenty powerful for everyday use and some light photo- and music-editing. It still won't really be comparable to your quad-core desktop, but frankly, such a system would be more powerful than the Pentium 4-based Pentium Dual Core desktop that is still serving as the main family computer in the house....

 

Thanks for your replies

 

Adding RAM is your best bet to improve performance. Windows 7 is very good with memory management compared to older versions of Windows but 1GB of RAM - that's very 2005-ish. 4GB is a good next step.

If you really wanted to save money, you could go with a single 2GB stick. 4GB kits are usually cheaper than buying two 2GB sticks separately however, I would simply jump right to 4GB.

The next step for improving performance would be to upgrade the hard drive to a modern 7200RPM version (Western Digital Scorpio Black 500GB or 750GB). Less than $100 ...

 

Adding more memory will help by making it smoother but any applications that relies on the processors and/or graphics card will still be held back and almost not budge due to the additional memory.

If it was me I would auction off your current laptop (remove any data from the HDD's as in wipe not just delete it) and buy yourself something newer.

If I was buying now it would either be a W701 Thinkpad (though they stopped making them, you can still fnd un-opened boxed ones though) or a W520 as desktop replacements.

 

you can also upgrade your CPU all the way up to a T9500. The best value for money at the moment is the T8300.

Depending on the BIOS in your laptop the T4*00 and T6*00 might be a possible option. Clock for clock, they are as fast or faster than the T7*00. For instance the T4200 is about the same as the T7300, and the T4400 is faster than the T7500. They run cooler too.