Max out ram for older laptops

Will it make a noticeable difference if I have 768mb of ram instead of 512mb for my Sony PCG-R505ESP laptop? I' am using Windows XP Pro since that's what the system came with.



Here are my current specs


Pentium III M 1.2gHz
512mb PC133 ram
40 gig hard drive
Intel 82830M 48mb AGP video card
Windows XP Pro

 

I upgraded my old HP from 512 to 768 and yes I did notice better performance.

 

A noticeable difference at 768MB in contrast to 512MB?
I would say ... maybe.

But I think you'd be much better off upgrading to 1 or 2 GB instead.

I upgraded my old Dell Inspiron 1300 from 512 to 2GB (while still on XP).
The differences in performance was much more noticeable.

On my sisters laptop that has Vista Basic installed, I upgraded it first from 512 to 768 ... there was no noticeable difference ... then I switched the RAM sticks again and upgraded to 1GB (which is where the booting and most functions in OS were behaving in a bit snappier capacity).

If you really want to notice a difference on your laptop ... just upgrade to 1GB instead or more (if possible).

 

1-2GB might not work in these old systems... but 1GB should... my pentium M laptop has 1GB...

 

My pentium M would allow up to 2 i believe.. I had it at 1.5

 

Actually, I just did some checking on Google, and numerous links suggest that dustin_broke's laptop has a fixed 256MB and only 1 slot for RAM expansion (maximum support topping at 768Mb).
So if those specs are accurate, then he/she cannot go above 768Mb.

Either way ... going from 512 to 768 is not much really, but if you want to bring your laptop a bit up to snuff and give the OS more room to breathe (plus if the upgrade isn't too costly) ... then go for it.
It certainly wouldn't hurt.

 

It's only $23.99 at Crucial.com, so I'd say go for it.

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=504344E7A5CA7304

 

Its a pretty dated laptop, and can only take a max of 768MB of ram, also only has a 256MB non removable memory, so all you could do it get a 512MB Card and pop it in. 512+256=768.
http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=VAIO PCG-R505ESP

 

My mistake; it should be 512MB that I linked to:

http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=71E52F91A5CA7304

 

You will notice a difference with that much more ram in XP. If you want to have a big difference in how fast programs open then I would give eboostr a try. This allows you to use memory cards or usb flash drives to store each programs startup info. After the info is stored the next time you use each app it will start faster. I use Excell, Word and Powerpoint and when selecting one of them the load about as fast as you can blink.

 

can't he try a 1GB RAM stick? U'd get more RAM then.

 

No. His computer can only handle a maximum of 768 KB of RAM.

 

u mean MB lol... weren't there 1GB DDR RAM sticks too? Then it should work really speaking unless it is a chipset restriction.

 

Sean, he could try it, but the chances of it recognizing a 1gig stick are somewhere between slim and none. Plus, that assumes that he can even find a 1gig PC133 SoDimm stick. The system specs state that the largest sticks it can handle are 512 meg so that is why people are recommending it. It is a Pentium 3 after all.

 

There is a chipset restriction. The older platforms could not support more than 512MB per stick, and 1GB total. So when one RAM chip is soldered on and is 256MB, the max the laptop can physically support is 768MB.

 

756 is the max.

Will it be noticeable? That depends.
What service pack and patches is it running, are there any HP printing software on it, how old and how good the current install is.

If it's running good now, yes you may notice. If it's running great. you may only notice as you multitask. If it's running terribly, it will do nothing.



I would put the memory in, give it a fresh install of either XP or Win7 (yes, it will run) and call it done, those were great ultra portables. 505's have always been good ultra-portables.