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    Ram upgrade - Dell inspiron

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by shinakuma9, Jun 18, 2009.

  1. shinakuma9

    shinakuma9 Notebook Deity

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    My friend wants to upgrade his dell inspiron from 1gb --> 3gb of ram, i think he has ddr2 ram. I'm not too good at this, but he does have to buy 2 gb of ddr2 right? does the frequency matter?
     
    shinakuma9, Jun 18, 2009
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  2. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    What's the model number of his laptop?

    If it's an inspiron 6000 or a computer with the 915xx chipsets the max amount is 2GB@533MHz. Usually the ram will downclock if need be, so buy ram @ 667MHz or 800MHz, unless the price difference is large..

    Usually 1GB of ram is 2x512MB(maximum of 2 ram slots), so if you remove 1x512, and add 1x2GB your friend will have 2.5GB of RAM.
     
    namaiki, Jun 18, 2009
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  3. shinakuma9

    shinakuma9 Notebook Deity

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    im not sure, but its one of the new inspirons they have on their site. He got it 2 weeks ago.
    Edit: the inspiron 15 i think?
     
    shinakuma9, Jun 18, 2009
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  4. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    In that case, he needs to purchase DDR2 laptop RAM at at least 667MHz.

    If purchased with 1GB of ram it is still probably 2x512MB and there are 2 RAM slots so his choice on what he wants to upgrade, as said before if you remove 1x512MB, and add 1x2GB your friend will have 2.5GB of RAM.

    3GB is not an option unless you want to remove 2x512MB and purchase 1x1GB and 1X2GB.
     
    namaiki, Jun 19, 2009
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  5. NiteWalker

    NiteWalker Notebook Evangelist

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    I'd just go for 4Gb of ram. Vista will see all 4GB but will only be able to use 3.2-3.5 (my inspiron uses 3.5). The reason I say go for 4Gb is because you'll get dual channel mode, which increases performance, it's the same price or cheaper than going for a 1GB stick and a 2GB stick, if he installs a 64bit OS later on he'll get all 4GB usable and because every MB of RAM helps.

    Check this out. 4GB of kingston HyperX low latency RAM for $51 shipped. I'm putting the same stuff in my laptop when it arrives. I have 4GB of stock RAM in my laptop now but my wife will be getting that when I get the new stuff. Probably didn't need to, but why not.
     
    NiteWalker, Jun 19, 2009
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