Upgrade to 3GB ram worth it or even useful???

I am looking at purchasing the Dell Inspiron 1520 and the standard memory option is 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm

Would it be worth it to upgrade to 3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (1GB x 2GB) for 130 bucks. would it actually improve performance speed all that much. I don't plan on doing any "intense" gaming but still plan on doing casual gaming and be able to play the newer games that come out.

I was reading somewhere that 3GB doesn't function properly because it comes as 1GB and 2GB and for dual channel to work properly they need to be the same size. the 3GB upgrade doesn't say its dual channel but i was wondering if there were any issues with this.

Thanks for the help, I don't know much about computers so they may be easy questions but i don't know the answer.

 

It's not that the 3GB doesn't function properly, it's that you don't get the dual channel benefits that you get when having 2 identical RAM chips.

For casual gaming, 2GB is more than enough. The ability to play games depends on a combination of CPU, GPU and RAM. For future games, the GPU will most likely be the limiting factor. The 8600GT should provide medium-level gaming performance for the next couple of years.

Regards,

z.

 

I was looking and the 3GB isn't dual channel so does this mean that it will operate faster then 2GB dual channel. Any idea how much of a performance increase?

I want to make sure i have enough RAM for the future. would it be better to go with 2GB now and upgrade at a later date or just go with the 3GB now?

Thanks again for the help.

 

First of all, $130 is way too much for the upgrade. 2GB sodimms are averaging $60-$70. If you want to upgrade, do it yourself. Dell tries to sell you the upgrade to increase revenue per sale. 2GB should be sufficient for 99.9% of users. Memory prices trend downward over time, so I would wait until you have a solid reason to upgrade.

Check out the memory prices at Crucial or Newegg and you will be enlightened.

 

hmm dualchannel? so can anyone tell me quickly...i have 1 GB + 512 MB RAM SODIMM... u mean i should have 1 GB in both slots or 512 MB in both slots?

is there a drop in performance with 1024+512 config??

 

I thought that with the right chipset, 2GB of the 3GB would be in dual channel?

 

Read this -
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=167472

 

Read this -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=167472

 

3GB made a big difference in my Macbook Pro, but I have programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects or Cinema 4d open. I also run VMware Fusion sometimes and 3GB definitely helps with that.

FWIW, the loss of dual channel is TOTALLY IMPERCEPTIBLE. As a human, if it's slower, I can't tell even one little bit.

In more normal less demanding situations, 2GB should be fine. I also run Vista under Boot Camp. Vista loves ram, but, 2GB was enough for what I was doing with it.

 

Vista like RAM. It will use extra RAM as cache so you can never have too much RAM with Vista. 2gb should be fine though.

 

I wish people stop talking about dual channel because it hardly does anything... It just confuses the buyer more. You may get a few % improvement in speed if you're lucky but more ram is always better than dual channel crap, no exceptions.

 

3 GB will not be true duel channel, only semi-duel channel as the way I understand it. You might loose like 3-4% performance, not enough to notice.

 

dual channel or not doesn't matter except for benchmarks, and it doesn't matter very much there either.

3GB vs 2 depends entirely on the OS:

Win XP: Doesn't need 3, has trouble even making proper use of 2. Not needed.
Vista: Needs as much as it can possibly get, 3 will be better than 2 no question.
OS X: Makes good use of more memory but whether you really need it or not depends on what you use it for.
Linux: No idea?!

 

More RAM = better. Don't sweat the dual channel thing.

 

I have 3GB of RAM in my 1720, I got a great deal from Newegg. Got a 1GB G.SKILL stick for $35, and a 2GB G.SKILL stick for $60. I run programs like Photoshop CS3 and Premiere Pro CS3 all the time so 3GB really helps. Vista is loving the extra RAM aswell.

 

DO NOT worry about dual channel, the technology has gone and pretty much past. Dual channel nowadays barely gives any performance increase (2-3%) for current systems. Like Wu Jen said above, More RAM = better.

 

Could you please elaborate the "has trouble even making proper use of 2" part? I'd really appreciate it.

 

Linux, OS X and Vista all more or less try to use all of the available ram.

That why, under say, Vista, it looks like you are "using" a lot of ram. Ram is fast, and of late, it's rather cheap. So it makes sense to fill up the ram with data and flush out unused data as needed.

XP was from an era when ram was kind of expensive, so, it tries to keep ram clear. This is why under XP, it looks like you always have a lot of "free" ram.

It makes more sense to just fill it up and use it.

Moving to 3GB definitely helped my MBP under Leopard. I was a little suprised, as I already had 2GB, but, I tend to open a lot of apps. I'm a little mad a Vista right now, but, it was fine under 2GB for I was doing with it (Office, web surfing, maybe 1-2 heavy apps open) but since it's also on my MBP, it has 3GB as well.

 

I wanted to get 3gb ram on the xps m1530 I just ordered from dell but I just couldn't justify the extra money they wanted for it. I got 2x1GB. Once the unit arrives I plan on purchasing a 2gb module to replace one of the 1 gb.

Can someone tell me if it will make a difference running ram from two different manufacturers or is it not important as long as it is the same type?

 

Not important. Ram is way less finicky than it used to be.

Always by ram from a 3rd party, never from Apple, Dell or HP.

 

do they even make their own ram? mine came with rams made by samsung.

 

They buy from the same people we do (Hynix, Samsung, Crucial, Kingston, etc).

They just manage to figure out a way to charge 400% more for it.

 

I think they meant to not buy RAM from Dell/HP/Apple but to buy from other computer stores. Dell/HP/Apple do not manufacture ram but they do charge higher than average prices when purchasing from them.