help me with my ram problem!

I will be purchasing a notebook very very soon and i want to save a boatload of money by installing my own ram. I'm looking at the Dell 1520. I want to get 2x 1gig ram sticks but do not know what ones i need. Ive seen different figures on different ram sticks, im pretty sure i need DDR2 (i have no idea what that means) but absolutely no clue what the number of pins mean. I saw one with 200, what does that mean? What else should i look at before buying RAM? is there an online tutorial for installing new ram? All help is appreciated.

 

Yes you need DDR2-667 200 pin sodimm

Look at the Hot Ram Deals thread for great prices.

There should be a guide in the dell info booth on how to install ram.

 

You're really not going to be saving a boatload of money upgrading the ram. Checking around a few sites to find the memory you'll need, 200 pin SODIMM sticks, I haven't found a 2GB kit for under 100 bucks. I'd recommend crucial.com, simply because the one ram upgrade I did I did through them. They have a 2GB kit you could use for $110. However seeing as the 2GB upgrade through dell on the 1520 only costs $150 I don't know if changing it yourself really makes all that much sense. I'm however nowhere close to an expert in this kind of thing so if somebody else wants to chime in with better advice listen to them.

 

Nevermind, after looking through that hot deals section you can definitely find some better deals.

 

on the ram deal page they have 2x 1gig sticks for 70 bucks, vs me paying 150 from dell. 80 bucks is a lot to me.

 

Yeah, I should have looked a little closer. 80 bucks is worth it for sure.

 

I'm doing the same exact thing your doing. I chose only 1 GB ram on my 1520, but I will be installing a 2GB stick for a total of 2.5 GB's. Sadly, I won't have dual-channel ram, but I think I can live with 2.5 GB's of ram .

 

i was told that 2 sticks of 1 gig was better than 1 stick of 2 gig and 1 stick of 512 because of something called dual-channel, what does that mean? and how could 2 gigs be better than 2.5?

 

First off, you are able to have dual-channel when you have 2 identical sticks of ram installed.

And dual-channel is when the ram is able to operate at a 128-bit bandwidth level when moving data. It is able to do this because when you have 2 identical sticks of ram, you are able to operate with 2 64-bit data channels, which then adds up to 128-bits (64 + 64). So when you have dual-channel, it moves the data at a 128-bit bandwidth level. Which is faster than having 2 different kinds of ram.

Someone tell me if I'm wrong, I'm pretty sure thats right.

But the reason why I got a single 2 GB chip is because I will be able to have 4 GB's dual-channel in the near future. All I will have to do is purchase the same exact ram I got before, and pop it in.

 

Do i need a 64 bit version of vista? or will a 32 bit version work for dual channel ram?

oh yeah stole ur sig

 

haha just as you took it, I changed mine just a tiny bit .

But I actually asked the same question, and no the two are totally different.

But hey, check out what I found surfing around on dell's website . In my sig.

 

alright thats good. actually whats really freaky is that my last name is larson.... i actually tried for that username but u registered 3 days before i did. I don't think i will be needing any more than 2 gigs of ram any time soon. I hope im not wrong on that.... seeing how i have to order my notebook by friday.

EDIT: omg, im getting a freakin dell.