DV5236 and slow memory.

I am considdering the DV5236eu (bassically a modified DV5000z reviewed on this site) because it is the only sub €800 (€726 in fact) notebook to offer 1GB of RAM and not have a budget CPU. But the problem I have with this notebook is not the 4200RPM HDD as I can forgive that for the price they ask. What I am worried about is the extremely slow memory of only 333Mhz. Will that slow memory give me grief?
I do plan on doing some light gaming on the integrated X200M and I am wondering if the slow memory will make this even more difficult then it will already be. I don't want to pay to have the 1GB replaced with something faster so if it does present problems I will be forced to look even longer to find myself a notebook.

Thanks for any replies.

 

You can upgrade after market to DDR400; you will see some 10-15% improvement in games or at least so it is claimed.
Yet in normal applications (non-games) you will not see the difference between DDR333 and DDR400. A faster HDD is much much more important for a better all around performance!! Plus, x200 is for light gaming anyway.

 

Yes it'll slow it down even more but how light is your gaming? If it's REALY old games then we needn't to talk about lag because it'll never happen but if it's BF2 and Crysis then you don't even need to mention it because you won't even be able to start the game.

Daniel

 

Hi The Niles,
Vassil is correct. The memory will not make that much of a difference. What will make a difference is that the option for the X200M with 128 meg of dedicated memory is no longer available for the 5000z series. I have the 128 mewg version and I have no problem playing Doom3 at med and high settigns. it will not play well at the Ultra settings. It is my understanding that the 32meg version is less capable than the 128 version.

 

Thanks for the input.

My light gaming will include mostly strategie games, not BF2 (although I have been told by many X200M owners it will, in fact, start and run). Civ4, Homeworld2 and the like are games I intend to play on it.
The problem is that if I upgrade the memory after market as suggested I will pay an extra €100 and lose my warranty. The same goes for the HDD.

 

Save some more money and wait for the new dv6000z series to find its way to your country. It shouldn't be much longer. That'll get you a dualcore CPU, a nVidia GeForce 7200 GPU, and probably a 5400RPM HD.