RAM upgrade on a V3000Z

i just received my notebook from HP.com (been waiting for more than a month)
and was wondering is it hard to upgrade the ram yourself?
what kind of ram should i look for when i buy
i plan on getting 2gbs
also i like to play games so maybe (667)
where can i get at a low price?
also after that do i have to make any adjustments software wise?
and does it improve game play?
currently i only have 512

 

If you have 512 MB currently, then it is likely that you have two modules of 256 MB each. So, if you wish to upgrade to upgrade to 2 GB, you will reuire two modules of 1 GB. You need to get 200-pin, 533 MHz DDR2 or 200-pin 667 MHz RAM. There is very little difference in performance with the frequency, so buying which ver is cheaper is better. Also, try and go with a good brand like Corsair, Kingston, G. Skill or Crucial. Other manuacfturers will also work, however.

The actual upgrade is very easy. There will probably be a few panels on the underside of the notebook, where you can install the RAM. Your manual for the notebook, should give you more information. No software upgrades need to be made after the installation of RAM. Hope this helps.

 

Upgrading the RAM is pretty easy & dont really need any special skills,but if you still want to look at the manual, here it is...
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00774612.pdf

As for the influence of RAM on gamplay, there will be some improvements but dont expect any miracles. To a large extent you will be limited by the graphics card & no amount of extra RAM is going to help. But having said that 1GB should be ideal for Win XP & for Vista 2GB should do fine.

Memory prices have been increasing the past few months, so if you want 1GB you will have to spend upwards of $100. Newegg, zipzoomfly & mwave are good places to start shopping. If you dont mind ebay you can probably find one cheaper than from regular stores. Retail stores do also sell RAM and usually have mail in rebates crap to deal with. So look around before buying.

As for as software adjustments, you dont need to do any. After you install the RAM run memtest, to check for any defects in the memory. If it is all good then you can then boot into Windows check if the memory is recognised and start using the laptop.

 

For AMD machines I strongly recommend Crucial DDR2-667. Faster RAM has a greater impact on AMD CPUs than Intel and Crucial is the most AMD-friendly memory maker.

 

Yeah, Crucial is the most AMD friendly, but also an expensive brand.

If you don't want to take any return risk, just buy DDR2-533 instead since there is not much different beyond 15%. Maybe wait new AMD with DDR2-800 is better idea?

 

You would most likely want to upgrade with Crucial DDR2-667Mhz. My Sempron 3400+ v3000Z came with 256mb of 667 and i upgraded to Hynix 2x512mb 533Mhz. The extra memory helped alot BUT I bought the memory before I got the laptop so I wasn't aware that the put in 667Mhz memory. Plus, I just feel that the Hynix isn't as good as the top tier memory makers...IMO!

You probably won't be able to do much gaming because of the Nvidia 6150 GPU....it's pretty basic in the end.

 

any recommendation for intel duo2 ? thanks

 

thanks im going to probably get 2gbs most likely 667 crucial
but as far as gaming will go, this would at least fix the lagg on most games?
cause some games such as gta:sa and NFSC lagg. gta stops lagging when i put it in Low. but NFSC still laggs.

 

oh yeah and to Miner, thanks for your review on this notebook!
your review helped me decide on getting this notebook
the only thing that i did not like was the Build time (4 weeks WTF?)