Laptop RAM Upgrade

[observor 69]

Advice please:
I have a Dell Inspiron 2200 with 512 MB RAM. Would it make a significant improvement in performance to go to 1G of RAM?
Some sites say the most improvement is from 256MB to 512MB.
About $90.00 to upgrade.

 

[Nfld Sapper]

Couldn't hurt.......

 

[dapaterson]

Two Qs:

(1) What OS are you running?

(2) Is that the Dell price, or have you looked elsewhere?  Even for a laptop, $90 for 1Gb sounds steep - shop around a bit.

 

[observor 69]

(1) Windows XP

(2) Yes that is the Dell price. Other sites go from $65 and on up but I am pretty careful about online purchases.  :-\

 

[Fishbone Jones]

http://www.edgetechcorp.com/memory/upgrade.asp?cid=30022
Why add memory to my computer?
Adding memory will improve your computer's performance. Specifically, it will speed up opening new applications, running multiple applications at once, and switching between software applications (multi-tasking).

How does additional memory improve performance?
One task that additional memory speeds up is opening a new software application. Let's take this as an example. When you open a new application on your computer, your computer's CPU fetches the application from the hard drive and stores it in RAM memory. It stores it in RAM because RAM is very fast relative to the hard drive. When RAM gets full, and you open a new application then the CPU needs to kick out one of your open applications, put it back on the slow hard drive, fetch the new application from the hard drive, and place the new application in RAM. Basically, it swaps the applications.
This game of swapping wastes time. Ideally, your computer could have an infinite amount of RAM. Then your CPU would fetch an application once from the hard drive, save it into RAM, and never need to kick out another application. There is no such thing as infinite RAM, but you can max out the RAM on your computer by adding the maximum amount of memory to each socket.

What type of memory do I need?
Your Dell Inspiron uses PC-2700 type memory.

What is the maximum amount of memory that I can add?
Your Dell Inspiron can support up to 1280MB of memory. For optimal performance install the maximum amount of memory in each socket.

How much memory does my system have now?
Your system comes standard with 256MB of RAM. If you have upgraded your system then you may have a different amount.

What are banks and sockets?
A bank is a group of memory sockets. A socket is where a memory module is inserted. A bank can have one or more sockets.
One or more of the sockets in your system is already filled with memory. When you upgrade your system, you can either add memory to one of the open sockets and/or remove memory from a filled socket and replace it with a higher capacity memory module.

How many banks and sockets does my Dell have?
Your Dell Inspiron 2200 has 1 bank of 1 socket

 

[KingKikapu]

My advice is to  go for 1Gb minimum.  Your notebook uses a slower 4200rpm hard drive which makes caching a nuisance, so the bigger the cache, the less you will be waiting.  You should find most day to day operations a bit more snappy, but don't expect your initial boot to be drastically different.  I don't know what kind of a user you are, but 512 is really pushing the comfort zone of a modern OS, what with the myriad of background processes and bloated applications that they contain.

Do me a favour: open your task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete), and look at the bottom of the window where it tells you the percentage of your available ram you are currently using.  For example, I'm currently running 66 processes that are using 48% of my available ram (I have 2Gb installed).  The only thing I'm running of note is Itunes and Firefox; the rest is taken up on background processes.  So there you go.  I'm pretty much running 1Gb of material without even really trying.

1Gb will speed you up, 2Gb ensures you have full coverage, and any more will probably go unused.

90$ for a 512 dimm is pretty pricey.  You can get a sense of pricing here: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?minorcatid=1298&subminorcatid=424

 

[Fishbone Jones]

The Dell Inspiron can support 1280 MB. Biggest he can put in is a single 1GB stick. He has 256 onboard (internal) and only one slot.

 

[KingKikapu]

EDIT:

That 1Gb limit is a bit annoying.  I didn't see he only has one socket.  Guess you are right: his only choice is a 1Gb dimm.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

That 1Gb limit is a bit annoying.  Since he said he has 512Mb of ram, I'm going to assume that it's split between two 256 Mb dimms.  He'll have to buy a single 1 Gb dimm then.

Read what I wrote above. Comes with 256 onboard (hard) and he only has a single slot. So he has a single 256 stick in there now and needs to replace it with a single 1GB.

 

[George Wallace]

We just had a "Dial Up" moment.    ;D

 

[KingKikapu]

Talk about an edit time warp....

 

[Rheostatic]

My advice: make sure you know exactly what specs you need (use the system scanner at crucial.com) then save money by finding your RAM on Ebay or tigerdirect.ca.

 

[observor 69]

Thanks all for your advice.
I'll have to digest the info before I act.

 

[asterix_prl]

I came across this a little late i guess but tigerdirect.ca usually has good sales every once and awhile. 
-Crucial 1024MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz Memory $40
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1558845&CatId=844

If your using DDR1 it might be getting time for an upgrade and look into whats available nowadays. I'm using my very first 233MHz PC a file server still getting use out of it.

Best of Luck
Pat L.

 

[dapaterson]

Crucial and Kingston both make excellent products.

And running XP, moving to 1Gb will make a significant difference.  Decrapifying your installation, even more so.  We have two netbooks here; one linux, one XP.  The XP book has twice the RAM and a faster processor, but the Linux one boots faster and is less sluggish.  Mind you, it is getting better as I slowly purge it of some of the default install stuff...