Should I upgrade? from 1 - 2gb

[frontier204]

Originally Posted by enaberif

Of course it'll help.

More ram = less hard drive access times

Agreed, especially when you're going 1 GB to 2 GB. I see you mentioned programming, and at my school I can cripple the 1 GB RAM "lab" computers while doing research which I consider simple. (by cripple I mean the computer is hitting the pagefile so much that it takes >15 seconds for any response)

...I almost lost work once because their IT dept thought those computers would actually be stable without a pagefile but that's another story ...

As an example, I noticeably slowed the computer with the following:
Windows XP + Firefox with ~5 tabs + Eclipse IDE running Java program that had no GUI + Matlab displaying a single graph + MS Office with the professor's PPT slides

[andynerd]

Originally Posted by frontier204

Agreed, especially when you're going 1 GB to 2 GB. I see you mentioned programming, and at my school I can cripple the 1 GB RAM "lab" computers while doing research which I consider simple. (by cripple I mean the computer is hitting the pagefile so much that it takes >15 seconds for any response)

...I almost lost work once because their IT dept thought those computers would actually be stable without a pagefile but that's another story ...

As an example, I noticeably slowed the computer with the following:
Windows XP + Firefox with ~5 tabs + Eclipse IDE running Java program that had no GUI + Matlab displaying a single graph + MS Office with the professor's PPT slides

Ok you have persuaded me since I am going to university with this as my laptop and then my desktop as my main I think that it deserves and upgrade. Hey I wonder there is some space still with the ram that's currently in it. Is it possible to get soDIMM heat spreaders? Or am i going to have to DIY it?

[Zero82z]

Why would you want heat spreaders? In most cases they are actually detrimental to RAM cooling.

[Arinoth]

Especially in a laptop as well. If you're 'worried' about the higher price of older ram just buy it used from someone on BST and save yourself a bunch of money. You need PC2-5300 Ram and can't go above it, i believe i even have some for sale in my bst. Remember, you don't always have to buy new ram.

[andynerd]

Originally Posted by Arinoth

Especially in a laptop as well. If you're 'worried' about the higher price of older ram just buy it used from someone on BST and save yourself a bunch of money. You need PC2-5300 Ram and can't go above it, i believe i even have some for sale in my bst. Remember, you don't always have to buy new ram.

True but there is a curse on my family: if we try and cut corners on costs what we get will always break or end up being a lesser value. Not to mention not being 18 I doubt I can buy from those websites. And I don't mind paying 55-60 bucks including shipping for 2 1 gb sticks of PC2-5300 ram at 667 mhz and from corsair none the less