adding ram to laptops?

[chopperdudes]

i'm wondering if anyone's ever added ram to a laptop, and if so, how difficult it is, and what needs to be matched besides... (i.e. DDR3 1333MHz)? i'm off to university and looking for a laptop replacement for my desktop, i know i probably won't need what i'm getting right now, but i think it's a pretty good deal. (dell studio 17", i7 720QM, 500GB 7200rpm HDD, 4GB ram, 9cell batt) for 1k. however, to up it to 6GB ram you need to add 125 to that price tag, and 8GB is +250 more. (you can find this on the dell.ca website, studio, 17", "more power" option) http://www.dell.com/ca/p/studio-1747/fs .

all that it says there is "4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz". is it a risky thing to add ram to a laptop? if i want the extra ram would you guys recommend to just get it with the deal? or buy my own ram and add it?

thx

[Tony]

It's the same deal as with desktops, but RAM module needs to be of a more compact model (space issues), and access to it might be more restricted. Obviously make sure that you have enough slots. If four 1GB RAM sticks are cheaper than one 4GB stick, then most likely all your slots will be taken up.

Although...

chopperdudes @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 3:33 pm wrote:

17"

Perhaps you want to stick to desktops for a while longer...

[Zren]

Why do you need more that 4Gb of ram?

Personally, I've only got 3 and I hardly ever run out of memory. Most of the time, I've got 1Gb or more to spare. Don't forget you also have Virtual Memory on the HD for programs waiting.

8Gb is like giving a F16 to a hobbiest flyer.

[Euphoracle]

No it isn't. Ram is (relatively) cheap now, get as much as you can without breaking the bank.

[Zren]

Okay bad analogy. I was editing it when you posted.

8Gb is like giving a F16 to a hobbiest flyer a whale to a fisherman. Sure he can go home and say he caught a whale, but he'll never eat the entire thing.

Either way, it's possible to add it, but I'd wait a bit to see your general purpose needs the extra boost.

[chopperdudes]

good to kno guys, but i have 3GB on my desktop quad core running vista.. and well... i would say it's not enuf, right now it's sitting at 60%, with nothing but a few web pages open and idle. needless to say if i open a few more webpages active and photoshop and msn... that 3GB runs out pretty fast for me. how much better will 4GB of ram be with win7? i don't kno.

but main question is, what specs needs to match, just speed and type? what bout those cas latency and timing and voltage and ECC and buffered/registered? forgive me i don't have that much knowledge in hardware parts, but looking at online videos, the actual physical process of adding ram is nothing more than opening up 4 screws and popping it in, so the most confusion comes from what ram chip i should buy.

i think what i'm gonna do is buy the laptop with 4GB ram, and mayb see how it fares first, but from a review, this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231341 4GB ram chip would work on that comp, and it's only 100 bucks + 10 bucks shipping??

[TerranceN]

Vista preloads programs you often use. Also, I play high end games with 2GB of DDR2 RAM (running Win7) so even 3GB will run fine.

AFAIK, you just need the same range of speed (like DDR, DDR2, DDR3 etc), I could be completely wrong though.

@Euphoracle: I disagree. I don't know a lot about economics, but RAM just keeps getting cheaper, so I don't see a reason to buy more than you need.

[Tony]

chopperdudes @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 4:58 pm wrote:

right now it's sitting at 60%

Idle RAM is useless RAM. The only reason to get more RAM is to have less page faults.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_fault Apparently Microsoft calls those "hard fault"s

Are you getting enough page faults to warrant an upgrade? Probably not. I suspect you'd get a much better performance boost out of a faster hard drive. SSDs are all the rage now.

[Euphoracle]

TerranceN @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:26 pm wrote:

Vista preloads programs you often use. Also, I play high end games with 2GB of DDR2 RAM (running Win7) so even 3GB will run fine.

AFAIK, you just need the same range of speed (like DDR, DDR2, DDR3 etc), I could be completely wrong though.

@Euphoracle: I disagree. I don't know a lot about economics, but RAM just keeps getting cheaper, so I don't see a reason to buy more than you need.

Because if you buy 4x 1GB sticks then you can't throw more ram in it later without replacing most other components as ram formats change. You can't just wait something out, anything computer-related you buy will be obsolete and cheaper, better versions will be available in 4 months.

[Euphoracle]

chopperdudes @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 4:58 pm wrote:

good to kno guys, but i have 3GB on my desktop quad core running vista.. and well... i would say it's not enuf, right now it's sitting at 60%, with nothing but a few web pages open and idle. needless to say if i open a few more webpages active and photoshop and msn... that 3GB runs out pretty fast for me. how much better will 4GB of ram be with win7? i don't kno.

but main question is, what specs needs to match, just speed and type? what bout those cas latency and timing and voltage and ECC and buffered/registered? forgive me i don't have that much knowledge in hardware parts, but looking at online videos, the actual physical process of adding ram is nothing more than opening up 4 screws and popping it in, so the most confusion comes from what ram chip i should buy.

i think what i'm gonna do is buy the laptop with 4GB ram, and mayb see how it fares first, but from a review, this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231341 4GB ram chip would work on that comp, and it's only 100 bucks + 10 bucks shipping??

That laptop will not have a single 4GB stick. If you buy that you will not be upgrading the ram cheaply. Buy within your means but do not anticipate upgrading. Buy what you need now.

[TerranceN]

Euphoracle @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:35 pm wrote:

Because if you buy 4x 1GB sticks then you can't throw more ram in it later without replacing most other components as ram formats change. You can't just wait something out, anything computer-related you buy will be obsolete and cheaper, better versions will be available in 4 months.

But unless you run really RAM intensive applications, going from 4GB of RAM to 8GB won't make a difference. Also, like you said, anything you buy today will be obsolete very soon, so why buy more than you need when you can save the money for when more ram intensive applications come out and you need more RAM?

[chopperdudes]

hmm well i don't kno much about page faults, or how to detect them, the concept is understandable though. but SSDs are definitely out of the financial equation as of now >.>"

and @Euphoracle, do you mean that all the slots will be filled on that laptop if i get teh 4GB version? so if i need to upgrade the ram i would possibly need to get 2x4GB to replace everything in order to get i.e. 8GB? in that case i'm tempted to go with the 6GB version. do you kno anything more about that laptop?

thx alot guys

[Euphoracle]

TerranceN @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:59 pm wrote:

Euphoracle @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:35 pm wrote:

Because if you buy 4x 1GB sticks then you can't throw more ram in it later without replacing most other components as ram formats change. You can't just wait something out, anything computer-related you buy will be obsolete and cheaper, better versions will be available in 4 months.

But unless you run really RAM intensive applications, going from 4GB of RAM to 8GB won't make a difference. Also, like you said, anything you buy today will be obsolete very soon, so why buy more than you need when you can save the money for when more ram intensive applications come out and you need more RAM?

You don't understand what I'm getting at. If you can get 8GB ram and it is within your price range, why the hell not? You don't lose anything from getting more ram. Hell if you want you can disable the page file for giggles (not recommended). There's no reason not to get more ram unless it's financial (which was my exception [note this includes replacing other parts to accommodate more ram as well])

Your logic doesn't make any sense. You are buying a computer NOW, build it for now. Upgrading from shit is more expensive than not upgrading.

[TerranceN]

Euphoracle @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 10:05 pm wrote:

TerranceN @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:59 pm wrote:

Euphoracle @ Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:35 pm wrote:

Because if you buy 4x 1GB sticks then you can't throw more ram in it later without replacing most other components as ram formats change. You can't just wait something out, anything computer-related you buy will be obsolete and cheaper, better versions will be available in 4 months.

But unless you run really RAM intensive applications, going from 4GB of RAM to 8GB won't make a difference. Also, like you said, anything you buy today will be obsolete very soon, so why buy more than you need when you can save the money for when more ram intensive applications come out and you need more RAM?

You don't understand what I'm getting at. If you can get 8GB ram and it is within your price range, why the hell not? You don't lose anything from getting more ram. Hell if you want you can disable the page file for giggles (not recommended). There's no reason not to get more ram unless it's financial (which was my exception [note this includes replacing other parts to accommodate more ram as well])

Your logic doesn't make any sense. You are buying a computer NOW, build it for now. Upgrading from shit is more expensive than not upgrading.

Maybe I'm not thinking very clearly today, but I see your "not upgrading" as equivalent to upgrading right when you buy, and the prices for RAM would have dropped in the time it would have taken for me to need more than 4GB of RAM (I currently have 2GB and my computer runs fine, so that will probably be a while) so I really don't understand how it is more expensive to wait.

Also, when you said "without breaking the bank" I thought you meant if you have the money to spend on RAM you might as well spend it NOW, my reason for waiting is purely financial (I would rather wait until I NEED more RAM so prices will be lower) even though I do have enough money to buy lots of RAM, so I see now, that I fall into your exception.

[chopperdudes]

okay i found out that they suck and comes with 2x2GB ram sticks leaving no free slots... so this means if i want to up it to 6GB i'll need to get a 4GB one and take out one of their 2GB... which would still be cheaper than upgrading it with them, but kind of depressing to see a useless 2GB ram lying there... and if i want 8GB ram i'd pretty much have to get 2x4GB ram myself....

either way i think i'll just get it with 4GB and see what i'll do in the future... thx guys