??? For The Computer Geeks

My knowledge of computers is not anywhere near where I would like it to be so I figure I'd ask here & see if anyone can help me.

Anyone know how to determine if you can upgrade from a certain speed memory to a faster one? Or know where I can look to find this info?

My laptop has PC2700 333MHz. I would like to upgrade to something like PC3200 400MHz or something even better. Am I stuck with the PC2700? It's not expensive but I figure as long as I'm spending the money, I might as well get the fastest I can.

Thanks
KC-10 FE out...
lane:

 

Are you trying to upgrade the clock speed or do you really want faster memory. Upgrading to faster memory will not speed up your computer's performance. Memory speed must match or be faster than the clock speed.

The clock speed determines the overall speed of your computer and controls both the processor and the memory. It is possible to increase the clock speed, but can get tricky.

 

In addition to what SWS said try looking at crucial.
You put in you laptop and it will tell you what you have and what you can up grade to.

Action

 

You will need to know if the motherboard and CPU will support the faster memory. Even it would, you are unikely to notice a difference.

If you are going to mess with the memory, you will make more difference by adding more memory.

Add as much as you can.

If you are not experienced at disassembling laptops or experienced as a watchmaker, get someone who is to do this for you.

Good luck.

 

Yah, run the Crucial memory tool that Action pointed to. Off the top of my head, I think you can run the faster memory, but chances are it'll fall back to the slower speed unless the mobo specifically supports both.

Given the age of the system, upgrading it to a gig of ram and a fresh windows install will breath some new life into the machine.

 

It is unlikely that your laptop would be able to take advantage of the faster memory. In order to do so it would mean: your laptop was originally fitted with memory slower than it was capable of using; or you would have to overclock the system to use the faster memory. Either way the real-world advantages of faster memory are hard to notice.

As mentioned more memory and/or a fresh install of Windows is much more likely to be noticeable. Also laptops traditionally have slow hard drives (4200 RPM) so a newer 5400 RPM or 7200 RPM drive can have some effect.

Feel free to e-mail me at mark_bricker@att.net with questions.

-Mark

 

Mbricker said it right KC... memory is usually matched to other parts - like the processor and bus speeds.... faster memory might be like trying to drive a dragster on a winding road where the dragster is fast, but the road is not straight enough to take advantage of the speed.

Max out your memory with a tool from one of the memory folks (I was happy with what I've gotten direct from Crucial too). More memory will make a bigger difference than a faster chip.

 

Buy the 3200; your computer will still run at the 2700 speed though and I've noticed lately that the 3200 tends to be cheaper than the 2700. Buy the largest sticks of RAM you can afford but make sure you check your computer's specs before you do so you don't buy more than it will use.

 

What yah need it for???

What do you want to do that your current laptop is not doing? Games - Buy a new laptop with the graphics card that works with the games. Graphics such as 3D rendering or CAD - Get a new laptop.

Sounds like you have a pretty good laptop all ready so would be very interested to see what you want to do. With a laptop there is not much you can do (unless there is not enough memory) to it to make i that much faster so you can actually see the difference.

You can swap out the CPU or graphics card (in most cases) so to get NOTICEABLE speed increases buy a new laptop designed for what you need. Gaming laptops or those needed to run CAD or graphics packaging are usually bough for just that purpose. Number crunching requires some HOT laptops and video cards to match.

You can add up to 3 gig of memory for a 32 bit system but if you have 1 or 2 gigs now getting faster ram will not show you anything you can actually see.

 

There's nothing wrong with my laptop. I never play games on it. The only reason I own it is so I can have something to do if I get stuck in some location that doesn't have much to do. A great example of this would be Moron AB, ESP. Yes, that is the real name of the base. Moron AB has 6 TV channels, no internet, no nothing. About the only thing to do there is drink & go to the gym. I bought the laptop so I could have a DVD player among other things.

My Dell only has 2 slots & maxes out at 1GB. All I want to do is max it out. The only reason I asked about the faster memory is CRUCIAL.COM says PC2700 (333MHz) & PC3200 (400MHz) will both work. The Geek Squad at BB said the faster memory is a waste of money since my processor will only work at the slower 333MHz speed. BB wants almost $80 for a single 512MB module but I can get 2 512's on EBAY for less than $60.

KC-10 FE out...
lane: