1GB or 2GB for laptop??

[DISK]

Ok, I just bought my first laptop. It's a Toshiba A105. It came with 1x256MB DDR2 533 RAM. Obviously it runs very slow because of this (the boot time is horrendous). I am not wanting to spend money on more then what I need. So I am thinking about ordering two 512MB sticks and having them in Dual channel or perhaps splurging a little more for two 1GB sticks. The only reason I could think of for going with 2GB of RAM is to make a RAM partition and set that as my pagefile (yes, I know, no memory dumps in case it crashes but I'm not really worried about that). Anyone have any experience with something like this? I'm wondering what kind of performance gain I could expect with moving my pagefile to a RAM drive. Also, from what I have heard about the internal workings of Win XP, turning off virtual ram is a bad idea no matter how much ram you have. So thats why I was thinking this idea was better. Any thoughts greatly appreciateed!

 

[Ernie99]

Moving your page file to RAM will not give you the performance increase you think it will. I have tried it on a machine with both 1 and 2 GB of memory, and did not see a worthwile benefit. In any case, what are you using the laptop for? I would say start with a 1 GB stick and go from there.

 

[conlan]

Depends, what apps do you plan on running? Personally, on a lappy, 1GB is probably going to get you by ok, for now. I would go w/ a 1GB stick, so you can add another later if needed.

As far as boot times, you can probably blame all the preloaded crap that came with your lappy for that. Uninstall all the crap from your install/remove menu, then run msconfig and uncheck all the unecessary progs in startup. Be careful though, if you're not sure what to uninstall or uncheck, don't.

EDIT: BTW, Welcome to AT

 

[DISK]

Thanks for the welcome!

First of all, I am using the laptop for the usual internet/word processing, etc. but I plan on buying a laptop card for my Echo Layla24 so I can do mobile sound recording. I only have 1GB in my desktop so I know that would be sufficient.

So Ernie, you are saying that the performance increase from moving your pagefile to RAM was insignificant? Also, I thought about just getting a 1GB stick for now with the option to add another later, but if I went with 2x512 then I would have them running in dual channel. Do you think the benefit of more ram would outweight the benefit of faster RAM access?

Oh, and Conlan, believe me, I spent the better part of 2 days uninstalling and configuring that thing. Like I said, this is my first laptop, but I have been building systems for years. I was spoiled being able to setup a system to my specifications! I think there was something like 10-12 items in the taskbar. I couldn't even count all the processes that were running on startup. They really need to cool it with that stuff!

 

[pkme2]

1GB is a great start. The single DIMM is a very good suggestion, in case of future upgrading.

 

[conlan]

Originally posted by: DISK
Thanks for the welcome!

First of all, I am using the laptop for the usual internet/word processing, etc. but I plan on buying a laptop card for my Echo Layla24 so I can do mobile sound recording. I only have 1GB in my desktop so I know that would be sufficient.

So Ernie, you are saying that the performance increase from moving your pagefile to RAM was insignificant? Also, I thought about just getting a 1GB stick for now with the option to add another later, but if I went with 2x512 then I would have them running in dual channel. Do you think the benefit of more ram would outweight the benefit of faster RAM access?

Oh, and Conlan, believe me, I spent the better part of 2 days uninstalling and configuring that thing. Like I said, this is my first laptop, but I have been building systems for years. I was spoiled being able to setup a system to my specifications! I think there was something like 10-12 items in the taskbar. I couldn't even count all the processes that were running on startup. They really need to cool it with that stuff!

Agreed, the really load 'em up w/ crap

I've never notice a difference w/ moving the pagefile either.

Lappys usually have slower HDDs, thus slower load times

 

[Tiamat]

If you are not gaming, 1GB is plenty for normal day stuff. If you do intensive photoshop or other apps like 3D modelling, then 2GB.

Personally, i am doing mighty fine with 1GB of ram and a fresh reinstall of winXPpro

 

[arcenite]

only way your proposed method will work is if you get like 5 gigs of ram, install windows on the ramdrive, and never turn off the computer ^^

 

[mb]

I went with 2GB on my laptop just because I could
BTW, I think I saw some tests that dual channel doesn't make a difference on the new Dual Core systems.. IE you will get the same performance with two matched 512MB sticks as you would one 1GB stick.

 

[Trader05]

I was considering the same thing 1gb vs 2gb. I got 1 gb with my laptop because it was a free upgrade from dell, but the 2gb was too expensive, its cheaper when you buy it yourself anyways. I was considering of upgrading to a 2gb kit because dell gives you 4200 ddr2 533mhz instead of 5300 ddr2 667mhz. I was just gonna match up the 667 bus with my core duo.

 

[Ika]

In a laptop I doubt the dual channel/single channel bottleneck would not be as bad as the hard drive/FSB bottleneck. One 1gb stick should be fine.

 

[dBTelos]

1x 1GB > 2x 512MB Duel Channel for you right now, then upgrade when the time comes.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: supafly
I went with 2GB on my laptop just because I could
BTW, I think I saw some tests that dual channel doesn't make a difference on the new Dual Core systems.. IE you will get the same performance with two matched 512MB sticks as you would one 1GB stick.

Ditto. Ram is cheap now. Even Crucial is selling gig sticks for under $100. I've seen Patriot and other brands for as low as $75. $150 for 2 gigs is ridiculous, buy it and you'll never have to worry about upgrading your laptop ram again

 

[Looney]

I have 2GB on my laptop too.

 

[wolfman11]

Yes, I have 2 gig on my Thinkpad as well. RAM is cheap, load 'er up...gauranteed when you need the other gig it won't be as cheap...always works that way.

 

[DISK]

"only way your proposed method will work is if you get like 5 gigs of ram, install windows on the ramdrive, and never turn off the computer"

-Well, obviously I won't be doing that, but I still think using a ram drive for the pagefile would tend to be much faster then the 5400rpm HD in my laptop.

"BTW, I think I saw some tests that dual channel doesn't make a difference on the new Dual Core systems.. IE you will get the same performance with two matched 512MB sticks as you would one 1GB stick."

-Yeah, I think I read something about that with the Core Duo, unfortunately mine us running a 1.6ghz Celeron. I guess I'll just go with the 1gb stick and not worry about the dual channel for now.

 

[alimoalem]

if you're running a 1.6GHz celeron, i'm not sure the 1gb would bottleneck your system

as the rest have said, buy a single 1gb stick now, add a 2nd one later

 

[fire400]

just get a 512 stick, you'll hit 768 total, you're square, it's as close to 1 gig as you can get without spending double.

if you are using a celeron CPU, the difference between 1 gig and 2 gigs of RAM will be even more unnoticable.

 

[dguy6789]

1GB is nice for now, but for how long will it remain nice. One thing I dislike is buying a brand new pc or laptop then having to upgrade it within a year. The more your laptop accesses the harddrive, the lower your battery life will be. With 2GB of memory, your machine will swap much less than it would with 1GB, thus increasing battery life. You will upgrade to 2GB eventually, so why not be done with it now?

 

[DISK]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
1GB is nice for now, but for how long will it remain nice. One thing I dislike is buying a brand new pc or laptop then having to upgrade it within a year. The more your laptop accesses the harddrive, the lower your battery life will be. With 2GB of memory, your machine will swap much less than it would with 1GB, thus increasing battery life. You will upgrade to 2GB eventually, so why not be done with it now?

I think I will take your advice. I didn't really take battery life into consideration. With 2gb I could make the RAM drive for my pagefile as I mentioned earlier and then it would cut back on the HD access even further. While I enjoy the lightness of my battery, it is only a 4 cell so I get about 1hr15mins with a fill charge (w/modified power profile). Anything I can do to lengthen that time would be great.

Thanks again for everyone's input.