Smart move? Dell laptop and mem upgrade

[metroplex]

I have an Inspiron 8100, P3 1.2 GHz CPU, XP Pro SP-1, and currently it has 256MB of PC133 SODIMM (2 sticks of 128)

I realize this isn't anywhere close to cutting edge, but I do a lot of work on this laptop.

I found some 256MB PC133 SODIMM sticks (PNY) for $45 each. I found lots of cheap generic/house brand/no-name sticks for $28-$38 ea.

Would it be a wise move to buy the 512MB of new RAM for this laptop? I don't intend to buy a new laptop within 1-2 years.

I found the laptop frequently accesses the HD, and sometimes I get an error saying the swapfile isn't large enough. sigh...

On my AMD Athlon XP2100+ desktop, I used to run 512MB w/ XP and it seemed fine. I upgraded to 1GB and did not detect any difference whatsoever. I felt 512MB was enough for my usage.

Any comments other than that I have slow computers? I have bad experiences with cutting edge technology. They always seem to fail on me....

 

[Rustican]

The memory would help your notebook's slow harddrive. But also, when was the last time you had a fresh install of XP on your machine? If it's been a while then junk would have accmulated through the years and would contribute to the slowness of your computer.

 

[jagec]

I've got a 256MB stick of PC133 I could sell you for $30 shipped...Toshiba brand.

PM me if interested.

 

[metroplex]

Thank you for the offer jagec, but I ordered a pair of PNYs a few hours ago.

My copy of XP Pro was installed years ago, but I have a few programs that require key codes for the installation. Each time I re-install the OS, I have to get new key codes and one program vendor refused to give me new ones becuase I had several crashes (forced me to reinstall) already. Yeah I know, they suck.